Slow FW800 on Lacie

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Hi everyone,

I've just purchased a 160GB 2.5" LaCie drive and I'm affraid something's not right. I went for it mainly because of it's FW800 interface but it seems to be "not so fast" to say the least.

Here's my tests:

6.65GB folder back and forth:

LaCie - FW400 - read time: 3m58s - write: 4m06s
LaCie - FW800 - read time: 3m33s - write: 5m21s
LaCie - USB2 - read time: 5m48s - write: 5m08s

for comparison I have a 320 GB WD Scorpio 2.5", and an old Seagate Barracuda 80GB

WD - USB2 - read time: 6m06s - write: 5m40s
Cuda - USB2 - read time: 6m56s - write: 5m30s
same folder (photos).

now, FW800 is "slightly" faster on a read time but much slower on write, is that normal? I suppose not. All disks are bus-poweredand 5400rpm.

Also, isn't a USB supposed to be faster than a FW400? (480Mbps vs 400Mbps)???

Maybe someone could do the same test for me, transfer, say 10GB to the external rugged LaCie and tell me how much time it took?

If my FW800 port on MBP was damaged there would be no connection at all, if it was a slow drive FW400 wouldn't be faster than FW800... so what is it? Should I return it and get a new one?
HEre's some xbench results:

FW800

2519287351_5b1766ba8a.jpg


FW400

2519285327_2df5828421.jpg


USB

2519286197_7f38a233fe.jpg


Compared to WD Scorpio via USB

2519283959_0485132629.jpg


cheers, Matt
 
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I just did a little test. I also just got a LaCie drive with the triple interface, usb 2, firewire 400 and 800. Here were my results.

I had a folder with about 20 items in it that was 7.09 GB.

USB2 Write: 4:20
USB2 Read: 3:46

FW400 Write: 3:46
FW400 Read: 3:34

FW800 Write: 2:47
FW800 Read: 2:35

My firewire 800 did better on both tests than the 400. I did a search too and it seems that firewire 400 usually does better than usb 2 even though theoretically you'd think it'd be the other way around. I've always been partial to firewire.
 
OP
S
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thanks Alycia, I've read somewhere that it is not the FW800 that is slow, it's rather a drive that at 5400rpms isn't capable of providing information quickly enough, something like connecting IV drip to a garden hose. Apparently FW800 shows off with RAID setups, not slow disks like this one, that leaves me only with a question, why would LaCie even produce a FW800 enclosure if the drive can't provide enough info to saturate it...? and why is FW400 faster in my case than FW800. Your FW800 seems to be giving you better results.
thanks again.
 

nZa


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IIRC, USB speeds are measured in max burst speed, and not sustained speeds, where Firewire is measured sustained.

Currently, Firewire will almost always be faster than USB2.0.
 

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