Xbit Labs File Copy Test
The Xbit Labs File Copy Test attempts to simulate certain common usage patterns that users will have when using disk drives in a modern PC. A template creates the test file patterns on disk, benchmarking it to test file creation performance (which is somewhat OS limited in some respects), through to testing read and copy performance on the file pattern when that's finished. Five patterns are tested, from ISO (a few large files) to MP3 (loads of reasonably sized files). Here's the file creation benchmark results.
The Freecom comes last as we'd expect and the 160GB 500DV actually shows its true colours and comes out on top overall. It's very close between the three Maxtors for the most part and they end up performing as expected. Read test now.
The 80GB 3000DV does really badly here, even outperformed by the Freecom. The results were definitely reproducible, outlining the fact that a drive that appears good in one benchmark might just be terrible in another. It could be firmware related, FireWire related, software related or cache related (unlikely), but whatever is responsible, it performs uncharacteristically bad in the Read test.
Urgh, the 80GB 3000DV is rubbish here too, for whatever unidentified reason. It's tempting to blame the benchmark, since the drive does fine in HDTach and ATTO, but I won't be too hasty. Tech Report show equally 'funny' results for WD's Raptor for example, in the Copy part of this benchmark, but it's hard to say, since the interface is different.
