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Akasa
Luminous Round ATA100/133 IDE Cables
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Author : Wayne
Date : 22nd July 2002
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Test System :
Epox 8K3A+ Motherboard (KT333CE)
Maxtor DiamondMAX Plus D740X 20GB (ATA-133)
Western Digital - Caviar 7200RPM 100Gb 8Mb Buffer
256MB Crucial PC2700 DDR SDRAM
When it came to testing there didn't seem a lot
of point using some ancient, slow hard drive for the purpose
so we opted for for one of the fastest IDE drives on the market,
the Western Digital - Caviar Special Edition (8Mb Buffer) and
one of the few ATA-133 drives on the market, the Maxtor DiamondMAX
Plus D740X. We tested all three IDE cables, the 45, 60 and 90cm
and compared them to a good quality 45cm IDE ribbon cable from
Hung Fu
Electronics Co.
We're constantly trying to refine our testing
regime here at 3DV and trying out new approaches is part of
that so rather than average the results over several runs, something
your PC isn't going to do for you, each test was run three times
and the third score was used regardless of the result.
SiSoft
Sandra v2002.6.8.97 :
We've updated to the new v2002.6.8.97 of SiSoft's
Sandra benchmarking suite. This now contains a wealth of new
features and improvements, most notable being a new benchmark,
benchmark result saving, and 6 new modules. Most known issues
with the previous version have been resolved in this version.
The following changes are documented :
- Full compatibility with Windows XP/.Net.
- Native NT/200X/.Net Unicode versions available.
- Support for advanced SMP and SMT/HyperThreaded hardware
with multiple chipsets.
- 80 Total; 6 New Modules (Cache/Memory Benchmark, Modules
Info (NT/200X/.Net),
- Installed Programs/Applications, Registered File Types,
Event Log).
Dynamic data refresh.
- Fixed various issues with detection (chipset, system monitoring
chips, etc.)
Maxtor ATA-133 File System Benchmark Performance
:
Maxtor ATA-133 on Standard IDE Ribbon Cable
Maxtor ATA-133 on 45cm Akasa Round Cable
Maxtor ATA-133 on 60cm Akasa Round Cable
Maxtor ATA-133 on 90cm Akasa Round Cable
Maxtor ATA-133 Performance
To say the results here were unexpected is an
understatement. Not only did all three lengths of Akasa's rounded
cable beat out the standard ribbon cable they did it in some
style. A little confusing is the Maxtor's apparent preference
for the 60cm and 90cm flavours over the theoretically more able
45cm cable. This may be as a result of the way we tested but
either way Akasa's performance advantage over the standard ribbon
cable is beyond questioning.
Despite the Maxtor's ATA-133 interface by far
the performance king of all the drives we've had the good fortune
to test here is Western Digital's Caviar 7200RPM 100Gb 8Mb Buffer.
Lete's see if the Akasa cables can keep their advantage when
data throughput gets moved up a notch or two.
Western Digital File System Benchmark ATA-100
Performance :
Western Digital WD1000 on Standard IDE Ribbon Cable
Western Digital WD1000 on 45cm Akasa Round Cable
Western Digital WD1000 on 60cm Akasa Round Cable
Western Digital WD1000 on 90cm Akasa Round Cable
Impressed? Well I sure am! Once again we see the
Akasa cables beat out the conventional ribbon cable and although
the scale of the graph is misleading the pattern is more like
I'd expect with the 45cm cable showing a slight advantage over
the 60cm cable which in turn has the edge on the 90cm cable.
It could be argued that the differences are all within a percentage
that can be accounted for by error but by the same rule it could
be argued that the law of averages would have worked in the
ribbon cable's favour at least once so it certainly seems Akasa's
performance is no fluke.
We could just leave it there but I figure a second
opinion is always a good thing, particularly with my doctor,
so let's see what HDTach has to report.
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