SiSoft File System Test
Using the latest version of SiSoft Sandra I ran the file system test on the external hard drive. The results are as listed below.
The drive performed fairly average for an external hard drive. Of course higher values are better except for the average access time where a lower value is better.
SiSoft Removable Storage Benchmark
Released with the MAX3! Version of SiSoft Sandra is a new benchmarking tool for removable storage devices. Technically it is designed for the flash storage devices, but it works fine with any other external device.
The test copies, reads, and then deletes a file as many times as it can in one minute. The results are based off of these values using a file sized 512B, 32Kb, 256Kb, and 2MB. Higher values are better in this test as well. The drive once again performed pretty well. You obviously won’t get the same speed from the drive using the USB 2.0 interface as you would using the IDE interface but the drive still is working well.
HDTach
HDTach is another benchmarking tool for storage devices. The applications tests 3 aspects of the device, the sequential read speed, the random access time and the burst speed. The sequential read speed is how fast the computer can read data from the drive on all areas of the hard drive, giving you a more accurate performance rating. The random access time is how quickly the drive can find the data, lower being better. The burst speed is the speed of the drive and controller interface higher being better. The results for the USB enclosure are shown on the left, compared to a Seagate 40GB 7200RPM drive on the right.
As you can see the USB drive is quite a bit slower than the IDE drive. This is because the USB interface is that much slower than the IDE interface. Look at it this way, you won’t be able to transfer files to the USB enclosure as quickly as you could if you had the other hard drive inside the machine. The USB enclosure is still very quick none the less as you can see below.
Real World Tests
In order to perform a real world test I thought about what an average user would use this drive for. Obviously to be able to have larger files portable. So in order to truly test the speed I copied a 700MB AVI movie from the EHD-350 to the hard drive and then copied it back. The speeds are listed below.
EHD-350 to Hard Drive = 55 seconds
Hard Drive to EHD-350 = 62 seconds
As I stated before the drive is still very usable. As shown by these results you can transfer some pretty large files fairly quickly. Compared to burning a CD which would take a couple of minutes to this I would defiantly choose the external drive.
Conclusions
This product defiantly has its positives and negatives. With all the hassle I had in trying to get it to work properly on my motherboard and finding that it just would not work turned me off of the product. With the nForce2 being such a popular chipset, it is really hard to overlook this definite conflict. On the positive side the enclosure defiantly is high quality. The EHD-350 is sturdily made out of aluminum, with fit and finish being top notch. Everything fits as it should, and with held the average bumps and scraps a portable device is expected too. The product also physically looks really good as well. Setup was extremely easy except for formatting the drive. You also have to admit that it the EHD-350 performs well. It is no speed champion, but the EHD-350 is not a turtle either.
Pros
Looks good
Sturdy
Made out of aluminum for better heat dissipation
USB 2.0 (so it’s pretty quick)
Easy to setup
Uses any 3.5” IDE device
Cons
WILL NOT WORK AT USB2.0 ON NFORCE2
Small Instruction Book (Did not help much)
Uses an external power source so you have an extra cord
Bottom Line
When the EHD-350 is not on an nForce2 it works extremely well. It looks good and performs better. If you have an nForce2 based motherboard though, look for an enclosure not based on the GL811 controller chip like the Enermax EHD-350 is.
If you got any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
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