Common USB 2 HDD cases in NZ Slow?

[No2]

Hi all has any one got one of THESE (http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~cattz/fr-628a.JPG) or something that looks very much like it. They go under various names; Data link, Matrox etc and all use the cypress CY7C68300A (http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~cattz/CY7C68300A.pdf) USB 2 to ATA bridge.

The best speed I have managed in Linux and XP is copying a 233MB file from the external HDD to one on the PC in about 25 seconds. 9.3 MB/s

This is way short of the 60 MB/s that is claimed for USB 2.

I'm checking this on a GA-7VA with 4 USB 2 ports with no other USB devices pluged in.

Has any one ever seen 60 MB/s over a USB 2 connection or are these just very slow?

[varkk]

I doubt you would get 60mb/s from one of those. As a test under linux run hdparm -t [device] on the drive, also for comparison run it on you main drive as well. (you may need to be root to run this command). I also forget what the speed of USB 2 is but that my be slowing things down a bit as well.

[max]

You will never get 60MB/s.
What hard drive are you using in it?

[Chris]

Just be thankful its not using USB1.1

[No2]

The HDDs used are 2 6Y160PO maxtors.

The Via south bridge 8235 is supposedly good with USB 2.

USB 2 max raw data rate on the bus is surposed to be 480Mb/s = 60MB/s.

I will try the hdparm -t

I did get

PCI: 00:03.2 PCI cache line size set incorrectly (32bytes) by BIOS/FW.
PCI: 00:03.2 cache line size too large - expecting 16

when I modprobe ehci-hcd. How ever if any thng it is slower in XP than in Linux.

What are peoples max sustained speeds for copying large files from USB 2 HDD enclosures?

[Chris]

Originally posted by No2
What are peoples max sustained speeds for copying large files from USB 2 HDD enclosures?

I'm pushing to a 7200rpm 'cuda @ ~18meg per second using an ICE external enclosure.

[varkk]

Originally posted by No2


USB 2 max raw data rate on the bus is surposed to be 480Mb/s = 60MB/s.


What are peoples max sustained speeds for copying large files from USB 2 HDD enclosures?

Please note that the 480mbit/s(60MB) is burst not sustained speed for USB 2 that is closer to 40MB/s

Also I think from memory most IDE disk drives sustained transfer seeds will be about 40MB/s.

Now the other question is are they real USB 2 ports or are they the dodgy slower ones which have been allowed to be called that?

[No2]

Thanks guys. : )

9.3MB/s really is pretty piss pore isn't it.

Now the other question is are they real USB 2 ports or are they the dodgy slower ones which have been allowed to be called that?

True I'll check it on a friends new Intel Mobo rig tonight. If it is still crap then I'll try another cable. If that dosen't fix it then it will be going back.

[imdying]

Originally posted by Chris
I'm pushing to a 7200rpm 'cuda @ ~18meg per second using an ICE external enclosure.
Alost the exact same setup here... except it's a 5400rpm... similar performance though.. something in the usb/ide bridge?

[No2]

I tested it on a friends new intel rig last night and got 26MB/s sustained on XP regardless of which cable I used. This is better but still a long way from the 35 - 40MB/s sustained that most External HDD mfgs claim.

That particular HDD does an easy 50MB/s from the part of the disc where the 238MB iso is stored, so the bottle neck is still in the USB.

I think its a bit suspect that none of the USB ports on the Gigabyte GA-7VA could get to even half the transfer rate of the ports on the Asus P4P800.

I'd be interested to know other peoples USB 2 transfer rates on compareable Gigabyte boards or other 8235 south bridge boards.

[imdying]

Next step, setup a USB network between the two rigs, copy some files over and see what speeds you get.

[Oblivian]

Make sure the USB2 ports are enabled in the Ga.

I have a GA-7VR and was off by default in BIOS so all acted as 1.0

[Wibber]

if you have a via usb controller dont expect stellar performance, in fact dont expect it to run at usb2

[No2]

Cheers Guys. : )

Make sure the USB2 ports are enabled

USB 2 is enabled in Bios. Although take a look at my Sandra Screen shot. It says that only one of the ports is USB 2.

if you have a via usb controller dont expect stellar performance

Can you tell me or point me to which controller chips actually do well with USB 2. It seems that the ICH5 chips do well, any others?

[Wibber]

the NEC usb2 cards are the best stand alone cards AFAIK, but they are still slower than the i865/i875 usb2