Testing (continued):

HD Tach 3.0.4.0:

The first test I ran on this enclosure was with Simpli Software's HD Tach. The graph below details the random access time, the CPU utilization, the average read rate, and the burst rate of the drives being tested. Lower values are desirable for random access time and CPU utilization, while higher values are better for average read rate and burst rate.


These results really did not surprise me, taking into account the limitation on the USB 2.0 bus. However, the RAID 0 results were slower than the JBOD results, which was a surprise and a disappointment. I expected the RAID 0 results to be the faster of the two options as that is typically the case. Again, taking the limitation of the USB 2.0 bus into consideration, the only way you would see a significant boost in performance from RAID 0 would be if there was an eSATA connection.

HD Tune 2.53:

HD Tune is similar to HD Tach, presenting information about the hard drive's performance. The graph below details the results for access time, CPU usage, average transfer rate, and burst rate, where lower values are better for the first two categories and higher values are better for the other two categories.


While the results follow the same general trend experienced with HD Tach, they were different enough to show why multiple tests are required to gauge the true performance of a hard drive.