Introduction
Everything is becoming faster, bigger and better. CPUs are surpassing the Gigahertz barrier, graphics cards regularly break one pixel record after the other and today’s hard disk drives offer more space than normal users can fill. 75 and 80 GBytes are the maximum for IDE drives, leaving even high end SCSI models behind. The largest SCSI drive you can get right now has a size of ‘only’ 72 GB.
What should one do if those amounts of data have to be mobile? If you have to carry around several gigabytes, you can chose between the CD-R, CD-RW, external SCSI solutions, MO drives and streamers. But most of them are either expensive or average performers and the 650 MBytes of a single compact disc are often not enough any more. Products for the parallel port or USB are of course an option, but they are definitely too slow in order to move gigabytes.
Could Firewire be the solution we are waiting for? Western Digital sent us their external Firewire harddrive with a capacity of 20 GBytes and a PCI-to-Firewire adapter card.
What is Firewire used for?
Firewire or ‘1394’ is flexible, fast and not too expensive. It can be integrated into almost every kind of electronical device. You can find a list of available products with Firewire interface at the . Particularly Canon, Kodak and Sony are making use of Firewire for their DV products.
Other companies are also offering storage solutions based on Firewire, but Western Digital is the first classic manufacturer of hard drives which integrates its own products.
What exactly is Firewire?
1394, that’s the second name, is a serial high speed interface for isochronical (real time) data transfer between computer components and/or consumer products (PC, digital video and photo cameras, printers, consoles). Back in 1986 it was introduced by Apple. In 1995, the IEEE made an official industry standard out of Firewire. The most important benefit is the ability to transfer very high quality video streams (e.g. from a digital video camera) in real time and without any quality loss to a digital video recorder or a computer.
- max. 400 MBits/s at a very low overhead
- Up to 63 devices
- Real-Time data transfer (e.g. for digital video)
- peer-to-peer system
- Isochronous and asynchronous data transfer simultaneously using one connection
- High speed and low speed components can be mixed without performance loss
- Nothing to configure
- One cable can be up to 15 feet long
400 MBits/s and up to 63 devices make IEEE-1394 very suitable for all kinds of multimedia components. Thanks to the intelligent real time protocol, it is being integrated into many types of video and audio components. Professional music hardware also comes with a Firewire interface and even game consoles are being equipped with it.
Even though USB has a similar flexibility, Firewire is up to 30 times faster and not much more expensive. Firewire is also hot-plug capable, giving it another advantage over common bus systems like SCSI. Thanks to this feature, you may attach and remove Firewire components without turning off the computer.
The 1394 Hard Drive
The price for a Firewire hard drive starts at appxorimately $450. Two versions will be available, one with 30 and another with 45 GBytes capacity. We got a special 20 GByte sample for this review.
The external drive is as big as a ZIP drive from Iomega, but with 800 g (1.8 pounds) it is much heavier. As you can imagine, inside the case works a Western Digital drive, the 205AA.
The plastic housing of the drive can easily be opened up, enabling access to the actual hard drive inside.
This is the back of the WD’s external drive. The round plug on the right side is for the power supply, which has to be connected seperately. Right in the middle you can see the two Firewire plugs. With Firewire being a peer-to-peer system, one is used to connect the drive to the controller, the other one can be used to connect another Firewire device. On the left side is the power up switch. You may turn the drive on or off independent from the data cable or computer status. Just think about turning off an external component case in a SCSI chain; it would likely cause your system to crash.
WDAD002 PCI Adapter
Of couse you cannot use the Firewire drive without an interface. Western Digital also sells the WDAD002 PCI card or WDAD003 PC-Card for notebooks. You are lucky if you are using a Sony Vaio notebook, as all of them are equipped with a Firewire interface by default.
According to the product specs, the card is able to deal with max. 63 devices and supports all Firewire modes: 400, 200 or 100 MBits/s.
Gigabyte GA-6VX7-1394
The GA-6VX7-1394 comes with three Firewire connectors. We had no difficulties to run the WD drive. Also the performance did not differ much from the setup using the WD PCI controller card. Gigabyte makes use of a Texas Instruments chip (TSB12LV23), while Western Digital equips their cards with a NEC model (PC72870).
Test Configuration
Again I made use of our standard setup for storage tests. Plus the WD PCI adapter, of course.
| Test system | |
| Processor | Intel Celeron, 500 MHz |
| Motherboard | IWill W100, I810 Chipsatz |
| RAM | 128 MB SDRAM, 7ns ( or ) CL2 |
| IDE Controller | i810 UltraDMA/66-Controller (ICH) |
| Graphics card | i810 On-Board |
| Network | 3COM 905TX PCI 100 MBit |
| OS | Windows 98 SE 4.10.2222 A |
| Benchmarks and Measurements | |
| Content Creation Benchmark | ZD Content Creation Winstone 2000 |
| Performance | ZD WinBench 99 – Disc Inspection Test |
| Temperature | Using the motherboard’s monitoring port and a thermistor, we give you the highest temperature value measured on the drive’s surface. All drives ran two hours to ensure they were at working temperature. |
| Drivers and Settings | |
| Graphics drivers | Intel I810 Reference drivers 4.11.01.2555 for Windows 98 |
| IDE drivers | Intel Busmaster DMA drivers 6.0 |
| DirectX Version | 7.0a |
| Screen resolution | 1024×768, 16 Bit, 85 Hz Refresh |
Benchmarks: Data Transfer, Performance diagram
The Firewire drive is able to provide continuously 12 MBytes/s. As the drive is definitely faster, there must be some limiting factor.
Benchmarks: Data Transfer
Of couse we did not expect the drive to be quite as fast as a standard IDE drive. Nevertheless, the transfer speed is quite good for an external solution. 2.5″ notebook drives usually achieve about half the performance of a desktop drive. That’s why the WD Firewire drive is a great performer for notebook users.
The transfer speed of WD’s new 1394-solution could be quite a bit higher, since the controller chip in our test sample is interfacing with the HDD at PIO 4 mode only, which doesn’t allow a higher bandwidth than 16 MB/s. The final 30 and 45 GByte drives will be equipped with a new chip, which will enable UltraDMA mode 2 (33 MBytes/s). This should speed up the drive considerably.
Benchmarks: Access Time
Wow, that’s a little surprise! The access time is even a bit less than with WD’s new 45 GByte IDE hard drive.
Benchmarks: ZD Content Creation Winstone 2000
Running CC Winstone 2000 from WD’s 1394 solution produces 10% lower scores than running it from WD’s normal internal 45 GB hard drive. This score will even improve once the 1394-device is equipped with an ATA33 chip.
Temperature , Noise
Both criteria are hardly any issues for the Firewire drive. The WD205AA drive operates at 5,400 rpm, thus it does not receive much attention. Thanks to the plastic case, most of the remaining noises are muffled quite well. Usually, the power supply fan or any installed 7,200 rpm rive will produce more noise than the WD Firewire model.
The drive cover never reached more than 35єC (95єF). Even after opening the case, the WD hard drive was only tepid. I also put several sheets of paper on the drive case for half an hour, but not even this could lead to higher temperatures.
Conclusion
Western Digital is pushing into the Firewire market with a complete product range. I commend WD for this good idea, as it is certainly heading the right way, substantiated by the increasing acceptance of 1394. Besides the Firewire hard drive, you can also get a PCI-to-Firewire controller or a PC-Card (PCMCIA) Firewire interface from Western Digital.
The drive is very easy to handle and satisfies all expectations of a mobile storage solution: Fast and easy installation, decent performance, high capacity and acceptable pricing. In addition, the Firewire drive makes a robust impression.
One big advantage over other solutions is the modular setup. Western Digital of course uses their own hard disks and combines them with proven Firewire components. On the one hand this makes it rather inexpensive, as WD does not need to buy the hard drives from a third party manufacturer. On the other hand, you may even exchange the drive yourself, in case it should become faulty after the warranty time has expired. Only if the internal logic should break down, you will have to get a whole new drive.
Approximately $500 for 45 Gbytes of mobile storage is an acceptable prize. An external SCSI solution of this size will easily cost double, and buying MO or other exchangeable drives only pays off if you should use lots of media.
