After finding a method of converting my Blu-Ray films to a single loss-less file format that Windows 7 Media Centre is happy with I came accross a new problem, Storage. I use a Microsoft Windows Home as a central storage point for all my media. As my free space started getting lower I decided to add some storage. As my Home Server is a Tranquil T7-330 there is no more space for additional hard disks. Not a problem because Microsoft says just plug an external USB Hard Disk in and add it to your storage pool. So I did that!
However when watching some HD films I noticed a fair bit of lag and stuttering, but only on some. After some investigation it turned out that the HD films on the external USB disk were the only ones stuttering. So there was obviously some performance issue.
I noticed my machine had an E-SATA port on it. The external enclosure I purchased as well as USB had an E-SATA port on it. So I decided to switch the enclosure over to E-SATA. But before I did I wanted to benchmark the enclosure and disk at USB so I had some hard figures to compare the two technologies.
After a bit of digging around I came across HD Tune. This free application provides a great utility to benchmark the raw performance of the physical disk. It also uses S.M.A.R.T. Information (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) to provide health information on the disk and error checking software. For more information or to download HD Tune visit http://www.hdtune.com/.
The technical blurb on the two technologies shows that USB 2.0 provides 480Mbps where E-SATA offers between 1.5Gbps and 3.0Gbps dependent on your motherboard chipset. So I already new that E-SATA would be faster and probably solve my issue but in real world performance is there a noticeable difference? Well Here are my results.
Though I ended adding 1TB Western Digital Green Edition SATA Disks I ran the test with an old Western Digital 160GB SATA Disk as the benchmark. The enclosure used is an ASAKA 3.5" USB / E-SATA unit. The Intel motherboard used support 3.0Gbps through put.
1). Sample 160GB Western Digital SATA Hard Disk - USB
2). Sample 160GB Western Digital SATA Hard Disk - E-SATA
3). The actual 1TB Western Digital SATA Disk connected via E-SATA
If you compare the results of the 1TB disk to the 160GB disk connected via E-SATA you can the see that the actual physical disk itself makes a big difference.
So to answer the question of whats the best way to add additional space to your Windows Home Server here is my two pennies worth. First off, as you probably guessed from the results E-SATA is the way to go however I would not personally purchase a retail USB/E-SATA external Hard Disk. I would purchase an E-SATA enclosure (there are plenty to choose from) and a high quality Hard Disk such as the Western Digital Green Edition disks. The reason for this is that the retail external hard disk units you buy often have a cheaper quality hard disk than you would probably purchase yourself. These are often 5400rpm instead of 7200rpm and have 8Mb of Cache rather than 16Mb. Purchasing a high end disk such as Western Digital Green Edition not only provides a high spec disk but provides a cooler and quieter disk which is essential for 24x7 operation.
Now I can go back to watching HD films with no stuttering.
No comments:
Post a Comment