USB2 vs FW vs GbE for external drive enclosure?

Can anyone compare speeds and client CPU overhead for USB2, FW, and
GbE for a connection to an external disk used as working storage for
something computationally intense such as a Photoshop work disk?

Thanks

--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail

On 2-Aug-2009, (Al Dykes) wrote:

Can anyone compare speeds and client CPU overhead for USB2, FW, and
GbE for a connection to an external disk used as working storage for
something computationally intense such as a Photoshop work disk?

HD's being mechanical are inherently slow, best connect I've found
is also the simplest, eSATA.
Raid striping is a bit better bandwidth wise, but I haven't
tried eSATA raid, only eSATA, can't see why you can't use
eSATA raid though.
USB2 suffers from data in each direction going over the same path.
GbE still talks to the same drives with an extra path adding
complexity.

On or about 2 Aug 2009 16:42:11 -0400 did (Al Dykes) dribble
thusly:

Can anyone compare speeds and client CPU overhead for USB2, FW, and
GbE for a connection to an external disk used as working storage for
something computationally intense such as a Photoshop work disk?

CPU overhead is negligible for all options. You didn't mention eSATA, though
you should have. In order of potential speeds:

1) eSATA
2) GbE
3) FW (400 or 800)
4) USB 2.0

There are a number of enclosures that include several interfaces. I have one
that does eSATA and USB 2.0, and another that does FireWire 400 and USB 2.0.

Here's one I found with a quick search that does USB 2.0, eSATA, and GbE:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817810014

The eSATA/USB enclosure I have does 100MB/sec on eSATA, and 25MB/sec on USB
2.0. The FW/USB one does ~34MB/sec on FW, and ~27MB/sec on USB.

On 3-Aug-2009, Woger wrote:

Yes eSata if you need Full speed.

And you need to optimise the system.
Try an Intel Extreme (or equivalent AMD) with
4GB or more memory, separate HD's for OS and
data, up you pagefile size, go for a premium mobo
(have a look at the LanParty range).
Which drive is best for the pagefile?
Try both OS and data drives.