USB Disk Performance

I recently got a drive enclosure that allows it to be connected via eSATA or USB2. I got a nifty ExpressCard eSATA adapter for my MacBook Pro since eSATA is theoretically faster. Guess what? It is a lot faster!

A simple test of disk performance in Xbench (sure, not the best test, but it gives me something to compare) revealed that the disk got more than double the score, with several of the speeds being more than three times faster.

This is the same disk, all I did was run the "Disk Test" in Xbench then disconnected the eSATA connector from my drive enclosure, connected it up via USB and ran the same test again. Same drive, enclosure, computer; just a different cable and interface.

I expected a little performance increase, but not that much. I suppose it could be the USB chip that is a huge pig, but I saw similar numbers with a different USB to SATA adapter. Regardless what it is, no more drives on USB for me, I'm a believer in eSATA!

Computer Bliss

In response to my co-worker Brandon's recent post about his computer upgrades... and possibly a little follow-up to my previous post about the MacBook Air...

I used to have two machines in my office with a total of 6 hard disks and about 300 loud fans spinning in them. One was a desktop, running a development virtual machine and a generic office/web applications. The other was a bare-metal development box for doing hardware development.

They've been replaced with a 17" MacBook Pro. It runs my development environment in a virtual machine (which I simply copied over from the previous machine, how nice!). It also allows me to do some crazy things like plug it into our gigabit network and use optical discs. Then, I moved my hardware box into our engineering lab and connect to it via RDP when I need to access it.

The result? My office is completely silent. I can bring the MacBook home (or anywhere) and have the actual development environment from work right there, no VPN, no VNC. It's also a fully-functional computer, no sacrifices. Not to mention, I get to use MacOS!

If I don't want to bring a whole full-size MacBook Pro somewhere (like the places a MacBook Air would go), I still have the iPod Touch which does a great job of running a web browser and reading email.

Why the MacBook Air?

Apple just released their super slim MacBook Air. I got to thinking, this is perfect, it's super portable, you can carry it around easily and keep in touch wirelessly from your couch, coffee shop, et c. It doesn't have the real power of a full-blown computer, so you probably would be able to do all your work on it. Instead, it is perfect to read email, browse the web, look at pictures, maybe some other stuff.

Wait? Doesn't the iPhone and/or iPod Touch already read email, browse the web, look at pictures and do a bunch of other stuff? With your data plan, it also does it at a lot more places... and it's a lot more portable and a lot cheaper.

It seems that Apple already has a mobile platform, they should focus on it. The MacBook Air is a distraction from it.