On our desk this week - 8

Originally Posted by hitman012
USB2 has a theoretical bandwidth of 480Mbps (60MB/s) - even in practise this is about 40MB/s, meaning that about 20% of the potential throughput is lost somewhere in the SATA-USB bridge controller.

except

Originally Posted by http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm
USB 2.0 has a raw data rate at 480Mbps, and it is rated 40 times faster than its predecessor interface, USB 1.1, which tops at 12Mbps. Originally, USB 2.0 was intended to go only as fast as 240Mbps, but in October 1999, USB 2.0 Promoter Group pumped up the speed to 480Mbps.

As far as we know, effective rate reaches at 40MBps or 320Mbps for bulk transfer on a USB 2.0 hard drive with no one else is sharing the bus.

480Mbps is the theoretical speed, however in practise you lose a lot

how long is the USB cable between the SATA box and the computer, and was there anything (anything) else on the bus being used
however, the read/write requests have to be sent sometime, and they are not factored into the HDTach benchmarks

My dads USB HDD get the same kind of speed, as did my HDD caddy (before the PSU died ..)

Edit
If you have some benchmarks of any USB HDD adaptors that get some good speeds, I'm up for being proven wrong ....

I don't know why you would want to run programs off a HDD, but data and stuff storage, and backups are good uses ....

This thing doesn't even come with a caddy, i mean, its not meant for permanent installation

How does the can cooler work exactly? I think it would be ok. If it's that hot of a day are you going to take the time to drink a cold can of coke or pepsi? Also that keyboard looks nice, I wouldn't mind dishing out some money for that. The burshed look is sharpe.
-aaron

Originally Posted by Whelan_999
How does the can cooler work exactly?

as said in this thread, its most likely a peltier under that plate, so the plate will get colder ....

I guess if you made the cold plate for the drink cooler in the shape of the bottom of a can, it would work a little better.

Mike at work got one of those Comfort Curves when he started and, whilst he's got used to it now after a few months, I have to say it's pretty horrible. He says, despite being used to it, he doesn't like it very much. The couple of occassions I've had to use it has been less than pleasant experience, too.

I'm a strong believer in the ergonomic keyboards having them on all PCs I use regularly (namely home and office) but these things are just a weird in-between stage of square and ergo and, imo, it doesn't work. The biggest oddity is what you mentioned, the random larger keys.

Bleh, no. But you're right about the slightly stiff action on the normal ergos, but I prefer a full height key.


I whole heartedly agree on comments from others about MS's peripheral build quality, though. Top rate.

Maybe you could stick a little mound of steel wool to the cooler plate with some thermal compound to solve the surface area problem? :b

Nezuji :)

Originally Posted by yahooadam
Im sorry bit tech (some of todays topics are going to be a bit negative from me im afraid) but i dont know why your blaiming the adaptor for this speed
I mean - its limited by the USB speed, what did you expect, 35MB/s is about all USB can do ... what did you expect ...
You make the product sound bad, when its functioning as well as it can ....

That's what it's highlighting, for those who dont know and think USB2 should be "fast", it's still not as fast as an internal connection.

I have that M$ keyboard and it's awsome.. most of ym wrist pain is gone :D

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
That's what it's highlighting, for those who dont know and think USB2 should be "fast", it's still not as fast as an internal connection.

ok, but the way its phrased makes it sound very bad, SATA is 150MB/s and SATA2 is 300MB/s - USB2 just cannot compare to anything like that .....

I'm sorry, but I've read the paragraph that you comment on several times, and in no way can I see how it criticises the adaptor or "makes it look bad". It simply points out that:

- it is easy to use;
- but it is not as fast as SATA.

That (in my opinion at least) is a balanced comparison. You have ease of use, but you sacrifice some speed. You make your choice and you pay your price.

Whether the limitations (or indeed, the driverless, hotswapping benefits) are due to adaptor design specifically, or limitations of USB in general is really sort of irrelevant to the end user. They exist, people need to be aware that they exist, and they need to be quantified. Which is the purpose of comparative testing.

In fairness, I can see what yahoodam's getting at, but I don't think it needs stating. The paragraph gives a balanced view of the product imo, and I for one am tempted to buy one. What could make it a perfect statement, leaving out the ambiguity that he's trying to highlight, would be to add a sentence stating the approximate max. bus speed for USB2.0 in MB.

Originally Posted by logan
A can cooler you say?
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=98833

This post was particularly noteworthy:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=1077233&postcount=41 :D

he used 4.18 for the specific heat capacity of water? i thought it was 4180?

less he meant 4.18x10^3

Depends on the units. 4.18 Jg^-1°C^-1 = 4.18x10³ Jkg^-1°C^-1

Edit: Never realised that VBull could do superscripts :D

I'm sure one of those drink coolers was released ages ago no?

There was definitely a topic discussing it back in 2002 or there abouts.

8-ball

The drink warmers were released a while ago, for keeping tea or coffee hot, this one chills you cans of coke etc.

if you had the lump on the bottom for a can it would be useless for a glass, so with it flat you have more options of what you want to cool :)

I'm kind of shocked we are stil talking about the can cooler... that MediaMan looks like a very good idea. I am still trying to find a way to use my xBox classic to stream media from my network, of course then again, the RIAA and MPAA would probably sue me blind if they found out I was watching the movies I bought in a manner that they didn't specifically intend when they made it.