PART 2 ** /"The Need For Speed"/1 page/858 words/1 Photo/Sandy Thomson and Al Goold ** Removeable Device Comparitive review. Hardware. Any Atari Commercial "I feel the need, the need for speed". Just how fast are todays removeable devices? Sandy Thomson and Al Goold of STAG (Scotland's/TOS Atari Group), compare 3 modern devices. See if you find the results as surprising as they did. We are all apparently obsessed with speed, whether it's processor or hard drive speed or whatever. What we have tried to do in this article is conduct "real life" tests. In all file comparisons tests we used exactly the same 1462 files in 50 folders comprising a total of 52.48Mb. These consisted of clipart folders, containing files of various sizes and types, including both compressed and uncompressed. Hardware The challenge we set ourselves was to compare SyQuests relatively new 230Mb EZFlyer against its popular forerunner, the EZ135 (which is no longer available new). We also had access to an Iomega Zip Drive, so we decided to include this in the comparison. An Atari Falcon (TOS 4.04) with a 420Mb internal ide drive with the three removeable devices attached was the computer platform used. All results were obtained with Nemesis running at 24Mhz. Software We carried out our initial benchmark copy operation using the standard TOS desktop. SOURCE DESTINATION TIME IDE EZFlyer 4 min 28.5 secs The remainder of the speed comparison tests were obtained using Kobold V2.5. SOURCE DESTINATION TIME Write tests. IDE EZFlyer 1 min 13.8 secs IDE ZIP 1 min 17.3 secs IDE EZ135 1 min 17.7 secs Read tests. EZ135 IDE 1 min 5.8 secs EZFlyer IDE 1 min 8.4 secs ZIP IDE 1 min 15.4 secs We also carried out a recursive file comparison, using Tree Check (part of the Kobold package). IDE 2 min 31.5 secs EZ135 3 min 03.3 secs EZFlyer 3 min 16.3 secs ZIP 4 min 33.2 secs To conclude our comparison we then deleted the test package from each drive, using TOS, and obtained the following speeds. DELETE TESTS EZFlyer 2 min 05.4 secs IDE 2 min 33.8 secs ZIP 2 min 48.3 secs EZ135 2 min 57.9 secs In another attempt to introduce reality into the tests, we loaded Papyrus4 from all 4 devices, and achieved the following results Papyrus4 Loading test IDE 10.7 secs EZ135 11.3 secs EZFlyer 11.63 secs ZIP 11.94 secs We also carried out a speed test using ICD's RateHD utility. The differences shown in these tests appear to suggest a greater difference in speed than is found in actual use. ICD RateHD Test Data Rate Av access IDE 1739k/s 17 ms EZ135 836k/s 41 ms EZFlyer 704k/s 43 ms ZIP 653k/s 54 ms Conclusion Confusion... When we started to to do these tests we expected that we would end up with a clear winner. There is a general "belief" that the ZIP drive is much slower than the SyQuest drives. Instead we have found there was little "real life" difference in actual use. If access speed is important, then the EZFlyer may suit you better, however, if value for money is more important, then you can buy a Zip drive and over 1Gb of cartridges for the price of the EZFlyer drive with a single 230Mb cartridge. A second hand EZ135 may be an ideal compromise of speed, storage capacity and price. The Zip drive is marginally slower in most aspects, although it's price makes up for any shortcomings. The EZFlyer is only slightly slower in performance than its predecessor, but the extra capacity, and the ability to use 135 cartridges is a major point in it's favour. *** Product box *** Product name: EZFlyer 230 Publisher: SyQuest Contact: +44 (0)131-339-2022 RRP: around œ269 Requires: Any Atari TOS Computer. All machines other than the Falcon will require an external host adaptor unless you already have an external hard drive attached. Pros: Better build quality and reliability than the EZ135. Greater storage capacity than the competition. Fast, very quiet, easy to use, bootable. Cons: No Atari software/cables, expensive initially. Score: 85% *** End of boxout *** *** Product box *** Product name: EZ135 Publisher: SyQuest Contact: +44 (0)131-339-2022 RRP: No longer commercially available. Requires: Any Atari TOS Computer. All machines other than the Falcon will require an external host adaptor unless an external hard drive is already attached. Pros: Poor eject mechanism design, bootable. Cons: No Atari software/cables, short power leads. Score: 75% *** End of boxout *** *** Product box *** Product name: Iomega ZIP 100 Publisher: Iomega Contact: +44 (0)800 973 194 RRP: around œ179 Requires: Any Atari TOS Computer. All machines other than the Falcon will require an external host adaptor unless an external hard drive is already attached. Pros: Good value for money, cheaper cartridges Cons: No Atari software/cables, slightly slower than the SyQuest drives Score: 81% *** End of boxout *** ½Sandy Thomson, Al Goold and A|C|G (1997