But sometimes, Cheapo is still quite good !

So I finally got my cable working, and I have managed to do some tests - Transfer Speed.

So for technicality, I will have to put my PC specs here :

Dell Inspiron 6400, with Intel T5600 chipset, 120GB SATA HDD (Now, I am not sure if it is SATA 1 or 2), USB 2.0 and 1394a ports.

Tested by copying almost 8GB of video files from my HDD to the External HDD and back. With Internet and other applications turned off. Timed with my handphone stop-watch.

So comparing the few external HDD I have :

(1) Cheap S$39 USB to IDE/ATA External HDD Case, with 120GB 3.5" Samsung IDE/ATA HDD (5,400rpm) :
Average Reading Speed : 15.5MB/sec (That is MegaByte per Second)
Average Writing Speed : 19.6MB/sec

(2) iCute brand $49 USB to IDE/ATA External HDD Case (with fan), with same 120GB 3.5" Samsung IDE/ATA HDD (5,400rpm) :
Average Reading Speed : 18.4MB/sec
Average Writing Speed : 20.6MB/sec

(3) WD MyBook Premium (USB and Firewire Combo, without fan), with its own 500GB 3.5" HDD (also 5,400rpm and SATA I assume) :
Average USB Reading Speed : 15.9MB/sec
Average USB Writing Speed : 19.2MB/sec

Average Firewire Reading Speed : 17.6MB/sec
Average Firewire Writing Speed : 20.4MB/sec

Surprising results, I have to say. MyBook Premium performs worse off than the cheap $49 iCute casing. Though I am not entirely sure if the larger capacity HDD is supposed to be slower than the smaller capacity ones.

Usually reading from a HDD is FASTER than writing. So my results of Writing into external is faster than Reading from external basically means that the bottleneck is at my laptop HDD.

But one thing is for sure : Performance is increased by having a fan.. hee hee..

And just out of curiosity, I compared it with my portable USB 2.5" Casing with 120GB Samsung HDD (5,400rpm) (and I am assuming it is IDE/ATA and not SATA) :
Average Reading Speed : 11.7MB/sec
Average Writing Speed : 11.2MB/sec

Well, I guess I will need a better performing PC instead of a notebook (whose HDD should be slower than the 3.5" HDD) to really bring the transfer speed faster.