Performance

To test the AluBoxTFX I used was a Western Digital 36 GB Raptor drive. Performance was measured with HDTach 3.0.1.0.


When used with a USB connection, the drive had a fairly steady transfer rate of 32.3MB per second. This shows the limitation of the USB connection, as we know that the drive itself can sustain a higher transfer rate than that.




When used with the eSATA connection, the performance increased as expected. The drive managed an average transfer rate of 58.5MB per second, which is right in line with internal SATA performance. Notice how the CPU utilization was also much lower for the eSATA connection, dropping from 11% down to 2%.

Also, during normal usage the Western Digital Raptor located in the AluBoxTFX reported an internal temperature of 31°C. Gradually after letting the drive run for almost four hours, the temperature rose to 37°C, at which the temperature seemed to level off. That’s pretty good, considering that the enclosure uses no fans at all.