HDD Speed vs CF speed

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martingclark
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2022 2:30 pm

HDD Speed vs CF speed

Post by martingclark »

Has anyone tested CF VS HDD speeds when running either a tf1230 or tf1260, i have both as have 2 a1200's (using the A1200 ide and not the TF's), My results are showing CF is way down at 1.1, vs 1.6-1.7 on the HDD, not sure yet if this is because i have a rubbish cf adapter or a rubbish CF card (tried 3 cf cards, and a cf to sd adapter with same 1.1 result)

any ideas anyone?
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supaduper
Posts: 561
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:05 pm

Re: HDD Speed vs CF speed

Post by supaduper »

The unbuffered IDE on a A1200 is Slooooooow , I think the average is 1.7Mb/s so your HD is about right so it is obviously your CF or Adapter setup that is not up to speed, if you used the TF IDE say on the TF1260 the speed could be around 5 mb/s :)
matt020
Posts: 292
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:17 am
Location: West Australia

Re: HDD Speed vs CF speed

Post by matt020 »

A good video that covers this by Casual Retro Gamer

danbeaver
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2022 8:18 pm

Re: HDD Speed vs CF speed

Post by danbeaver »

Notes on speeds from my experience (my numbers are my own, or statistically, I have an N=1 – that means these numbers are only an anecdotal report):

The tests in the above CRG video, using the TF330’s scsi.device (it should be) the same as that of the TF354 & TF356. The speed of the latter in my testing are similar to the A1200’s internal scsi.device ~ 2 – 3 MB/s when using a 68030 @ 33 MHz (ACA1233).

The TF1230 and TF1260 use an ehide.device for their onboard IDE port, however the TF1230 puts only 3.3 V to power the storage device, enough for a CF card, but not a 2.5” HDD (I use only recent 2.5” IDE laptops drives from 2012 to 2015; most are listed as New or NOS, as I assume they were replaced in laptops of that era with SSDs).
The speed of a CF card on the TF1230’s ehide.device is about the same as the same CF card attached to the built-in scsi.device, about 3.2 MB/s, however a recent 2.5” HDD achieves speeds in the 3.7 MB/s.

The TF1260 has almost 4V (when I measured it) on the ehide.device port, enough to power a recent 2.5” HDD; the signal, in my experience, can use a 12” cable running from the TF1260 to the HDD cradle of the A1200. The speeds appear to be in the 7+ MB/s. A CF card on this port gives numbers in the 3 to 5 MB/s range, while the same CF card on the A1200’s scsi.device reaches about 3.5 – 3.7 MB/s (CF card brand dependent).

My conclusion is that a CF card (4 GB ~ $15+, or 32 GB ~ $30+ USD -- Amazon) is slower and more expensive per gigabyte than a $40 new HDD ($40 for 80 to 120 GB – eBay & +/- Amazon). Also, a 68060 transfers data faster than a 68030.
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