iMac G4 1.25Ghz 2GB -- IDE vs FireWire

[superman23]

just got a iMac G4 as a kitchen desk computer (it does look cool). It's maxed out with 2GB RAM and has a 320GB Maxtor HD.

Anyway, it came loaded with Leopard and a bunch of software. I've been playing with other versions of OS X on a FireWire drive -- one of the OWC Mercury enclosures with a 2.5" Seagate 500GB 7200RPM. i'm wondering if its actually faster to use this as my OS boot disk instead of the internal UltraATA 100 hard drive?

as far as the OS goes, I first tried Panther, which lasted about 10 minutes before I ran into major web browser issues. Seems there is absolutely no reason to run that OS on this machine. I have since gone to Tiger and will be comparing that with Leopard. I certainly like the more "classic" Tiger appearance with this machine.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Have you tried AJA System Test or Xbench* yet to benchmark your internal and Firewire HDDs?

*

 

[superman23]

i just ran Xbench and here are the results

http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=558105&doc2=558104

red = Tiger on the FW external drive
blue = Leopard on the internal drive

so it's kind of an apples & oranges comparison right now. i'll have to load Leopard onto the FW drive and then do the test again.

 

[ThunderSnake]

You can test either drive from either OS. You can boot to Leopard or Tiger and run a test on each drive. Use the "Volume" toggle to select the one that you want to test.