PATA vs SATA: optical drive matchup... 2x burn

[trancepriest]

Test of simultaneous burn of iso disc image to 2 SuperDrives conducted on 07 Mac Pro & 09 Mac Pro both equipped with dual SuperDrives.

2007 Mac Pro: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3587/3372220611_91e359f851_o.png

2009 Mac Pro: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3372346588_a7c4c57df1_o.png

Hardware Configurations:
1. Mac Pro 2007 8 core 3GHz, 16GB RAM, RAID 5 (4x750GB), Optiarc AD-7170A dual 16X SuperDrive

2. Mac Pro 2009 8 core 2.93GHz, 6GB RAM, 640GB HD, no RAID, HL GH41N dual 18X SuperDrive

Software Configurations:
Toast 10 Titanium v10.0.1 with 2 instances of application running per computer.

RESULTS: SATA SuperDrive in Mac Pro 09 trounces PATA (IDE) SuperDrive in Mac Pro 07 by 6x DVD burn rate. MP 07 averaging 4x, MP 09 averaging 10x. If the disc image was larger the sustained rate on the MP 09 would have been been 13x. The iso image was of Windows 7 Build 7000, file size 2.44 GB.

 

[m1stake]

SATA vs PATA doesn't matter for optical drives. Neither bus is saturated.

The only reason the 09 is faster is because it has a... faster drive!

 

[trancepriest]

SATA vs PATA doesn't matter for optical drives. Neither bus is saturated.

The only reason the 09 is faster is because it has a... faster drive!

Why are both of the 07 SuperDrives going at an average 4x write rate when they are 16x DVD write drives? As demonstrated by this test, I think it matters significantly when using 2 drives simultaneously on the PATA connection.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

There were a few debates about the problems caused by having both drives on the same IDE connection right back to the first Mac Pro 2006.

When I used to burn two disks at a time using two IDE optical drives on my Mac Pro 2006 there was a large increase in burn time.

Which is why you buy your own (faster and cheaper than Apples) SATA optical drive and cable and fit it yourself. That's if you have one of the older Mac Pros.

Once you have done that you should have similar or better performance than the Mac Pro 09 running Apples drives.

 

[trancepriest]

There were a few debates about the problems caused by having both drives on the same IDE connection right back to the first Mac Pro 2006.

When I used to burn two disks at a time using two IDE optical drives on my Mac Pro 2006 there was a large increase in burn time.

Which is why you buy your own (faster and cheaper than Apples) SATA optical drive and cable and fit it yourself. That's if you have one of the older Mac Pros.

Once you have done that you should have similar or better performance than the Mac Pro 09 running Apples drives.

If the IDE bus bandwidth is adequate... what is the issue with slowdowns when 2 drives are connected?

 

[Dark Dragoon]

If the IDE bus bandwidth is adequate... what is the issue with slowdowns when 2 drives are connected?

It's been a long time since I really looked into it but I seem to remember it was to do with the inability of two devices on a single IDE connection to simultaneously read or write.

So even if the IDE connection can transfer data far faster than the optical drives can read/write, one of the drives will be waiting for the other drive to finish it's operation when both drives are active, hence the slowdown.

 

[m1stake]

Why are both of the 07 SuperDrives going at an average 4x write rate when they are 16x DVD write drives? As demonstrated by this test, I think it matters significantly when using 2 drives simultaneously on the PATA connection.

Oh, I see what you're doing. Burning two disks makes all the difference as the above poster noted.

 

[trancepriest]

It's been a long time since I really looked into it but I seem to remember it was to do with the inability of two devices on a single IDE connection to simultaneously read or write.

So even if the IDE connection can transfer data far faster than the optical drives can read/write, one of the drives will be waiting for the other drive to finish it's operation when both drives are active, hence the slowdown.

Dark Dragoon,

Thank you for your explanation. With known issue it's strange that they would encourage 2 SuperDrives in the older Mac Pros with both sharing one IDE bus.

Oh, I see what you're doing. Burning two disks makes all the difference as the above poster noted.

Thanks for enlightening this thread with your presence.