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Low End Mac Benchmarks

Hard Drive Throughput

Dan Knight - Tip Jar

The newest addition to our benchmark suite is TimeDrive 1.3 (available here), which measures drive throughput. This can test a floppy, Zip, hard drive, or RAM Disk. TimeDrive is fairly primitive; the benefit of that is being able to run it on very old Macs.

All TimeDrive tests are run with extensions off, the drive cache set to 128K, and System 7.5.5 unless otherwise noted.

The Quantum ELS170S is a older SCSI hard drive with good performance for its era (circa 1995). We also tested our default external drive, a Quantum Fireball ST2.1S. (Numbers are KB/sec.)

 computer      drive               write     read
 8 MHz 68000                                     
 Classic       Quantum ELS170S      593K     683K
 Classic       Quantum ST2.1S       597K     688K
 16 MHz 68030                                    
 Classic II    Quantum LP40S        629K   1,005K
 Classic II    Quantum ST2.1S     1,165K   1,367K
 SE/30         Quantum LP80S      1,180K   1,194K
 SE/30         Quantum ST2.1S     1,497K   1,850K
 25 MHz 68040                                    
 Quadra 605    Quantum LPS240S    2,246K   2,246K
 Quadra 605    Quantum ST2.1S     3,932K   3,932K
 33 MHz 68040                                    
 Quadra 650    Quantum TM1280S    2,954K   3,932K
 Quadra 650    Quantum ST2.1S     3,145K   5,242K

Tests with other Macs show the ST2.1S runs faster then 4 Mbps, so the 597K write and 688K read ceilings seems to be a limit on the Classic's SCSI throughput.

Go to the benchmarks index

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 15" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Jan. 2006 - The first Intel-based MacBook launched at 1.83-2.0 GHz, had several teething problems.
Group of the Day: System 6 is the email list for those who choose System 6.
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Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.17. Used 1.83 GHz, $750; 2.16, $800; 2.33, $900; refurb 2.4, $1,299; 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,899; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.17. Used 400 MHz, $50; 933 MHz, $80; 500 dual, $60; 867 dual, $90; 1 GHz dual, $150; 1.25 GHz dual, $225; 1.42 GHz, $499.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 Deals, 11.17. "Leopard" upgrade, $80; single user license, $135; 5 users, $173; Mac Box Set, 5 users, $230; Server, 10 users, $340; unlimited, $850. Shipping included.
Best Mac mini Deals, 11.16. Used 1.42 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.66 GHz Core Solo, $419; 2.0 Core 2, $450; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $769; Server, $990.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 11.16. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $210; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz, $479; SuperDrive, $498.
Best iPod shuffle Deals, 11.16. Used 1 GB, $35; 4 GB, $65; refurb 1 GB, $39; 2 GB, $59; new 2 GB, $55, 4 GB, $75. New and refurb prices include shipping.
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