USB, Firewire & Storage Performance

After looking at many options for Firewire and USB testing, we finally determined that an external USB 2.0, Firewire 400, and Firewire 800 hard disk might be a sensible way to look at USB and Firewire throughput.

Our first efforts at testing with an IDE or SATA drive as the "server" yielded very inconsistent results, since Windows XP sets up cache schemes to improve performance. Finally, we decided to try a RAM disk as our "server", since memory removed almost all overhead from the serving end. We also managed to turn off disk caching on the USB and Firewire side by setting up the drives for "quick disconnect" and our results were then consistent over many test runs.

We used just 1GB of fast 2-2-2 system memory set up as a 450MB RAM disk and 550MB of system memory. Our stock file was the SPECviewPerf install file, which is 432,533,504 bytes (412.4961MB). After copying this file to our RAM disk, we measured the time for writing from the RAM disk to our external USB 2.0 or Firewire 400 or Firewire 800 drive using a Windows timing program written for AnandTech by our own Jason Clark. The copy times in seconds were then converted into Megabits per second (Mb) to provide a convenient means of comparing throughput. Higher Rates therefore mean better performance.

Firewire, USB & Storage Performance

The ULi M1695 Reference Board 2 does not have Firewire on board - it is optional. Therefore, only USB could be tested. The USB sustained transfer rates were about 66% faster than the ATI SB450, so it is very understandable why some ATI chipset motherboard makers may choose ULi instead. In the larger picture, however, ULi's USB performance is at the low end of average, and nothing that deserves excessive praise.

Keep in mind that this is the M1567 south bridge, and the one that you will see with the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 north bridge will likely be the M1573/M1575, which also features HD audio instead of AC'97. The M1573/75 have not yet been tested and may perform even better in USB.

Disk Controller Performance Audio Performance
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  • Kinesis - Thursday, August 18, 2005 - link

    Someone may have asked this, but I didn't see it, my apologies if this is a duplicate. But will these boards support AMD's dual core chips?
  • ElJefe - Saturday, August 20, 2005 - link

    Not only will it support it... it is the only one out that DOES support it truly. It needs no bios revision, it is built into the original bios to support it. asus, gigabyte and abit all warned me that it is highly likely that if you purchase any of their boards and put a dual core cold on them as a new system, the computer wont "post" and just sit there. youll need to buy a 939 chip or borrow someones if it isnt this m1695 asrock board. really, there hasnt been much growth since this has been reviewed in boards, so none have put the dual core bios as their official starter/tested/stable bios yet.

    and from reading 100's of legitimate forum entries from all 3 of those main companies, i can say that I would never do dual core without going for a board that is brand new. the problems and conflicts are rather universal and rather pathetic.

    I am not sure why there isnt talk of this much in forums around here, but if you read the forums of those places you will see obvious problems (abit is the worst at the moment though, which is most unfortunate as they were my favorite company for many years)
  • bozilla - Friday, August 12, 2005 - link

    I'm not sure if someone asked this...but is it possible to use existing AGP card and PCI-e card on the same board with Crossfire for example with this chipset? Let's look at this like this. I have an AGP X800XT PE now and I want to buy a X850XT PE Crossfire edition in PCI-E and put both in the motherboard that comes out with this chipset. Possible?
  • Wesley Fink - Saturday, August 6, 2005 - link

    nVidia has sent us the following information:

    "The ULI board isn't certified for SLI. It hasn't been submitted."

    nVidia added that modified nVidia drivers generally indicate a board that is not certified.
  • nserra - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link

    Well it isn't selling any way, why certify it?
  • ElJefe - Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - link

    just a tip:
    someone said that Asrock usa isnt going to sell this mobo in the US of A, that is not true, i called today and it definitely is going to be sold here very soon.

  • mino - Saturday, August 6, 2005 - link

    Actually this is understandable. Why bother to certify an preview board ? For a company like Uli this would be a waste of time and money.
  • deathwalker - Saturday, August 6, 2005 - link

    I'm looking forward to the release of Mobo's on this chipset. I want to upgrade to a socket 939 system and at the same time be able to keep costly components that I have(6800gt agp card for one)for use in it. I hope we se a micro ATX version that I can drop in a Aspire X-Qpack case. Good job Anandtech for picking up on this upcoming release and covering it for your dedicated subscribers. I don't think Tom's Hardware even knows this exists..not a whisper on there site about this chipset.
  • Zebo - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link

    Not really because I already bought a AN8 Utlra.. A, as in Abit. That's really what ULi needs for wide-spread adoption.. ABIT/DFI/ASUS/Gigabyte/MSI branded boards with wild OC options.. not Asrock/tul/ECS. I waited and waited for a decent SiS755 board which was also very promising.. which never came. I'm betting the same will happen here, especially so now that board makers have to make room in their stable for ATI based chipsets.
  • nserra - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link

    But Uli offers AGP 8X, no one does this, so they will be “forced” to support it.

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