[Nerozwei]

I'm considering to buy one of the drives mostly for backuping my iBook 500 and Windows XP box. I'm just wondering whether I could get a performance boost if I boot off the d2. I guess a 3.5" 7200RPM drive is loads faster than the original Toshiba. I read a post somewhere where someone was stating that his iMac 300 is significantly faster than his iBook 466 after he dropped in a 7200RPM drive.

I'm just thinking of keeping another copy of OS X on the external drive for times I need more performance (video-editing, etc.). Someone must have benchmarked this?

I could also use some opinions whether to choose a 2.5" bus powered drive or an external 3.5". The thing I love about the 2.5s is that it is bus powered. Cons are the price/space ratio and performance (vs. a 3.5"). USB2 would also be a plus, but I could not find a 3.5" drive with USB2 _and_ firewire from the local retailers. I hear Western Digital has a model like that?

Got any opinions or links to benchmarks?

Thanks!

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by Nerozwei:
I'm just thinking of keeping another copy of OS X on the external drive for times I need more performance (video-editing, etc.). Someone must have benchmarked this?

It you want better performance with video editing, just make sure the video is on the external drive. It won't matter if OS X is on the iBook's internal drive or the external in this case.

[Nerozwei]

Good point, bradoesch.

I was just wondering whether boot up times, etc. improve _significantly_ when operating from the external disk. I end up with lots of page outs sometimes. So I guess swapping speeds should improve also, if the external drive is in use.

I know this is a long shot, but what the hell... Would it be possible to build a script (with Applescript or something else) that switches the swapfile to use the external disk when it is connected? I'm guessing it might be possible during start-up, but what about when I plug it in and out when the machine is running?

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by Nerozwei:
Good point, bradoesch.

I was just wondering whether boot up times, etc. improve _significantly_ when operating from the external disk. I end up with lots of page outs sometimes. So I guess swapping speeds should improve also, if the external drive is in use.

I know this is a long shot, but what the hell... Would it be possible to build a script (with Applescript or something else) that switches the swapfile to use the external disk when it is connected? I'm guessing it might be possible during start-up, but what about when I plug it in and out when the machine is running?

Things like startup and disk swapping should be faster when running from the external drive.
I've never tried moving the swapfile location, but it doesn't sound unreasonable to create some sort of script that looks for your external drive at startup and uses it for swap space. Good luck and post back with your results!