I
f you can’t afford to upgrade your network to 802.11n Draft N 2.0, you might
consider purchasing Trendnet’s Easy-N-Upgrader TEW-637AP. Instead of throwing
your existing router in the trash, plug it into the Easy-N-Upgrader access point to
gain many of the benefi ts of a Draft N router for about half the price.
True dual-band routers operate one radio on the 2.4GHz band and the other
on the 5GHz band—the ones we’ve tested have built-in gigabit switches. Trendnet’s
device, however, uses only the 2.4GHz band—the same one your older Wi-Fi router
most likely uses—and since it’s just an access point, it doesn’t have a switch at all.
And while you could operate both
access points at the same time—in fact, atno point does Trendnet’s installation wizard advise you to turn off the radio inside
your router—that leaves both devices competing for the same bandwidth.
You should ignore the installation wizard altogether in favor of the device’s
web-based user interface. Trendnet’s default confi guration leaves the router
operating in mixed 802.11b/g/n mode with channel bonding turned off. In that
scenario, with the radio on our Asus WL700gE 802.11g also on, the Trendnet
delivered TCP throughput of just 29.3Mb/s at close range. When we turned off
the Asus’s access point and tweaked the Easy-N to run in 802.11n-only mode
with channel bonding activated, throughput jumped to 81.7Mb/s.
The Trendnet’s throughput was signifi cantly faster than our 802.11g
access point’s inside the house. Its outdoor range, though, was less impres-
sive: Our notebook couldn’t maintain a connection to it in either of
our exterior locations.
—MICHAEL BROWNTrendnet Easy-N-Upgrader
TEW-637AP
An alternate path to N
P
erformance scores are one thing, but we’re equally impressed by
Samsung’s technical accomplishment in achieving the highest areal density
to date on its new series of Spinpoint F1 drives. And at the top of the heap sits
the HD103UJ, the company’s long-awaited drive that reaches an areal density
of an astonishing 334GB per platter.
That’s right. The HD103UJ sports a three-platter array, much to the likely
embarrassment of its competitors in the high-capacity storage arena. Hitachi’s
fi rst-to-the-market 7K1000 drive has fi ve platters, while terabyte offerings from
Western Digital and Seagate split the difference at four. What’s the benefi t of
this increased areal density? In a word: speed.
Samsung’s drive destroys all other
terabyte models in many of the mission-critical benchmarks we run,
including tests for average reads,
writes, and real-world perfor-
mance. HD Tach’s synthetic tests
show the drive achieving read
speeds of nearly 100MB/s, with
write speeds swimming along
at 84.4MB/s. On the real-world
side, Hitachi’s Deskstar 7K1000
cruised to victory in three of
our fi ve PCMark05 tests: an XP
startup simulation, application
loading, and general use, but
the HD103UJ’s excellent write
capabilities—it’s 14MB/s faster than the Deskstar, as reported by HD Tach—helped
it overtake the Deskstar by almost 300 points on the overall score.
The HD103UJ produced the slowest random access times of the three
compared drives, but the effects of this and the drive’s slower burst speeds were
never apparent during our real-world tests. Hands-down, this is the fast-
est terabyte drive we have tested.
—DAVID MURPHYSamsung HD103UJ
Terabyte Drive
Where your data snuggles up with its neighbors
reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
8
TRENDNET TEW-637AP
$50, http://www.trendnet.comTrendnet’s TEW-637AP is a great upgrade solution for older rout-
ers; it sucked wind, however, when we moved the client outside.Nestled inside this 3.5-inch
drive is a masterwork of
areal density that sports a
whopping 32MD cache.78 MAXIMUMPC | MAY 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
Best scores are bolded. See http://tinyurl.com/yo8qa4 for detailed test criteria.BENCHMARKS
(^) D-LINK ASUS TRENDNET
DIR-655 WL700GE TEW-637AP
HOME OFFICE, 5 FEET (Mb/s) 90.5 19.6 81.7
KITCHEN, 20 FEET (Mb/s) 67.4 19.7 83.6
PATIO, 38 FEET (Mb/s) 59.6 19.6 72.9
BEDROOM, 60 FEET (Mb/s) 28.9 19.4 65.4
MEDIA ROOM, 35 FEET (Mb/s) 27.3 14.0 19.2
OUTDOORS A, 90 FEET (Mb/s) 8.4 13.1 Unable to connect
OUTDOORS B, 85 FEET (Mb/s) 2.5 4.8 Unable to connect
Best scores are bolded. All benchmarks taken using HD Tach 3.0.1.0.
BENCHMARKS
HITACHI DESKSTAR SEAGATE SAMSUNG
7K100 7200.11 HD103UJ
HD TACH BURST (MB/s) 205.8 195.5 204.5
HD TACH RDM. ACCESS (MS) 12.8 12.6 13.7
HD TACH AVG. READ (MB/s) 72.7 91.4 96.8
HD TACH AVG. WRITE (MB/s) 70.1 79.7 84.4
PCMARK05 OVERALL 7,764 7,323 8,014 SAMSUNG HD103UJ
$400, http://www.samsung.com
9
MAXIMUMPC
KICKASS