Audio Conversion Test
With the popularity of the iPod and digital audio on computers, running a test of an audio application is a logical choice. Of course, Apple produces the iTunes application both for Windows XP and natively for the new Intel Mac OS X as a Universal Application. This makes using this application perfect for this test.
Since importing audio to the computer is limited to the speed of the optical drive, I decided instead to test the speed of the programs by converting a 22min long WAV file that was previously imported from a CD to the AAC file format. This would give a better indication of how the applications perform with the processor and file system.
Test Steps
- Under iTunes Preferences, select AAC format for Importing
- Select WAV file in iTunes Library
- Select "Covert Selection to AAC" from the right click menu
- Time process to completion
Results
- Mac OS X – 1m 29s
- Windows XP – 1m 26s
Unlike previous tests of the file system, this test shows that both the Windows XP and Mac OS X programs are on even footing. Much of this can be attributed to the fact that Apple wrote the code for the application and compiled it natively to use the Intel hardware similarly regardless of the Windows or Mac OS X operating system.
