COMPACTOR?  
                       STUFFIT DELUXE?
                       DIAMOND?

I've seen so many tests comparing archiving programs, but none of them were really comparable to the system I'm using.  Most of the time, they are made under the finder which I think is truly useless while most of us are using MultiFinder.  I just like the idea to have a file archived while I'm typing away in MS Word or anything else, I just don't like to sit in front of my Mac waiting for a file to be compresed.  So here it is! : 

System Used:

 • Mac SE/30,  5 MB RAM, Sytem 6.0.5, running MS Word 4.0 (active window), 
Hermes 1.0 (in the background)

Archiving Programs Used:

 • Compactors 1.21
 • StuffIt Deluxe 1.01 ( with all optmizers on, better compression on)
 • Diamond 5.1

Type of file used for the tests:

 • Microphone II v 3.0  ( 43 Files in a folder )  :  2007 K
 • Sounds in a SuitCase  :  417 K
 • ClipArts ( bitmaps, Postcripts, Eps...)  :  1100 K

KBYTES SAVING CHART :

                                                       

COMPRESSION TIME CHART :

 

Do I need to say more?

Compactor is the fastest and compress better than the others on almost all tupe of files...but let's be fair and have a closer look at your contestants:

-PROS-

                                              Compactor 1.21:
 
                                                -Fast
                                                -Reliable
                                                -Multifinder friendly
                                                -Encryption
                                                -Password protection
                                                -Amazing compression
                                                -Can open StuffIt Classic files
                                                -Easy to use interface

                                                         StuffIt Deluxe 1.01:

                                                            -Fair Compression
                                                            -Text Viewer, PICT Viewer
                                                            -Scripting
                                                            -Encryption capability
                                                            -Password protection
                                                            -Segmenting
                                                            -Can move files inside an archive
                                                            -Optimizers
                                                            -Comments with signature
                                                            -DeArc, UnZip, UnHex, UnPack
                                                            -Easy to use interface ( fancyt too! )
                                                            -Magic Menu INIT that lets you Stuff
                                                             and Unstuff from the Finder
                                                            -Virus detection

                                   Diamond 5.1:
       
                                        -Good Compression
                                        -Segmenting
                                        -Password compression
                                        -Encryption
                                        -Keeps exact Finder info ( dates, color, position...)
                                        -Very reliable

 

-CONS-

Compactor 1.21:

-No segmenting
-Auto-extract not reliable

StuffIt Deluxe 1.01

-Slow  compressing
-Slow down the Mac under multifinder

Diamond 5.1

-Very slow compressing
-Not really MultiFinder compatible

What do I think?  Well if you want something fancy and full of features: go for StuffIt Deluxe, but if you're looking for efficiency, like I do, choose Compactor. Another important point that you should consider is that StuffIt Deluxe is commercial while Compactor is shareware , which means that major servers such as CIS will probably choose Compactor for new archive standard.