How slow is too slow when copying files?

Hi.
First of all I want to apologize if I posted this in the wrong section of the forum.
My question simply related to the speed of copying files from a mac to another computer/FireWire Drive/USB Drive etc...
I realize that depending on the medium you are accessing/writing/copying speeds will vary. But lately I have been getting the general impression that my MacBook has been getting slower at any rate with any of the above combinations. Two weeks ago I reinstalled OS X Tiger (erase&install) just to clean house, and since then I have been doing more copying back and forth than ever. So I am just curious if there is a way to measure or benchmark the actual copying speed (unlike benchmarking apps that send their own little packages) or settings I should be aware of to speed up the process a little.
Thanks in advance!

I have copied large amounts of files repeatedly and I always get the same time associated by clock. 150 gig of files with FW 400 70 minutes. FW 800 50 minutes. USB forget it takes too long.

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