Best Compression tool

Best compression – size in MB.

1. 7z    493
2. rar    523
3. bz2   592
4. lzh    607
5. gz    614
6. Z     614
7. zip   614
8. .arj    615
9. lzo   737

Best Time in seconds

1. zip 175
2. arj 253
3. lzo 295
4. Z 300
5. gz 344
6. lzh 657
7. bz2 706
8. rar 840
9. 7z 896

Conclusions:
It came as a surprise to me that plain old .zip to which I am quite familiar with already, is still a better choice for high compression of large data files in a short amount of time.
.arj and .Z and .gz all compress about as much, but just not as fast as .zip
I’ve heard really good things about .7z and it’s ability for high compression, and it does show in the results.  Both .z7 and .rar are able to use the duo core processor better (cpu use at 77%-90% compared to 55% for the others) yet take much longer than anything else to compress. If the file were being uploaded onto the internet, perhaps I would choose for the highest compression even it it takes 4 times longer.
I had read that .lzo and .zoo were good (some people claimed they were better) and fast with high compression, but I just don’t see that here at all.  They’re way off the mark.
So whats the best option?
.zip for quick and compatible compression.
.rar for high compression and compatiblity, when you have the time to wait.
.z7 for maximum compression when you have the time to wait.

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