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Hitachi does external USB 3.0 drives well

Subject: Storage | December 3, 2012 - 05:14 PM |
Tagged: usb 3.0, Touro Mobile Pro, hitachi, external drive

If you spot the Hitachi GST Touro Mobile Pro USB 3.0 external HDD for a reasonable price you really should consider picking it up.  Just looking at the speed charts on NikkTech shows you that this USB 3.0 drive can keep up with eSATA drives and other USB 3.0 drives.  At 80 x 126 x 15mm and weighing 155g it is extremely portable, though the cable only being 1' long is a pity.  If you are in the market for large portable storage that is quick enough your copying doesn't take all night this is worth checking out.

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"Only 25 or so days before we go dark for our much anticipated Christmas vacations (which shouldn't last more than 10 days in total) and so we decided to mainly focus on reviews requested by some of you during the last 2 months. Needless to say we are already testing quite a few gaming peripherals for the past 2 weeks so there isn't really much time for anything else that requires time and effort to test, however since the primary concern of most of you have been 2.5" portable hard disk drives (much easier/faster to test) we gathered quite a few of the latest USB 3.0 models here to see which delivers the most bang for your buck. The first of those portable USB 3.0 HDDs is no other than the latest Touro Mobile Pro 500GB by HGST."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: NikkTech

Deals for June 18th - 2TB Buffalo LinkStation Live for $135

Subject: Editorial, Storage | June 18, 2012 - 09:56 AM |
Tagged: deal of the day, external drive, Hard Drive, buffalo

Today's deal offers us a 2TB version of the Buffalo LinkStation Live, a NAS device (network attached storage) that allows users to easily backup their systems while being able to share the resources on the drive at the same time. 

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The Buffalo LinkStation Live series of drives allows you to access the NAS through Android and iOS applications over the web, supports transfer rates as high as 1 Gbps, is Apple Time Machine compatible and integrates a BitTorrent client too.  A copy of NovaBACKUP Professional is included for users to install and setup easy, automated PC backups.  And you can use the LinkStation Live as a DLNA media server to boot. 

Today, LogicBuy has a deal on this unit for $135 with free shipping, using a coupon code found in the product's description. 

Source: LogicBuy

LaCie's Little Big Disk now comes in Thunderbolt

Subject: Storage | January 20, 2012 - 01:50 PM |
Tagged: thunderbolt, LaCie, Little Big Disk, ssd, external drive

Thunderbolts and lightning have been gracing the front page of PC Perspective for a while now, the new external interfaces are well described but there is a lack of products on the market to review.   Hopefully that will change soon as there is little point of having an interface with nothing to plug into it.  LaCie is one of the few to have actually managed to get a product to market, a Thunderbolt connected external 240GB SSD version of their Little Big Disk.  It was certainly fast in the testing that TechReviewSource performed but it does leave one with a question, who needs to back up 200GB in a big hurry and is willing to spend over $900 for the ability to do so?

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"The LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (240GB SSD) is currently the least expensive way to obtain Thunderbolt speeds for your late-model Mac. It's half the price of the Promise Pegasus R6, the only other Thunderbolt drive on the market, but that doesn't mean it's cheap."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

 

Source: TechReviewSource

Remember when buying a Blu-ray reader would double the value of your PC?

Subject: Storage | August 29, 2011 - 05:19 PM |
Tagged: plextor, PX-LB950UE, bluray, external drive

That isn't the case anymore as you can pick up the Plextor PX-LB950UE for $220 and plug it in externally to burn single or dual layer Blu-ray disks, as well as DVDs.  With both USB 3.0 and eSATA connections you should have no trouble with compatibility and you will want the fast transfer rates due to the volume of data that Blu-ray can handle.  Unfortunately PCStats could not get the Plextor to play back the movie that they were using for testing, no matter what software they tried to use to play it.  A diagnostic showed nothing wrong with the disk nor with the player and a Google search showed that many people have similar problems with a wide variety of disks and players.  They did have a very early version of the firmware; perhaps an updated version will resolve that particular problem.  Certainly something to keep in mind before picking up this external drive.

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"In recent weeks the talk of the town has been a sleek black external 12x Blu-ray WRITER from the folks at Plextor. The Plextor PX-LB950UE connects via USB 3.0 or eSATA cables and is capable of burning single layer Blu-ray Disk (BD) media at 12x, double layer BD media at 8x and DVD-R media at 16x speeds. In addition, it supports the playback of Blu-ray 3D movie titles. The bonus to going the Blu-ray writer route, is that BD-R media is even more useful than DVD media for archiving MASSIVE amounts of data."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: PC Stats

USB 3.0 Will Deliver 100 Watts Of Power In 2012

Subject: General Tech | August 11, 2011 - 08:15 PM |
Tagged: usb 3.0, external drive

USB 2.0 brought us 480Mb/s transfer speeds and 2.5 watts of power over the cable. This required either a second USB cable for additional power or a plug in power adapter. Either way, it was a hassle to power even moderately speedy external hard drives.

USB 3.0 brought a massive speed increase to 5Gb/s transfer speeds; however, power only received a relatively small bump to 4.5 watts of power over the cable (900mA at 5V). While the bump in power can now more easily power most external hard drives, power hungry high speed mechanical and solid state hard drives that are able to fully take advantage of the speed increases of USB 3.0 will still require additional power.

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A USB powered flux capacitor.

In an interesting move by the USB 3.0 Promoters Group, a new USB 3 specification will provide up to 100 watts of power at varying voltages to external devices. This great increase in power would allow users to power external USB monitors without a separate power adapter, RAID enclosures, desk lamps, USB grills (okay, maybe not), and other multiple hard drive external enclosures like the Drobo boxes.

While the new specification is due out next year (2012), it will be some time before hardware (specifically power supplies) catches up to the specification’s maximum power draw. Do you think the move to deliver more power through the USB 3 cable is a good one, or will the increased complexity of delivering 100 watts over the same cable delivering data outweigh the convenience of only needing a single cable?

Source: Ars Technica

Can Plextor compete with Drobo?

Subject: Storage | June 6, 2011 - 12:06 PM |
Tagged: plextor, network attached storage, NAS, external drive

There once was a time, when dinosaurs like Compaq ruled the earth, when there was only one choice for the true enthusiast when buying a CD burner.  Plextor was by far the most reliable choice in a time when CDs were more sensitive to external vibrations than a fine souffle. Things have changed a great deal since then and the looks you get when you ask how many sheep your burner has can be quite amusing.   This has left Plextor looking for alternative revenue sources and the area they have chosen is NAS devices.  The new Plextor PX-NAS4 has impressive stats but it is competing against heavy hitters like Drobo.  Think Computer tries out this ~$400 NAS device and contrasts its features and controls with similarly priced competitors offerings in their latest storage review.

 

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"Plextor introduced the PX-NAS4 quad-bay network attached storage device late last year to augment its PX-NAS2 dual-bay device and break into a market with larger storage needs. The dual gigabit Ethernet PX-NAS4 can house up to 8 TB of storage in several RAID configurations and sports volume encryption and low power consumption among other standard enterprise and business features. ThinkComputers takes a look, and finds that while the PX-NAS4 provides the basic features, it leaves something to be desired for users with more. Read on for the review."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: Think Computers

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