LaCie have obviously been quite busy as they have just launched a whole raft of external hard drives for both desktops and laptops. The desktop range, cunningly entitled LaCie Desktop Hard Drive, comes in three sizes, 320 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB with the 1 TB big boy having a larger form factor too. The laptop range, called LaCie Mobile Disk, comes in a variety of sizes from 80 GB up to 320 GB. Here are a few more details on the new drives

Desktop Hard Drive

* Hi speed USB 2.0 interface
* 7,200 rpm
* 8 MB cache (16 MB on the 1TB version)
* 480 Mbps transfer rate
* 41 x 113 x 194 mm (115 x 65 x 208 mm for the 1TB version)
* 900g (1800g for the big boy)
* Plays nicely with W2K upwards and Mac OS X 10.3 or higher

Mobile Disk

* USB mini connectivity
* 5,400 rpm
* 8 MB cache
* 480 Mbps transfer rate
* 81 x 128 x 15 mm
* 170g
* Plays nicely with W2K upwards and Mac OS X 10.3 or higher

There’s no official price tags for these suckers on the LaCie website at the moment, but rumour has it that they’ll start at US$125 and go from there. So as long as rumour is right and the price tags are reasonable these drives may be a worthwhile investment and they certainly look the part.

Source: Electronista

Featured tags: external hdd lacie portable hard drive

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Personally I like a little bit of control over my software and data, but for anyone’s who’s less of a control freak than me, the latest external HDD offering from Clickfree, the HD700, may fulfill all your backup requirements. Whilst it currently only rocks in at 120 GB, Clickfree do promise to release a 250 GB version later. So with this sucker you just plug it into your the USB socket of your Windows box and it backs up your data. Again we’re assuming there’s a little more to it than that, but with the software required housed on the drive, there won’t a helluva lot more. Here’s the breakdown of this puppy.

* 2.5 inch SATA 120 GB drive
* spins at 5,400 RPM
* 8 MB cache buffer
* USB 2.0 and 1.1
* 115 x 17 x 76 mm
* 180 g
* plays nicely with any flavour of windows from 2000 up

The price tag hanging around the HD700’s neck is US$170, which is probably a little high, as for an extra $60 you can grab almost 3x as much storage space with this Western Digital external hard drive. Of course if being able to make automatic backups of your hard drive is important, then the Clickfree HD700 is just the external drive for you.

Source: Clickfree

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I’m not sure where they are going with the ‘Little Big’ thing, but the latest addition to LaCie’s external drive range looks like a winner to me. The Little Big Disk Quadra comes in two flavours, a 400 GB option with a 500 GB version available bizarrely priced at US$500 just like it’s smaller sibling. Anyway here are some details on this sucker

* eSATA 3Gbps, 2 x FireWire 800, USB 2.0 ports
* 7,200 rpm
* 16 MB cache
* 40 x 85 x 140 mm
* 650 g
* Talks nicely with Win 2k and above, Mac OS X 10.3 upwards

It may seem a bit pricey at $1 per GB but with its Neil Poulton styling and RAID 0 capability it certainly looks the part.

Source: LaCie

Featured tags: external hdd lacie little big disk quadra

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It should come as no surprise that LaCie is a French company with the sleek and sophisticated designs that come out of its workshop. LaCie latest addition to its product range is the succinctly entitled Hard Disk designed by Neil Poulton. The external HDD has a minimalist look to it with the smooth, glossy case and a cool blue LED strip to create an ambient glow. The concept is that the unit will blend in with other bits of kit you have lying around. However since all mine have go-faster stripes down them, this sucker would stand out on my desk ;)

Kidding aside, the Hard Disk certainly does look the part, but how do the oh-so important numbers stack up on this baby?

* USB 2.0 interface
* 7,200 rpm spin speed
* 480 Mbps max transfer rate
* 117 x 193 x 45 mm
* 950 g

The Hard Disk comes in a range of capacities, from 320 GB up to 1 TB, and consequently a range of prices from US$120 to US$399 for the appropriate capacity. It also talks nicely to both Macs and PCs and comes with LaCie’s ‘1-Click’ backup software which handles data recovery on both flavours too. Intriguingly the unit has no fan utilising plate holes on the underside of the box to allow natural airflow to cool itself down.

All in all, I can’t actually see anything wrong with the LaCie Hard Disk unless you prefer garishly coloured bits of kit adorning your desk. The price seems good, the specs stack up, so if you’re up for a bit more storage capacity then you can’t go wrong with one of these puppies.

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With Buffalo just recently unleashing their MiniStation Turbo on the world, Western Digital have entered the 320 GB portable HDD game with their very own version, an addition to the Passport range. Probably the most obvious difference between the two units is the price tag with the WD version setting you back only US$230 - an awesome price for an external drive of this capacity. Anyway here are the rest of the details for you to drool over

* USB 2.0 connectivity
* 480 Mbps transfer rate
* 15 x 130 x 80 mm
* 105 g

WD have used their Scorpio drive for this puppy which spins around at 5,400 rpm, has a transfer rate of 3 GB/s, 8 MB buffer and a 12 ms access time. Other goodies included with the drive are WD Sync which not only syncs up your files but encrypts them as well, and Google software to help you track down your files. It also talks nicely to Macs as well.

This certainly looks like yet another winner from the boys over at WD.

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Beating the usual suspects out of the gate, Buffalo will launch their very own 320 GB portable hard drive, the MiniStation Turbo USB HD-PS320U2, in December. Not only will the new unit sport oodles of disk space but will spin around at 5,400 rpm which according to the Buffalo spiel about their other portable 5,400 rpm drives means they are up to 64% faster than their oh so slow 4,200 rpm siblings.

The unit also features 256 bit encryption provided by Buffalo’s Secure Lock Ware plus Memeo’s AutoBackup software. Connectivity is provided by a USB 2.0 interface, which sucks power for the unit from the attached PC rather than requiring a hefty separate power supply. The drive is encased in a ‘Shock Resistant Chassis’ although I’d like to see how it performs in my sledge-hammer testing rig :)

It talks nicely with kit running W2K, XP, Vista and Mac OS X. But what about the moola? The MiniStation Turbo has a surprisingly nice price tag of US$319 hanging around its neck. Overall I think Buffalo have come out with a little beauty for anyone looking for a ton of portable storage space.

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Handy with a screwdriver and need some more hard drive space on your laptop? Well, the latest 2.5 inch 250 GB notebook storage kits from Toshiba may be just the answer for you. They’ve just unleashed a series of five hard drives ranging in capacity from 80 GB through to 250 GB that the untrained user can upgrade their laptop or suitable external storage device with. These suckers also talk nicely to Macs as well; here are a few more bits and pieces about them

* SATA Interface
* 0.37 x 2.75 x 3.94 inches
* 3.5 oz
* 8 MB buffer
* 5,400 rpm (4,200 for the 200 GB model)
* Windows, OS X and Linux will all talk to these babies

The price for the 250 GB model is US$190 dropping down to $80 for the 80 GB which seems a steal to be able to ramp up your laptop.

Toshiba have incorporated these drives into a new range of external drives too. Rather bizarrely the 250 GB external is the same price as the standalone model at US$190. The externals have USB 2.0 connectivity and will talk with both PCs and Macs.

Source: Toshiba

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