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Mini Hard Drive Mini Roundup - Page 3 of 5
Posted: March 03, 2005
Author: Bill Lepse
Manufacturer: Transcend and Kanguru
Source: Transcend USA and Kanguru
Comment or Question: Post Here

ME-910 Enclosure:

I picked this drive up several years ago; it currently has a 2.5” Fujitsu 20GB 4200rpm laptop hard drive installed. This particular model (ME-910U2F) has both USB 2.0 and Firewire capabilities. The original packaging included the enclosure, travel pouch, USB cable, Firewire cable, PS2 power adaptor, CD, and manual. The enclosure is 135mm long by 80 mm wide and 24mm high weighing 270g with the HDD installed. This unit has been proven durable over the last few years.

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Testing Criteria:

Since these are supposed to be portable hard drives, I thought they should be rated on the following criteria: portability, durability, price, and of course performance. The three drives will receive a rating for each criteria, as well as an overall rating, each based on a five star scale.

Portability:

StoreJet: This unit is by far the smallest and lightest, which makes it the easiest to take along where ever you go. The drive, case and cable weigh only 190g! It also includes software that helps you transfer your "My Documents" folder, IE Favorites, Address Book, etc from computer to computer. Sure you could do this yourself but the included software does make it a bit easier. The travel pouch they include allows you to connect the drive without removing it and it also allows you to see the blue LED indicating connection status/file transfer. The only short fall I see is the pouch doesn’t hold the USB cable. Normally this would be a non-issue, but this USB cable is not your more common A-B device cable, it is an A to Mini B which is gaining popularity with digital cameras. Other than that, this drive connected to USB 2.0 and 1.1 computers with no problems what so ever.

Quicksilver: This drive, case and cable weighed in at 298g, not the lightest but still respectable. It doesn’t fit in your pocket quite as nicely as the StoreJet, which means you’re less likely to bring it with you. The supplied case does not allow you to connect the drive while closed and once again does not provide a place for the USB cable. This cable is even more specialized than the one supplied with the StoreJet. It includes a USB pass thru so the drive could steal power from another USB port if needed. While this was not needed on any of the test machines, it may be needed on some older laptops.

ME-910: This was the largest and heaviest in the test, weighing 350g for the complete setup. This drive is really only portable in the sense it can be removed easily, it really isn’t all that convenient to carry. On the plus side it does use a standard A-B device cable, has firewire capability, and includes a PS2 adaptor to supply power if needed. In some tests this was required.

While the ME-910 has the clear connectivity advantage I know from experience that this unit rarely comes in handy. I never have it with me when I need it because it simply takes up too much room, besides most any computer that has firewire will also have USB 2.0. The Kanguru Quicksilver is considerably smaller but it still can’t compare to the Transcend StoreJet. Despite the fact that the Storejet uses a less common cable, the nod has to go to it just for its size alone. It is small enough that I would consider carrying it with me daily.

Portability Rating:

StoreJet:
Quicksilver:
ME-910:

Durability:

StoreJet: The StoreJet is rated to handle 250Gs while operating and 1000Gs when not, and the MTBF (mean time before failure) is 300k hours. The case is well made and seems to be fairly sturdy, but it is made of plastic. Most likely if any of these devices were to fail it would be the hard drive. With that said, the Transcend drive would not be easy to fix since 1.8” HDD are not as readily available as a standard laptop drive. Given time this may not be an issue, but currently 2.5" drives are far more common.

Quicksilver: The Quicksilver is rated to handle 250Gs and the reliability is rated at 750k hours. This case seems to be extremely tough, with a fair amount of the case being aluminum. This unit is also using a standard Hitachi 2.5” laptop hard drive, so future upgrades or replacements should be easy.

ME-910: As I mentioned, I have had this drive for a while now and have never had a problem, it has been dropped a few times and it still functions fine. Overall the drive is rated for 200Gs during operation, 900Gs when not and MTBF of >300K hours.

Based on the specs alone these drives are pretty much even, but one has to consider hard drive replacement and/or upgrade. In this case the 2.5” drives offer a much wider range of products available (capacities, speeds and buffer sizes) and they should be cheaper since they are more widely used. Here we have a tie between the Quicksilver and ME-910.

Durability Rating:

StoreJet:
Quicksilver:
ME-910:

Price:

Be prepared to pay a little extra for mass storage that comes in such convenient little packages. The StoreJet and Quicksilver drives can be had for about the same price, with the StoreJet available at Newegg for $135, and directly from Transcend USA for $132. The QuickSilver is available directly from Kanguru for $130.

Most of us are used to paying less than 50¢/GB for a desktop HDD, so paying over $6/GB doesn’t really seem like a good deal. But in reality, the prices of laptop hard drives is much more than desktop hard drives with similar features, and the 1.8" drive in the StoreJet is even more expensive, if purchased on its own. When compared apples to apples with other portable hard drives these prices aren’t that bad. Or, considering the other option... flash drives. Currently, flash drives are selling for about $50/GB and can’t offer the capacity of these portables.

As a point of reference, the ME-910 currently lists for around $50 and 20GB HDD can be had for another $60, giving a slight advantage to the do-it-yourself individual.

Price Rating:

StoreJet:
Quicksilver:
ME-910:

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