External Hard Drives

Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 3.0 1TB Portable Hard Drive Review

Without any second thoughts, we can say that the portable hard drives have become a must have gadget, just like, say, a computer. Some of the main selling factors that people look for in these portable drives are some chunky memory and, faster the transfer speeds, the better. Verbatim has no mistake in its latest range of portable drives, the “Store ‘n’ Go” USB3.0. Not only are these drives easy to be carried around, it also features the Super Speed USB3.0 in order to allow faster reading and saving of files. Read on to find out more about this portable external hard drive.

 

Design:

The Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB3.0 1TB Hard drive comes in a simple two-coloured packaging that is enveloped by a robust hull in an aluminium style and also features semi-transparent black plastics only at the sides and tops. The device is quite slim and light weight at dimensions of (H x W x D) 127 x 82 x 20 mm and weighs just 162 grams. The drive is available in six neon colours such as Caribbean Blue, Hot Pink, Violet, Sunkissed Yellow, Eucalyptus Green and Volcanic Orange.

Interface:

Almost near the rear of the side, you will find the all-important USB 3.0 interface. You will not find any additional power supply or an alternative interface. There is an appropriate USB3.0 cable provided in the package.

Capacities:

The Store n Go is also available in lower capacities of 750GB and 500GB.

The drive and cache:

Moving on to the insides of the Store ‘n’ Go, the drive employed is a Fujitsu MJA2500BH G2, which is now Toshiba, has a capacity of 1TB. It runs at 5400 RPM with 16MB cache. When delivered, the drive is formatted to FAT32. Hence, the drive can be used on both Mac OS X and Windows  Operating  System right out of the box.

 

USB 3.0 Performance:

With the latest USB3.0 standard, which is establishing itself more and more, uniting speed and power supply, let us see how it fares in terms of performance. This data medium from Fujitsu does a very convincing job by offering some good performance, considering that it is a 5400rpm hard disk. With transfer rates at a maximum of 90.2 MB per second and 70.2 MB per second on average, it is in the top bracket of its device class.

On USB2.0:

If you are not aware yet, note that the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB3.0 is backward compatible too. Speaking of which, when the drive is connected to a USB2.0 port, it managed to provide reasonable performance for systems without USB3.0.

The Power issue:

As we mentioned earlier, you will not find any power supply port on the drive as all the power is offered by the USB3.0 port itself. We would not say that there are no issues with this kind of set up, as the drive did not always start working just like that.

Package:

As far as the box contents are concerned, as we had mentioned earlier, you will find a USB 3.0 cable, software Nero Backup, Burn Essentials and Green Button software already on the external hard drive.

Warranty:

The Verbatim Store n Go Portable Hard Drive comes with two years limited warranty for parts and labour.

Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go 1TB External Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Verbatim
Model Name	Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB3.0
Model number	53032
Colours available	Caribbean Blue, Hot Pink, Violet, Sunkissed Yellow, Eucalyptus Green and Volcanic Orange
Dimensions (H x W x D)	127mm x 82mm x 20mm
Weight	185g
Form factor	Slim
Hard disk drive capacity	1TB
Other capacities available	500GB and 750GB
Buffer size	16MB
Hard disk type	Fujitsu MJA2500BH G2
Seek time	14ms
Compatible operating systems	Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 Mac OS 9.x / 10.1 or higher
Software	Nero Backup, Burn Essentials and Green Button software
Package contents	A USB 3.0 cable, Nero Backup, Burn Essentials and Green Button software
Power consumption	5 Watt
Warranty	Two years

The “My Passport” range of portable external hard drives has been the most successful of Western Digital for several years. With plenty of portable external hard drives to choose from, it is not quite easy for a new release to just stand out from the crowd. However, the Western Digital My Passport Studio seems to succeed quite admirably with a very interesting set of features that is more than just a gimmick. Nowadays, though Mac is fully equipped to make use of all the external hard drives that are available today, it is always nice to find a drive that has been designed especially for Mac. And, the My Passport Studio is exactly of that kind. So, you might be wondering now, what makes an external hard drive that extra Mac-friendly? Well, read on to find out.

Design:

Passport Like:

As the name of the drive itself indicates, the WD MyPassport Studio Portable Hard Drive has about the same footprint as with an actual passport itself, but just about thrice thicker. The drive is quite light weight at just 6.7 ounces. This drive looks somewhat like a book, just with some sleek aluminium casing instead of the cover and black plastic in place of the pages. This unit is immaculately finished in silver and white plastics. The bottom is likewise simple in design, with four rubberised feet like those found on earlier models. The only thing to see on the bottom of the My Passport Studio is a small white sticker containing the product information, such as the serial number, model number, and country of manufacture.

 

Capacity Gauge:

A very handy feature that WD has included in the drive’s design is the capacity gauge, which is just a ballpark measurement with four blocks that glows in white as you gobble up another block of space (80GB for a drive of 320GB capacity). The capacity gauge also acts as its electronic label, which is like the one found on the My Book Elite. The eInk display is similar to the screens of e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle.

If you have multiple external hard drives, you can label what each one is used for.

Features:

Capacities:

The Western Digital My Passport Studio Portable External Hard Drive is available in three capacities of 320GB, 500GB and 640GB.

Interface:

The Western Digital My Passport Studio provides both USB 2.0 and the faster FireWire 800, but the Essential models sport only the USB2.0.  The Western Digital MyPassport Studio features FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB2.0. Like most of the other portable external hard drives, this one too lacks an eSATA. The FireWire 800 makes the device as one of the very few pocket sized external hard drive with the highest possible speed. As we said with the Western Digital My Passport Essential SE, the company is making use of micro USB slots, which are supposedly more durable than the standard USB slots, however, the cables will be really maddening to swap. The company also includes a FireWire 800 to 400 adaptor with the drive and this means, you can make use of the connectivity with older Windows PCs and Macs.

System Powered:

One thing that is really very disappointing about the drive is that, it is the first portable drive that does not sport a power port. This absence makes the drive completely dependent on the power that is provided by your computer’s port. Though we did not run into any instances when the drive failed to operate, but we suspect that there might be a few systems, especially the older system with USB 1.1 ports, that simply do not have enough juice to operate the drive. While the chance of the drive not working on your system is very low, if you can, it is better that you test the drive on your system before making the purchase.

Set-up and Compatibility:

The Western Digital My Passport Studio (320GB, 500GB, 640GB) External Hard Drive comes with a great deal of ease of use. Since the drive is bus powered, all you have to do is, just plug it into a Mac and it starts working straight away. Having been preformatted to be used with the OS X, you have to reformat the drive for it to be used with Windows. The entire process is very simple and requires only a few mouse clicks on the Window’s built-in disk management utility.

Formatting:

Western Digital has not included any formatting utilities, hence, if you are looking to change between Mac file systems and Windows, you will have to do it the old school way. The good news is, all of the included software is sheltered on the drive. Hence, if you do format, you will not lose any of the tools like you would on some of the Hitachi drives.

Performance:

Turbo Technology:

We tested the Western Digital My Passport Studio with a WDC Scorpio Blue drive inside. The overall performance of the drive was quite satisfactory. The Western Digital My Passport Studio also sports the “Turbo” capability which is supposed to boost the data transfer speeds. This Turbo technology was actually introduced by Buffalo in the year 2007 to increase the data transfer speeds by 60%. Since then, many of the external hard drives offer USB Turbo technology for PC, but it is not always available on Mac. The WD Studio is actually the first drive to offer that offers all FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and Turbo USB as well. In order to make use of the Studio’s Turbo features, you will have to install WD’s drivers. These drivers are available on the drive itself. So, make sure that you do not format the drive without having a look at it first, but you can always download these drivers from the website itself.

Data Transfer Speed:

The increase in speed was proved in our tests too, as it did enhance the connectivity speed by a little. But, even with this small boost, the Studio came out only to be an average performer. In the USB2.0 interface, the drive topped the list of portable drives by scoring 150Mbps, by narrowly edging through the other 2.5” compact drives we had tested. On average, the USB connection was improved by just six percent with the Turbo drivers. But, with the FireWire 400 and 800 connectivity, the results were even less impressive. On average, the connection speed is increased only by 2 to 3 seconds when compared with the results without the Turbo drivers that are installed. The performance could have used a more significant boost with the Turbo capabilities as it was obviously not up to the mark.

The Western Digital My Passport Studio 2.5″ External drive took about 52 seconds to copy a GB file with the USB 2.0 Turbo connectivity. This speed puts the device on par with the competing drives, but its FireWire 400, which took 51 seconds and FireWire 800 which took 41 seconds, are not as impressive as with the USB 2.0.

Noise and Heat:

As far as the heat and noise is concerned, the WD MyPassport Studio managed to be very quiet and also stayed cool through its intense usage. The dive is a very cool one even on high usage.

Package:

In the package of the Western Digital MyPassport Studio, you will find the device itself, two data cables for FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, a quick setup poster and a velour string purse.

Warranty and Support:

Warranty, without any doubts, is the most valuable support that a manufacturer can offer and WD delivers. Western Digital has so much confidence on its MyPassport Studio that it backs up the device with a very generous five year warranty. This is one of the longest warranty we have seen a manufacturer offer for a portable drive.

In addition to this, you also get the company’s technical toll-free phone support is available from 8 am till 7 pm, Monday through Thursday, and from 8 am to 5 pm, Friday through Sunday. At its Web site, you will find a comprehensive set of Web-based support including downloads, product RMA, a sizable knowledge base, and an online installation guide.

Verdict:

On paper, the WD My Passport Studio has a lot going for it; being compact as well as offering three different connection types with some healthy storage and the impressive five year warranty. With the FireWire 800 capability, the My Passport Studio Portable External Hard Drive seems to be one of the most efficient drives in the current market. Add to this, the cute design, range of capacities, decent performance and the competitive cost per gigabyte, you are looking at the perfect external hard drive. Unfortunately, all the extra features do affect the price tag somewhat; with the current RRP of £141 you can expect a cost per formatted gigabyte of 64p. However, if you are not in need of the FireWire 800 port and just looking for something more colourful, you can consider the USB-only SimpleTech Signature Mini Black Cherry. However, the MyPassport Studio hits the sweet spot for most and will be a best buy.

WD My Passport Studio External Hard Drive (320/500/640GB) - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Western Digital
Model Name	Western Digital My Passport Studio
Product Code	320GB: WDBAAE3200ASL 500GB: WDBAAE5000ASL  640GB: WDBAAE6400ASL
Drive type	Portable
Enclosure Type	Aluminium
Hard Disk Interface	FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0
Dimensions (H x W x D)	0.6 x 3.1 x 5”
Weight	6.3 Oz
Colours available	White
Capacities available	320GB, 500GB and 640GB
Drive Device, Buffer Size	Variable
Hard Disk Spindle Speed	7200 rpm
Software included	WD SmartWare
Compatible systems	Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard Requires reformatting for Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
Data transfer rate	480 Mb/s
Compliant Standards	RoHS
Power Source	USB bus  and FireWire bus
Power Requirements	100 - 240 VAC
Cables included	1 x IEEE 1394 cable, 1 x USB cable
Package contents	Ultra-portable hard drive WD SmartWare software (pre-loaded) FireWire 800 cable FireWire 800 to 400 adapter USB cable Quick Install Guide
Warranty	5 years

Synology has managed to be quite successful at getting both commercial and home consumers with the aid of their quality and high performing storage options. As NAS prices are too high, people do not usually prefer them, but today, we will review one of them that has been stripped down specially for the mass market; the Synology USB Station 2. While the original version never made it to the United Kingdom, this is the first time we will be seeing this disk station. Offering connectivity to USB drives and printers and also media options, it will sure be pleasing. Read on to find out more.

Design:

The design of Synology USB Station 2 Networking External Hard Drive can be described as a tiny one sporting an appealing and inoffensive design. It is a compact white and grey plastic box, about the size of a hamburger, but a bit squarer.  Though the device is quite light weight, it feels substantial too, rather than being flimsy. The back has a reset button (which is hardly used), power connector, , a gigabit RJ45 port as the two USB 2.0 ports. And DLNA support means it will also be recognised by other home electronics devices like audio systems and Sony PS3 or Microsoft Xbox360 games consoles.

Features:

The Inside:

There is no RAID support as it is a stripped down product, as you can imagine, for a low cost marketplace. Inside, you will find an 800MHz processor with 128MB of DDR400mhz memory, which is a combination that proved to be quite swift, with the CPU never loading over 60 percent even when multitasking, which is very impressive.

Synology Assistant:

Synology recently released the latest version of their OS which is fully multi-tasking, allowing the user to switch between applications and tasks. This is not surprising, but what is surprising is, to find that the USB Station 2 also incorporated this cutting edge software package. As with most of the gadgets of Synology, the NAS systems are accessed using the Synology Assistant which can be found in the disc supplied in the package, or if you happen to loose it, you can also download it from the Synology site. In this case it is already available in the USB Station 2, which allows the device to update itself and sans any manual update for the firmware. As you can imagine, ‘admin’ without any password is the default login. To make sure that you know all the basic procedures, the software gives you a self introduction with a four list menu of the initial options in order to get you up and running. Overall, the system is painless and has a great deal of ease of use.

Disk Station Manager 3:

As soon as you stick in the device, it gets detected immediately and a list of formatting options is offered. There is no RAID, but it does offer FAT32, EXT3, NTFS and EXT4 for cross platform compatibility. Accessing the device from Windows or OSX is as simple as it can get. You also get an option to use it as a media unit; sure to please a wide range of audience. Though we were prepared to see a few compromises with this low cost external hard drive, we were actually not able to find any and this OS proved to be as fast as the previous generation high end Synology gadgets. It is supported by internet explorer, Chrome, Fire Fox and Safari. The entire interface looks more like a Linux OS and can be accessed easily via a web browser.

Plethora of features:

It is amazing that the system still offers support for jumbo frames that sports a plethora of settings, similar to the high end gadgets. Setting up of the shared folders can be done in a single step and will prove quite easy even of a novice user who has no experience with a NAS system whatsoever. All of its options have been tagged within sub categories. The audio streaming options will also prove to be quite useful to most users. It can act as a 24/7 download center without a PC as well and supports iTunes as a server, meaning you can share music and video with other users over the network.

Performance:

Now, let us move on to the all important part of performance. The raw data throughput of the device is not bad at all, considering the fact that the device is connected through the USB 2.0 interface. When it comes to the real world operations such as transferring data across network to and from Synology USB 2, the device sports a write speed of 12 Mbps, which is not too bad as far as the budget market place is concerned. While copying, the device holds steady between 10 and 13MB/s with 40% of the memory utilised and the CPU time hovering around 40 percent. Reading from the external hard drive is maintained between 19 Mbps to 24 Mbps; the speed depends on the file location and overhead. A mixture of files with a mix of file types does not affect the Synology USB 2 much, only with a very few drops in performance levels.

Noise and Power:

The issues of noise and power are always a very important one, often neglected. Since the Synology USB 2 is fanless, the noise is nothing over the ambient levels. Moving on to the power, the device uses a total of 4 Watts while the data is being transferred.

The package:

The device comes in a cute little box that has all the basic information that details a multitude of uses. Inside the box, you will find a Software CD with literature, a Cat 6 cable and a power adapter.

Warranty:

Synology USB Station 2 comes with one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

If you had read the full review, you must have realised by now that the Synology USB 2 has not been let out in the market as a high performance NAS server. This one is a budget product for home and small office environments. As such, it is very hard to find any fault with it, especially when you are aware that it is capable of streaming 1080p MKV content sans any issues. In addition to this, its USB printer sharing capability will definitely prove to be very useful in any environment. The Synology USB 2 is a silent worker and needs just 4 Watts of power. If you are not demanding the highest data transfer speeds but are in the market for a capable, low cost NAS solution with media and printer sharing capabilities then this should surely be top of your shortlist.

As a dedicated website to external hard drives, we had always stressed a lot about how important is backing up all your valuable data. Nowadays, we also spend some time in extolling the loveliness of the SuperSpeed USB3.0. The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Hard Drive looks to bridge the gap that lies between the USB3.0 and the crowd that is still loyal to USB2.0. The GoFlex Desk is not a regular external hard drive that combines a hard disk with a USB controller. It boasts to the world’s first single drive 3TB external hard disk. Seagate has also equipped the drive with other useful stuff such as automatic backup and even the ability to store your data online to increase your protection in a slim and sleek package that is available in a range of high capacities. Read further to find out if this is the one for you.

Design:

Classy:

At first glance, the GoFlex Desk is not anything fancy. It looks like your typical 3.5” external hard drive, but a classy one at that. The USB 3.0 dock plugs itself safely into its place and the entire assembly of the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk is quite compact and very tasteful. The only glitch with the design is that, you will not find any power switch, nor anywhere to connect the lock. And, since it stands upright, it is highly susceptible of being knocked over and if you try to lie it down, the cables and lights sit awkwardly at the corners. While the detachable tray, about which we will discuss later, is convenient, it is not as sturdy as we would have liked it to be.

Capacity Gauge:

When the fourth light comes on you know it is time for some housekeeping. The problem with this is, there are only four bars representing 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% full. So, if the drive is 24% full (which is roughly 245 GB of a 1TB drive), this means that none of the bars will light up, making it look like there is nothing on it. Placing more than four bars would be nice, or better yet, utilise a small screen, that actually tells you exactly how much space you have left, similar to some Western Digital’s  external drives.

Capacities and Compatibility:

The GoFlex Desk is available in three capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 3TB. Three terabytes is a lot of storage, but Seagate’s own site may put this into perspective: 750 two-hour DVD movies or nearly 50,000 hours of CD-grade music. GoFlex Desk External Drive can synchronize with the various systems including the Windows and Mac systems. It is also very compatible with USB 2.0 drive. Overall, the product is compatible in various degrees with other hardware. This is influenced by the level of configuration required for a given device.

 

Replaceable Interfaces:

The interfaces can be quickly detached and replaced with others and the range includes the real speedy ones such as the before mentioned USB 3 and eSATA. The adaptors are connected with the help of a modified version of the SATA interface that can found on the internal hard drives. However, the real estate surrounding the SATA is way too cramped to even think of fitting in any standard SATA cables. This makes it convenient to use when coupled with a GoFlex desktop adapter.

Safe and Secure:

When it comes to features, the Seagate GoFlex Desk 1TB, 2TB, 3TB External Drive offers dynamic and perpetual back up of salvaged data from a computer desktop. The drive makes it extremely simple to encrypt information through its protective software that keeps large databases private and password secure. We can safely say that this is one of best product in the market when it comes to safety and ease of use. It even keeps the saved files secure by providing it with an updated back up that automatically customises to the data codes from any source whether it is from the desk top or other external hardware.

Performance:

We have tested the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 3.5-inch External Hard Drive with both the USB Adaptor that is included in the package and also with the optional USB 3 adaptor that will cost you approximately 20 pounds. On USB, the speed of the GoFlex Desk is same as the speed that can be expected out of a USB drive with a spindle speed of 7200rpm.

Cooling and Noise:

Since the drive does not have a cooling fan, it relies on passive cooling and hence, turns out to be a very silent drive. Since it is all passive cooling, keep it in good ventilation. It was never too hot on even high usage times, but it would have been nice to have a cooling fan for some disk intensive tasks.

Package Kit:

There is the fast installment manual. Of course, a large 2TB drive like this cannot be had for pocket money, especially not with a fancy USB 3 adaptor. But even when you buy the two together you are still paying only 7.4p per gigabyte, which is not too far off the cost of a bare drive.

Warranty:

Lastly, we really appreciate that Seagate ships the GoFlex desk with a two year warranty, while many competitors only offer one year guarantees. It is not as long as the warranty for internal drives, but it is to be expected with the nature of an external drive subject to bumps and shocks.

Verdict:

The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk gives you plenty of storage space, easy upgrading to other software and fast data transfer. The removable interface adaptors makes the money well spent. Though it costs a little more than a standard disk, when combined with the USB3 adaptor, it turns out to be one of the cheapest in the market. This drive will be the choice for consumers looking for a lot of speedy external storage.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk (1TB, 2TB, 3TB) - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Seagate
Model Name	Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk
Model Numbers	1TB: STAC1000200 2TB: STAC2000200 3TB: STAC3000200
Colour/Finish	Black
Type	3.5″
Dimensions (W x D x H)	4.88″ x 1.73″ x 6.22″
Weight	1080g
Capacities Available	1TB, 2TB and 3TB
Interface	FireWire® 800 USB 2.0 USB 3.0
Cooling System	Passive
Spindle speed	7200rpm
Software	Seagate Dashboard management tool Preloaded backup software with encryption
Encryption	192-bit Triple DES
Compatible OS	PC & Mac
System Requirements	Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP (32-bit & 64-bit) operating system or Mac OS X operating system 10.4.9 or higher USB 2.0 or 3.0 port For the USB 3.0 interface: SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port (required for USB 3.0 transfer speeds or backward compatible with USB 2.0 ports at USB 2.0 transfer speeds)
Box Contents	GoFlex Desk Drive Preloaded backup software with encryption GoFlex Desk USB 2.0 or 3.0 adapter base with capacity gauge 5-foot (150 cm) USB 2.0 or 3.0 cable Quick Start Guide
Warranty	2 years

G Technology is now a piece of the Hitachi Global Storage Technology family. It manufactures industry’s some of the most inclusive series of external storage drives planned for the sake of specialized content creation needs. The company’s hard work on design, quality and technology has produced some external storage solutions that have supreme performance, style and reliability. In the following review, we will see about G Technology’s G-Drive Q, which is now shortened as just “G Drive”.

Having reviewed hundreds of external hard drives, we have found that there are actually more differences in between the different typed of EHD than what actually meets your eyes. Apart from the quite obvious capacity, data transfer speed and the physical dimensions or as we say, design types and sizes of the drive, there are other stuff like connectivity, interfaces available, cooling which is directly related to the noise and the most important design are the other things to be considered. At a first glance, the G Technology G-Drive Q External Hard Drive seems to excel in each of these fields, now let us examine how it excels when examined in detail. Before we go in detail about the review, we would like to clear one thing for you; the G drive is mainly aimed at the Mac users, even though it works just as fine next to a PC.

Design:

Smooth and Clean:

G Technology have always been known for their smooth lines and clean designs, and the G Drive is no exception. It is one of the cleanest way to add storage for your Mac, sharing its enclosure design with its predecessor, inspired by the design of the PowerMac G5. It sports a silver complete aluminium casing, and as you can imagine, it has been designed mainly to match Apple products and still seems to be a perfect complement to the latest Mac Mini, Mac Pro, and also the new series of MacBooks. But, the fact is, a complete aluminium drive will anyway look great next to any computing machine, mainly as it has the industrial favourite elements of the G-Drive Q that we had mentioned. The outer shell curves down into two ‘legs’ that runs along its length on either side, with rubber feet to dampen vibration and prevent damage.  Its look has been given a perfect finishing by the LED backlighting  segment that is white, placed right under the famous ‘G logo’ of G Tech on the fascia, which as always, flash to indicate the activity of the drive.

Aesthetics:

When it comes to the drive’s aesthetic capabilities, the only caveat that is immediately apparent is that, it is not quite versatile in its placement as the drive can be placed only horizontally. It is bigger mainly because it’s a desktop drive. This one is meant to be set down once and almost never moved ever again. That does not mean you cannot move it around a bit, but it is intended  to know its place. Along with an array of interfaces at the rear (about which we will see shortly), is a power button, which is mostly absent in the latest drives. While most of time you might want your external hard drive to be switched on, some times, you will not and anyway, you must be allowed to control the same. The power brick has an average form factor, at a length of 10.5cm, has a small green LED and takes a standard figure of eight power cable. The drive looks longer than most. As you can anticipate out of an all aluminium casing, it looks premium and the built quality is flawless, with a bit of pointed edges is the only niggle. You will be able to open the drive by just unscrewing the 6 screws, you will find that G Tech has a huge room in the fascia of the drive, and the controller board too is bigger than most in order to house the various slots and connectivity it supports.  But, note that, opening the drive will void your warranty.

Quad Interface:

You might be wondering what the “Q” stands for in its name, wonder no more, the Q stands for quad, which refers to the 4 types of data connectors on the rear of the drive. At the rear, you will find nothing fewer than a single 400, twin FireWire 800 and Mini-USB 2.0 along with a high-speed eSATA I-type port, which, as you can imagine, is the quickest among them. You cannot wish for a more versatile drive. The company boasts its drive to be the first to provide such a range of connectivity on a external hard drive, but this was way back in 2006. But, nowadays many of the high end external hard drives provide similar assortment.  Overall, this drive does cater to each and every external hard drives interface option in use right now.

Cables:

The best news yet is that, it comes with cables for each and every interface it supports; which is contrasting the Western Digital Mybook Elite which comes with only an USB cable. Ironically, it might not exactly the kind of stuff that you will anticipate to do when both your PC and EHD has support for eSata. Again, to compliment is Mac users, the two FireWire and USB cables are white, however, the eSATA and power cables are black (yes, we are being silly here).

Installation:

The G Technology G-Drive Desktop External Hard Drive comes ready to go. Installation of the drive is very simple, all you have to do is, simply attach the power supply and connect it to your system via any of the given cables. The G-Drive Q does not ask for any drivers, and it mounts automatically the desktop.

Compatibility:

It comes preformatted as HFS+ with Journaling so you can use it right away, and you also have the option of dedicating it to Time Machine use. The G Drive Q has a pretty sweet feature list as far as external drives go. The G-Drive has support for expert audio production gear such as Logic Studio, Pro Tools, Cubase, Digital Performer, Nuendo, and heaps more.

Capacities Available:

The G Technology Q Drive is available in a range of capacities such as, 500GB, 750GB, 1TB and 1.5TB. Once you are done with formatting, you will have only about 931GB of functional drive availability in the 1TB version of the hard drive. The actual drive that is used inside is Samsung’s Spinpoint F1, that in turn has support for SATA 3.0, has 32MB cache and runs at 7200rpm. The Oxford Semiconductor’s new 924 chip acts as the interface. The SpinPoint F1’s performance is generally acceptable and does not seem to be affected by any means by its chassis.

Fan-less Design:

Between the two legs, you will find the cooling down fins, which combines with the aired portions of the interior, aids the fanless chassis to dispel warmth. Regrettably, in spite of the fans being absent, the hard drive is still quite noisy, at times we can even hear it over a serene, system and environment. It also gets quite warm, however, not too hot to the touch.

Performance:

When we compare the eSATA read performance of G Drive Q with Western Digital’s Caviar 2TB on SATA, the G Drive time after time performed better, with a least of 5mbps a head. However, the Write performance seems to be less impressive as the G-Drive possesses a better minimum rate of transfer. Note that on average, Western Digital’s drive manages to outperform it by 2mbps. On the other hand, the broad-spectrum performance of the USB is quite average with an average speed of 23mbps and write performance comes in at 17.5 per second.

The mammoth cost:

If there is one thing that is going to stop you from purchasing the G Drive, it is its pricing. Of course, you might be expecting a premium cost meant for aluminium assembly and unique design, but how premium might just leave you dumb-struck, because, above £230, it is one of the priciest gadgets. To make things clearer for you, your £150 bugs is just enough for a 2TB Lacie external hard drive in the current market. This is in spite of the fact that it makes use of 2 1TB hard drives and just provides USB interface, it comes down to just £80 lesser for about two times the storage.

Alternatives:

If you are one of those few owners of the Apple MacBook , just waiting for ever for eSATA, the FireWire 800 interface is most likely the critical connectivity option as it is the next fastest interface to eSATA. However, if you are looking for ‘quad’ connectivity, Western Digital Buffalo Drivestation Combo4, Seagate Freeagent Xtreme or MyBook Studio Edition external hard drives provide USB, FireWire and eSATA at a capacity of one tera byte for approximately £140. Take out another £10 extra than the G-Drive Q’s price tag, and you might even be lucky enough to get a 2TB raid enabled and pre Mac formatted quad interface Western Digital Mybook Studio Edition II, along with peace of mind that you will be able to swap the hard drive inside.

Warranty:

The G Tech G Drive Q comes with only three years warranty, which is less favourable as many of the similarly priced hard drives come with a minimum of five years warranty. For instance, the Seagate FreeAgent Pro USB/eSATA/Firewire External Hard Drive, a 500TB hard drive comes with a 5 year warranty. However, you get unlimited free technical support by representatives experienced with the latest content creation applications.

Verdict:

If you are rich enough to afford, G-Tech aluminium enclosed G Drive Q is an external drive with best construction on the industry. However, when you will be able to purchase the major brands with similar type of storage space and interface options for about £90 less, with even two times the storage space with more options for as little as £10 extra, we do not feel that it is a great value for your hard earned money. Otherwise, it is a great way to add gigabytes to your Mac for any of the great reasons that you might have, whether that would be backing up home movies or important documents, adding more space for TV recordings, or just plain being responsible with Time Machine. The G Drive Q is a feature-full, which is worth showing off.

G Technology G-Drive External Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	G Technology
Model Name	G-Drive Q
Model Numbers	1TB: GDQ 35/1TB 1.5TB: GDQ3515TB
Colour/Finish	Aluminium
Type	Desktop drive
Dimensions (W x D x H)	9.25″ x 5.125″ x 1.82″ / 235 x 130 x 46 mm
Weight	2.6 lbs / 1.2 kg
Capacities Available	500GB, 750GB, 1TB and 1.5TB
Interface	1x 3Gbit, eSATA 2x FireWire 800 (9-pin) 1x USB2.0 (FireWire 400 via 800 to 400 cable)
Cooling System	Integrated heat sink
Hard drive type	SATA II
Spindle speed	7200
Cache	Up to 32MB
Bridge	Oxford 934 chipset
Compatible OS	Mac® OSX® 10.3.x or higher Windows® 2000/XP/Vista
Software	Drivers & Utilities
Power	Included AC adapter
Warranty	Limited warranty - 3 years