Review: Buffalo DriveStation Combo TurboUSB 500GB
In the first of two articles, Don Bradbury looks at an external hard drive for desktop applications
| Product | DriveStation Combo TurboUSB 500GB |
|---|---|
| Company | Buffalo |
| Web | www.buffalo-technology.com |
| Price | £97.52 incl VAT |
| We like | Quiet, cool running; bundled backup software; choice of interfaces. |
| We don't like | No stand for use when operated vertically |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Compatability | FAT32 formatted for backwords OS compatibility |
When it comes to adding an external hard disk to a system the world is your oyster. There are lots of manufacturers, each often offering several choices. So when you've decided it's mainly for desktop or portable use, it's a matter of disk capacity, connectivity options, OS compatibility, and perhaps backup or other software that's bundled with it. So finally there's just the question of performance to consider?
Well, not quite. Manufacturers typically press into service hard disks that are manufactured by companies who specialise in that field rather than the design of the casing and interfaces. Buffalo, for example, use a Samsung Spinpoint for their 500GB DriveStation Combo.
Does that matter? It might; some drives have gained enviable reputations for ultimate reliability, quiet running, excellent performance, as well as the ability to keep the disk cool in the warmest of working environments. All to the good when critical data is involved.
So in this and the following feature articles we'll be looking at a pair of drives that you could consider suitable for any application, this first one aimed primarily at the Desktop PC user who needs capacity, and later another drive that's designed to be popped into a jacket pocket and transported across town to attach to another computer perhaps. Each, of course, can fairly easily double in these roles, but each has it's own designated end use, portable drives typically using low power consumption, 5400rpm disks, typically taking power from the computer port, but which are slower than the average 7200rpm drive typically used, as here, in desktop units where a power brick can be employed.
The Buffalo DriveStation Combo TurboUSB 500GB drive
This 7200rpm SATA drive lived up to it's reputation in all aspects. Although it did not install directly after hibernation and connecting via a USB 2.0 port, requiring a reboot on our Vista PC, thereafter it installed immediately, was very quiet, quick, and still cool after protracted use. It's of fanless design and relies on its heat absorbing chassis to ensure cool running, so that worked well.
Basically intended to operate as a vertically oriented device, the DriveStation Combo did not have a stand or feet provided to ensure stability. So you need to make sure it is positioned in a safe situation and can't be knocked over whilst operating. Having said that we had no problems with it in this regard; we just propped it against the side of the system box.
The drive was identified by Device Manager as a Samsung Spinrite HD501LJ disk, one that we have previously found to be excellent in terms of low noise and quiet running. Auto Power-on allows the drive to automatically power up or down in association with the computer, an Auto Backup facility lets you set up customised backup scheduling, and Secure Lock Ware and AES encryption ensures data security, so no complaints there.
Interfaces
The DriveStation Combo provides USB Hi-speed and Firewire 400 interfaces, though only a single port in the latter case, which may be significant if you want to chain Firewire devices. Firewire 400, although theoretically slower than USB 2.0 was, as we generally find, quicker than USB 2.0 in most applications, all down to the superior design of the interface.
On the point of performance, if you operate your computer with ensured power supply (ie from an uninterruptible Power Supply Unit) don't forget to switch on maximum performance in Device Manager. That made a huge improvement to USB 2.0 throughput. We recorded file read-write speeds typically 35% faster for a batch of music files using USB 2.0 after that move in comparison with Vista's default settings. Our video file copy was 21% faster.
The reason for this double-dealing from the Operating System is, of course, that if the system crashes or the power fails while you have a critical operation in play at the time, you may well lose or corrupt the file(s) in the process if you engage Device Manager's fast processing options. A UPS is really a must for such critical operations, among them the all-important backup process.
Buffalo also provide a TurboUSB mode for this DriveStation, requiring a the installation of a special driver. They claim this is up to 30% faster than standard Hi-speed USB 2.0, but in practise we'd be surprised if users experience anything like that in typical applications. The gains will depend on the application. This drive is equipped with all the interface power it needs from standard USB 2.0 and Firewire 400, but by all means install the Turbo software if you need to maximise your data throughput.
Main drive backup is a typical requirement of such a device as this, and here the highest speeds are not strictly necessary; reliability is the key factor. Coming with capacities between 250GB and 1TB, the bundled Memeo Autobackup software can take care of incremental automatic backups from most types of main system, and the drive is sure to be in the short list of Desktop PC users, especially at the reasonable price of 20p per gigabyte.
In conclusion
Power and activation LEDs adorn the DriveStation Combo, viewable in a small mirror in the front of the casing, and apart from that, the rather plain exterior is discrete and workmanlike. On the whole it worked well, and we have no hesitation in recommending it.
