Fleet, Petite Portable Storage From Maxtor
Tom Spring
STORAGEDigital video fans, music lovers, and photo buffs hungry for fast access to massive amounts of portable storage should check out Maxtor 1394 External Storage drives, available in two sizes: 80GB ($400) and 40GB ($280).
Each attaches to your PC or Mac via an IEEE 1394 high-speed connection, more than 33 times faster than Universal Serial Bus 1.1. While this does not match the peak rating of the latest internal IDE hard drives, it's good performance for a secondary hard drive.
A shipping version of the 80GB model provided an impressive amount of storage space. For example, I found I could squeeze in about 20,000 4-minute, 128-bit-rate MP3 files. In tests using my 128MB PIII-700 system, I discovered that transferring a single 100MB image file (8.59MB per second) went quickly. Transfer speeds were much slower (about 1.7 mbps), however, for a folder stuffed with 100MB of smaller files.
The IEEE 1394 interface lets you attach the hard disk to your PC or Mac without rebooting, making the Maxtor an excellent choice for resource sharing among multiple PCs. And this 5400-rpm drive is small--1.6 inches by 6 inches by 8.6 inches.
The catch: Few PCs currently include an IEEE 1394 port, so most users will have to install a 1394 PCI adapter card. At press time, Maxtor offered a $50 rebate on the purchase of its drive and either a $50 Maxtor 1394 PCI Adapter Card or a $99 1394 PC Card adapter for notebook computers.
Maxtor's use of slower 5400-rpm disks has allowed it to keep costs down, making this drive one of the most affordable around.
| Buying Information |
Maxtor 1394 External Storage Holds all your digital extras. You'll probably have to install an adapter to use it. Solid second hard drive at a great price. List price: 80GB $400, 40GB $280 Maxtor 800/262-9867 http://www.maxtor.com |