14 DAY TRIAL // Following the steady inflow of USB 3.0-enabled devices, hardware manufacturers have increased their efforts to deliver newer and faster USB 3.0 adapters or motherboards with built-in support for the new standard. Aiming to increase the range of USB 3.0 storage devices and, thus, give an extra reason for the adoption of USB 3.0 to be accelerated, Buffalo has just unveiled a pair of portable storage units compatible with the next-generation standard.
The company has launched two portable hard drives that will expand the HD-PEU3-BK series. The drives come with storage capacities of 500GB and 640GB, they each measure 81 (W) x 16 (H) x 130 (D) mm, weigh 190 grams and use a glossy, black enclosure.
They are ready to be plugged into any USB 3.0 port, but they are also backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 connectors, for an added convenience and functionality. Of course, in such situations, the maximum throughput will, naturally, be restricted because of the limits of the interface.
The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard has a theoretical maximum data-transfer capability of 5Gbps (4.8Gbps). This is the equivalent of a ten times faster performance when compared with the still-mainstream USB 2.0. Unfortunately, the technology is still in its beginning stages and it is still rather difficult to reach the upper limits of this theoretical speed.
As such, according to internal tests, Buffalo's HDDs were found to be capable of running 2.4 times faster in USB 3.0 mode than in USB 2.0. This boost is significant for large-capacity drives, even though the actual throughput does not even get close to the full potential of the technology.
The HD-PEU3-BK portable hard disk drives from Buffalo will become available for purchase in Japan sometime next month and will sport price tags of $186 for the 500GB model and of $233 for the 600GB version.