14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese company Logitec has just launched the new LHD-EG40THEU3F external HDD unit, on its official website. This is a 7200 RMP, 4 TB HDD packed inside a USB 3.0 enclosure that also comes with eSATA connectivity.
Readers should not confuse Logitec with Swiss company Logitech. The new 4 TB external HDD we’re presenting today is a Japanese product coming from Logitec. USB 3.0 is the most popular and widely-recommended high speed external data interface when computer peripherals are concerned. Sure, Intel’s Thunderbolt can be faster, but that won’t help with anything when it comes to an external HDD.
Usually, a hard disk drive can achieve sequential transfer rates of around 80 MB/s to 130 MB/s .
Back when most of the external USB drives were stuck on USB 2.0 connectivity, the performance of the integrated HDD was severely handicapped by the transfer speed possible on a USB 2.0 BUS. Speeds of 20 MB/s to 30 MB/s were the best that USB 2.0 was able to offer.
On USB 3.0 on the other hand, by having 625 MB/s maximum transfer speed at its disposal, a 7200 RPM hard disk drive can fully demonstrate its performance without saturating the transfer BUS.
Being USB 3.0 yields some other advantages, such as compatibility. Most USB 3.0 devices are also compatible with USB 2.0 controllers and even with USB 1.1 connectors.
Another plus is pricing. Adding Thunderbolt connectivity to your system will raise the cost with at least $50 or $60 USD. External devices supporting Thunderbolt are also more expensive than the ones supporting USB 3.0.
The speed advantage that Thunderbolt brings is useless here, as an external HDD can’t reach transfer rates greater than 150 MB/s, so what good would a 2500 MB/s transfer BUS do?
Having eSATA means that you can install a normal Windows operating system directly on you external drive.
Weighing 1.1 Kg (or 2.42 pounds), the external drive from Logitec comes with a 40-millimeter cooling fan, and it is priced at around 500 USD. That’s around 395 EUR for the European customers, or 39,800 JPY for our Japanese readers.
We can thank WD and Seagate for perpetrating the current fake HDD crisis and rising the price of hard disk drives so much during the last months, but also keep in mind that in Japan, all the new products are initially very highly-priced.
