New Buffalo USB 3.0 Portable and Desktop HDDs Detailed

Buffalo is making good on its status as purveyor of storage solutions by releasing a pair of new USB 3.0 hard disk drive families, dubbed MiniStation Extreme and DriveStation Axis Velocity.

The external hard disk drive market evolved very rapidly over the past couple of years, much like the flash drive segment did once it got started.

Things picked up even more when the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard was released, enabling speeds that, quite simply, blew its predecessor out of the water.

For those that don't know the specifics, USB (Universal Serial Bus) 3.0 has a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 5 Gbps, ten times what USB 2.0 can accomplish.

Buffalo decided the world could do with a pair of new HDD series equipped with this interface, so it obliged.

More specifically, it developed the DriveStation Axis Velocity and the MiniStation Extreme.

The former has a form factor that is not very suited for travel (it is a desktop drive), while the latter has the compactness needed to qualify as truly portable.

DriveStation Axis Velocity have capacities of 1 TB, 2 TB and 3 TB, respectively, each model priced, in that order, at $94.99, $134.99 and $179.99 (69.95 Euro, 99.41 Euro, 132.55 Euro). Furthermore, the platter speeds are 7200 RPM (rotations per minute).

Meanwhile, the MiniStation Extreme sell for $94.99 and $129.99 (69.59 Euro and 95.72) have a shock-protection system, a rubberized base, wrap-around USB cables and capacities of 500 GB and 1 TB, respectively.

All the newcomers boast 256-bit AES hardware encryption, so that whatever data they hold may always be secure against unwanted access.

Like all other Buffalo drives, the units have glossy black shells and (at least in the case of the Axis Velocity) can be placed both horizontally and vertically.

Next month (October, 2011) is when the portable and desktop drives will make their debut in stores.