14 DAY TRIAL // Having already left some recent marks on the memory card market, and the flash storage market as a whole, PhotoFast seems to have decided it was time for it to unveil some auxiliary products, so it brought out, or at least previewed, the G-Monster X Drive enclosure with support for the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface standard.
Most drive enclosures unleashed so far upon the market are designed with the purpose of allowing SATA hard drives or solid state drives to communicate with a host PC via an external port, such as USB or eSATA.
Since it was launched, the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard has grown in popularity considerably, and this prompted companies to design solutions compatible with it.
This once, PhotoFast did not release some new HDD or SSD or another, but an enclosure capable of allowing a range of less common storage units to utilize the high bandwidth of the USB 3.0 connection.
The product in question is the G-Monster X Drive enclosure and supports ZIF, microSATA and 50-pin IDE hard drives or SSDs, as long as they stick to the 1.8-inch form factor.
The product measures 105.25 x 60.95 x 10 mm, weights 95 grams and has a LED light that glows green when the device is plugged into an USB 2.0 port, orange for USB 3.0 and blinks when data is being accessed.
The data transfer rate achievable is completely dependent upon the actual capabilities of the drive placed inside it, obviously, but the maximum theoretical throughput is still 4.8 Gbps (5 Gbps).
Other specifications of the enclosure include RoHS compliance and compatibility with the Mass Storage Class Bulk-Only Transport, Revision 1.0 and Serial ATA Specification Revision 2.6.
The product has, unfortunately, not yet become available, but shipments will start in September, for a price that has not yet been specified. Black and white versions will be provided.