The eSATA Mercury is equipped with a Hitachi internal hard drive that spins at 7200rpm.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)I asked for it a few blogs ago and now I've got it: the first pocket-size external hard drive that features an eSATA connection, the eSATA OWC Mercury On-The-Go. eSATA is the external interface for SATA, currently the most popular interface for internal hard drives.
A while ago, OWC introduced the world's largest small external had drive and has now become the first vendor to put eSATA on a compact external hard drive. The eSATA OWC Mercury On-The-Go also supports USB 2.0 and features a 320GB internal hard drive from Hitachi that spins at 7200rpm (as opposed to the 5400rpms in most external hard drives of this physical size). It is also the largest in capacity among high-speed, compact external hard drives.
The new OWC comes with an eSATA and a USB 2.0 connection.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)The drive is bus-powered when used with the USB 2.0 connection and requires the included adapter for the eSATA connection. This is because by nature, the eSATA connection doesn't (yet) support drawing juice from the computer to feed the external drive.
The eSATA OWC Mercury costs $250. You can get a USB 2.0-only version for less, or the triple FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB2.0 version if you're willing to pay little more money.
OK, I admit it. I want options, even though, most of the time I don't have much use for them. Take pocket-size external hard drives, for example. I want them to be compact, light, pretty, bus-powered, and especially I want them to support USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800. (I would take eSATA, too, though, that wouldn't make sense until it's bus-powered capable). However, the truth is, I've used mostly just the USB 2.0 connection for personal purposes. So today, I decided to find out if FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 are worth it, as far as the throughput is concerned.
In CNET Labs, like most devices, hard drives are tested in the "real world" approach. This means the test might not show the best of what the device can do, but how well it does in a real world situation. This is the reason why, if you have read the recent reviews of pocket-size external hard drives, you will see the margin in throughput between different hard drives or different connections of one hard drive are relatively small. Our 10GB test data consists of hundreds of folders and small files (resembling the content of a typical "My Documents" folder) that create a lot of overhead for the copying process.
I tweaked this test a bit for this experiment by using single 10GB file. We have only two pocket-size drives in CNET Labs that have all three types of connections: the OWC Mercury and the G-Tech G-Drive. I put them through the test and here are the scores (in Mbps):
(Credit:
Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)
(Credit:
Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)
So from the charts, there are three interesting revelations:
First, it doesn't matter what connection you use, with the same amount of data, it's faster to transfer when the data is in the form of a (few) large single file(s) than of multiple small files. This is another reason why you should compress your data into one single file (in ZIP or RAR, or any other types of compression format) before copying it onto another storage device, besides the apparent fact that compressing shrinks the size of the data itself. Of course, this only makes sense if you don't factor in the time needed for the compressing process.
Second, USB 2.0 is much slower than Firewire 400. Judging by the score, FireFire 400 could be up to 40 percent faster than USB 2.0. This is very interesting because on the specs; USB 2.0 is slated to have the transfer rate of up to 480Mbps, while that of FireWire 400 is only 400Mbps.
And last but not least, FireWire 800 is faster than FireWire 400 but not by a big margin, just a few percentages points, in writing. In reading, however, it's actually slower by about the same margin. This is also very interesting as FireWire 800 is slated to potentially offer twice the speed of FireWire 400.
So the conclusion is: yes FireWire connections are definitely worth it when it comes to speed, however, there's not much difference between the two. This means if your computer has a FireWire port, by all means, go ahead and get a drive that can take advantage of that. However, it' s pretty easy to decide which one to pick between FireWire 400 and FireWire 800: either one is fine.
A little disclaimer: these findings are only applicable to external pocket-size bus-powered hard drives working with a Windows XP machine. Full-size external hard drives with separate power adapters might yield different performance patterns.
In the end, personally, I still want my drive to support all these three connections, though I might just continue to use just the USB 2.0. But that's just me.
More and more vendors have been joining the bandwagon of pocket-size portable external hard drives and it's interesting to see how each of them manages to make their product unique in its own right. The G-Drive mini Triple from G-Technology is one example of this.
The drive sports a very rugged, metallic look with its aluminum casing that also works as the cooling solution. Despite having metal all over, the drive is still very light, weighing only around 9 ounces. Designwise, the G-Drive is compact, however, if the Signature Mini appeals to the ladies, the G-Drive definitely screams masculine.
The G-Drive supports all USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 data connections.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)The version I have in my hands on today is the first drive I've run into that not only operates at a fast 7,200rpm (as opposed to 5,400rpm of other drives), but also backs that up with a high 200GB capacity. Whether this translates into higher throughput remains to be seen and CNET Labs will figure this out soon. The G-Drive mini Triple also comes in other sizes ranging from 160GB to 250GB. However, the high-speed version is only available in 200GB. (While the 5,400rpm 2.5-inch hard drives hit the 500GB mark a while ago, the top space for 7,200rpm version still remains at 200GB for now).
The "Triple" in its name refers to the fact that the drive features all available connection types for compact external hard drives: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800. I reviewed the OWC Mercury recently that offers the same flexibility in data connection, but the Mercury is noticeably larger than the G-drive. Like the Mercury, the G-Drive also offers bus-powered capability with any of those connections and still comes with an external power port for older computers, of which the USB/FireWire ports may not have enough juice to power the drive. Most of the time, you will not need that adapter and it's only available as an accessory that you can order from G-Technology's website.
The G-Drive mini Triple works with both Mac and PC, though it's preformatted for Mac. It is available now for $279 for the 7,200rpm version or $259 for the 5,400rpm version. You can also get smaller sizes for cheaper prices accordingly.
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