Buffalo's DriveStation Combo4 external HDD touts four interfaces

You know what they say: you can never have enough ports, right? Apparently Buffalo Technology is nodding its head in agreement, as its DriveStation Combo4 features no fewer than four different interfaces and five total connection ports. Though it can't be connected to multiple machines simultaneously, you can hook things up one at a time with USB 2.0, eSATA, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 (x2). The drive, which comes in 320GB (HD-HS320Q), 500GB (HD-HS500Q) and 1TB (HD-HS1.0TQ) flavors, comes bundled with the PC / Mac-compatible Memeo AutoBackup software and a two-year warranty to boot. For the port lovers who just can't resist, all three are available now for £79 ($156), £93 ($184) and £161 ($319) from least capacious to most.

[xValentine @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:58AM]

FW 800 + eSATA = FTW.

And the price is not bad.

[kal326 @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:59AM]

184 is a bit high for a 500gig, even with a few extra ports. I picked up a Maxtor 500gig with USB2 and Firewire400 for 129 and it had a 5yr warranty. Granted its got half the ports, but more then twice the warranty and around a third of the price. The Buffalo maybe worth it if it was a gigabit NAS as well.

[majortom @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:31PM]

I have to smile at this statement. The first "storage"/ memory enhancement I bought was a board that fit in the socket where the 8088 processor sat. 256K. Cost $210 dollars in 1985 or so. Of all the advancements that have happened in the last 20 years, the most impressive, to me, has been the increasing size of disk storage.

[looseinthedeuce @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:08PM]

I don't get these over-priced HDs. Currently, the ratio is about $1/5GB for a drive on sale. That goes for Seagate and WD internal AND external drives.

[Ray @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:18PM]

You see those price is being listed in Pound Sterling
So the price shown in dollars in the bracket sounds high.

I believe when it hit States side, the price will be more reasonable.

[kakapo @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:12PM]

My concern with these little units is not the number of ports nor the price points. They are OK.
My concern is ventilation and heat build up... I feel one of the main causes of HD failure. To rely upon radiation as the primary method of heat dissipation is fairly antiquated. I have a DROBO (actually two of them) populated with four 1 TB drives (total 8 TBs) and they crank out the heat. I have SMT Dual 3.5 HDD External enclosures up the wazoo (a technical term for heaps of HDs) ;) and I have learned a wee bit about heat and HDs.

YOU need air flow. If I were to buy these, I would go to my local Electronics Store (JayCar here in Oz) and pick up some heat sinks and use them for the base and also on top of these things.

The reason I mention the DROBO and SMT is that they are both ventilated and have fans that kick in when there is any heat build up.

My 2 cents...

Cheers, Mates!

[aardvark sandwich @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:29PM]

I use one of these on a lacie for a heatsink. lol

http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wahps.html

[Dude @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:14PM]

Finally a solution for MacBook Air users.

[kal326 @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:19PM]

I totally agree, that thing does look like its built pretty well...more then adequate to bash the hell out of an MBA and give the user a reason to go out and buy a functionally notebook

[Tim @ Apr 4th 2008 1:53PM]

I know this is a little off topic, but every time i hear or read a complaint about the number of ports on the MBA I cringe a little.

I agree that a laptop with only one usb port is foolish, and I am not an apple fan by any means, but you have to applaud them for their choice of ports on the MBA. Only one usb port and no optical drive was a genius move on their part.

They tout the iPhone as the only device you need. It is your cell phone, digital camera, portable dvd player, portable mp3 player, video game player, and PDA w/ email all in one device.

APPLE DOES NOT WANT YOU TO NEED MORE THAN ONE USB PORT, BECAUSE THEY DO NOT WANT YOU TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE DEVICE TO CONNECT TO IT.

They might as well have called that lone usb port an "iPhone connection port".

As for the optical drive, they want you to get your music and movies from iTunes, duh. That is no secret. The software side merits an optical drive for some, so they allow one to be connected, but I would not be at all surprised to see iTunes selling software for macs (not only ipod devices, but computers) in the future. Downloading call of duty for mac, or word suite for mac, or whatever software you want will be possible via iTunes soon, I am sure of it.

The bottom line is the MBA is the perfect fit for apple's business model, and apple is the ONLY company that could offer a laptop with only one usb port and no optical drive and get away with it.

You can argue the practicality all day, but for Apple's business model, it was brilliant.

ok, i'm done now.

[muddyh2o @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:24PM]

any reason why this wouldn't work with a directv hd21?

[kakapo @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:38PM]

Arddy... I bet it looks "cool" hanging your cables off that and suspending the lacie in the air... funny, you are funny today!

[Azayzel @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:59PM]

Sounds pretty slick to me too, but I also agree with the issue of over-heating and passively-cooled devices; i.e., they suck and are dnagerous to your data. One other issue is that you'd need to get a FW800-to-FW400 converter to be able to daisy-chain more devices, or maybe you could use a FW800 cable to connect more than one device... not sure as I haven't tried this yet.

Price points aren't too bad (Drobo is way more expensive), but I'd still balk at due to cooling issues.

[DeadPixel @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:01PM]

sexy

[Bytenik @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:43PM]

If you can only connect one computer at a time, then why does it need two Firewire 800 ports?

[DeadPixel @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:22PM]

does anyone really use firewire that much?

[Bytenik @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:28PM]

Mac users moreso than PC users. Especially those doing digital music production. There are lots of Firewire interfaces for transferring digital audio cleanly out of your computer and running it through high quality Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs).

Also, it is used a lot in digital video transfer, but again, much more commonly on Macs than PCs.

[Miikun @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:37PM]

Mainly so you can daisy chain the drives, not to plug into two computers. You daisy chain firewire devices so you don't have to buy those pesky hubs like with USB.

[pdorg @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:23PM]

It's because Firewire can be chained, so on would go to the computer, the next to an other FW device.

[Bytenik @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:46PM]

Google says you are wrong. High heat is not responsible for increased hard drive failure.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129420/article.html

[kakapo @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:58PM]

Bytenik (like the name) You are kind right... it depends upon what you call "high heat'. As the article points out - over 104 F can cause problems. I have a digital thermal reader and my drives get way above that. I might also point out the reason why I know as much as I do about thermal management is that it is my field of study and profession. I have developed new cooling technologies that actually work on "coolth" transfer with a coefficient of performance of 80%. In the final commercial prototype stage now. Hopefully, there will be enough money in the market to go to manufacture. Being an inventor sounds grand but it is a daily knuckle biting experience. Anyhoo... Heat at any level can cause problems - no matter what the magazine pundits and engineers say. I have spent almost 30 years of my life researching and developing thermal systems.

By the way - in the long run a DROBO is not more expensive since you can start with smaller capacity drives and switch out to larger drives as they magically appear from the HD Fairies! And they are EXCELLENT Time Machine workhorses!

Thanks, Mates...

[Bytenik @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:11PM]

Hi kakapo,

Sounds like interesting work. When I saw your comment it immediately reminded me of that article I read recently.

I agree, it depends on how high you mean when you say "high heat". I know personally I feel the same as you about heat, which is why I was surprised by the Google findings.

Whenever my old Acer Ferrari laptop got too hot I started to freak out. It was right over top of the hard drive area. I went through 3 hard drives in 2 years with that thing. For me there seemed to be a direct correlation between the heat and failures.

[Mr. B @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:47PM]

The case is a rebranded Rosewill RX81-MP-SC, nice choice really. I just bought one.

Two firewire ports are present because you can daisy-chain multiple drives.

[Ken @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:05PM]

Hi Mr. B,

I'm not really a Firewire guy so I don't know much about it.

So you can daisy chain Firewire 800 devices, but not Firewire 400 devices?

[Mr. B @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:25PM]

I think both 400/800 do it, but there wouldn't be room on the PCB for 4 firewire ports

[tundraboy @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:47PM]

The cooling fan on my Buffalo Linkstation went kaput 13 months after I bought the thing. Buffalo Tech does not have a replacement part to give or sell to me. They can't even point me to a suitable replacement manufacturer. So the $250 (when I bought it) piece of junk became useless because of a broken $5 part. As long as Buffalo Tech has no remedy for me I will always post on every Buffalo Tech product review that BUFFALO TECH DOES NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCT.

[Dave @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:02PM]

I have just purchased the Fantom GF500Q 500GB which has a similar design and quad-interface. This thing is fanless and the aluminum casing acts like a heat sink. It is super quiet and doesn't warm up too much.

Nothing new here that I can see.

[N @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:31PM]

no SCSI, no deal.

[conor @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:47PM]

Is that s-video?

[kiyoshi @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:23PM]

yes, with HDMI support in the future.... :/

[Mr. B @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:23PM]

...save money making power supplies by using existing connectors.

[xman @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:57PM]

give me ethernet and wifi access too............ besides i don't need 2 firewire 800 slots.

[Ken @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:19PM]

Yeah more fw800!

I hate the fact that most drives I find are USB 2 and even less have fw400. Once you use fw800 you'll NEVER go back to the *painfully* slow USB2.

I'm a photog that shoots RAW.

To answer above comments yes fw400 and fw800 can be daisy chained together. Wikipedia it for more info/limits/etc.

[GaelW @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:22PM]

Not a new product : I bought the same HD 6 month ago here : http://www.macway.com/fr/product/5352/aluice-320-go-extreme-quattro-esata-firewire-400800-et-usb-20.html ;)

[Faramir @ Apr 3rd 2008 8:37PM]

It's looking good. Love it. Slick.

Fara - http://www.pickmeuptoday.com

[Dick Davies @ Apr 4th 2008 2:49AM]

2 year warranty on a drive sounds pretty crappy, I don't much care how many ports it has.

[Ivan @ Apr 4th 2008 5:20AM]

Looks pretty much like the Macpower Pleiades 800+
http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/hdd3/pleiades/pd_800plus

[palehorse @ Apr 4th 2008 12:32PM]

Any massive storage I invest in will need to have DLNA and network accessibility... but it's sure nice to see the storage prices continuing to head south!!

[pairorat @ Apr 4th 2008 12:59PM]

Wiebetech has been producing quad interface enclosures for a bit now, but this price point is a quite a bit nicer. ^^

[Greg M @ Apr 5th 2008 12:40AM]

The enclosure alone is available at pcalchemy.com for $69.95:

http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/pName/macpower-pleiades-super-scombo-sata-hdd-enclosure-esata-usb20-firewire

[Wwhat @ Apr 5th 2008 7:24AM]

Personally I find a certain sadness in the tech industry trying so desperately to extend the life of fundamentally flawed and outdated products like rotating platter storage and LCD monitors.