http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/ Engadget Comments for Buffalo's DriveStation Combo4 external HDD touts four interfaces http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
And the price is not bad.]]>Apr 3rd 2008 11:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 11:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 1:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 12:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/So the price shown in dollars in the bracket sounds high.

I believe when it hit States side, the price will be more reasonable.
]]>Apr 3rd 2008 12:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/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!]]>Apr 3rd 2008 12:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wahps.html]]>Apr 3rd 2008 12:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 12:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 12:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
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.]]>Apr 4th 2008 1:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 12:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
]]>Apr 3rd 2008 12:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
Price points aren't too bad (Drobo is way more expensive), but I'd still balk at due to cooling issues.]]>Apr 3rd 2008 12:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 1:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 1:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 3:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
Also, it is used a lot in digital video transfer, but again, much more commonly on Macs than PCs.]]>Apr 3rd 2008 3:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 3:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 4:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129420/article.html]]>Apr 3rd 2008 1:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
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... ]]>Apr 3rd 2008 1:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
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.]]>Apr 3rd 2008 2:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
Two firewire ports are present because you can daisy-chain multiple drives.]]>Apr 3rd 2008 1:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
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?]]>Apr 3rd 2008 2:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 3:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 1:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
Nothing new here that I can see.]]>Apr 3rd 2008 2:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 2:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 2:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 3:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 3:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 4th 2008 12:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 3rd 2008 5:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
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.
]]>Apr 3rd 2008 6:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.macway.com/fr/product/5352/aluice-320-go-extreme-quattro-esata-firewire-400800-et-usb-20.html ;)]]>Apr 3rd 2008 6:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 4th 2008 2:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
Fara - http://www.pickmeuptoday.com]]>Apr 3rd 2008 8:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/hdd3/pleiades/pd_800plus]]>Apr 4th 2008 5:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/Apr 4th 2008 12:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/pName/macpower-pleiades-super-scombo-sata-hdd-enclosure-esata-usb20-firewire]]>Apr 5th 2008 12:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/buffalos-drivestation-combo4-external-hdd-touts-four-interfaces/]]>Apr 5th 2008 7:24AM