Freecom announces world's first USB 3.0 hard drive, the XS 3.0
By Paul Miller 
posted Sep 25th 2009 5:20PM
posted Sep 25th 2009 5:20PM
[Via PCLaunches]
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
you mean, the world's ugliest drive?
At that price, it can be as ugly as it wants. I'll take a 1 TB USB HD for under $200 anyday.
AND it's USB 3.0?
Sold.
Well I won't be showing it off to people so what difference does it make.
Welcome to USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed) territory, where you are bottlenecked by the disk. The SATA II/III disk inside that box will never come close to the speeds offered by the USB 3.0 bus. End of story.
@Dolphz -
Sams Club has the 1TB Mybooks for 100 or so.
Western Digital Passport 1 TB 2.5 Slim Hard Drive USB3 100MB/S~ on the go no need for power plug = DAY 1
Yeah, as I was informed lower down the comments section, I apparently have no clue about harddrive prices lately ;) I retract my previous excitement ;)
@ Slappy
Two things; 1 SATA 3 is 25% faster than USB 3, (6Gbps vs. 4.8Gbps), and 2, the 130MBps that SATA 2 offers is better than the 40Mbps that USB 2 offers. End of story.
Jon, you seem to be under the foolish impression that a single mechanical SATA drive can come close to saturation on a SATA III interface. Let me state this clearly: as of this time there is NO mechanical SATA disk capable of doing this. In fact they have serious trouble saturating the SATA I interface speed at 1.5Gbps. Interface transfer speeds of 6Gbps means very little when it comes to sustained transfer speeds and the inability to get up to said transfer speed. The speed at which the drive itself can physically push and pull data from the platters is the bottleneck. At this time, SATA III is mostly marketing hype when it comes to mechanical disks.
When it comes to multichannel SSD, then we will talk about making some real improvements in speeding data on/off the storage medium.
Meanwhile, educate yourself a little here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA
Thank you, what with me being exceedingly stupid, I didn't have any of that information. *rolls eyes*
My point was, contrary to your post, the right SATA 6Gbps disk will have no trouble making USB 3 the bottleneck again.
Is that disk available now?
No, though I expect USB 3 to be around a while, and never is a long time.
Might I suggest some light reading of your own? http://sc.tri-bit.com/John_Gabriel's_Greater_Internet_Fuckwad_Theory
@jon. Love that link. so true.
WARNING...High speed USB device plugged into non-high speed USB port. Click here for help [x]
i was thinking the same thing
Warning...SUPER high-speed USB device plugged into a pitifully low-speed USB port. Stop living in the future... time traveler. Click here to go back to your inferior devices [x]
Since this isn't coming out until the end of November, the first USB 3.0 Express Cards are coming out at the end of November, and the USB 3.0 cables are already available, I don't see what the problem is.
Still, only 130 MB/s WITH 3.0 interface? Do we live in caves?
@Dante of the Inferno
Oh I'm sorry, 130MB/sec from a mechanical hard disk not enough for you? Perhaps you should get in touch with the various disk vendors and complain that they can't make a disk fast enough to meet your needs (please remember to include the *WITH 3.0 interface* quote, I'm sure they will especially love this bit)
Now all we need is the worlds first PC/Mac with a 3.0 Port.
Or router or nas.
I know it backwards compatible before you say.
y buy a USB 3.0 HD if ur gonna use it with a usb 2.0 port? Screw backward compatibility (ok not really...)
Or someone to buy a USB3 card and put it in their PC.
I'll take eSata or Firewire thank you very much.
While I'd prefer Firewire normally, USB has clearly won in many applications. Thankfully USB 3 implements many of the features that made Firewire decent, so it's not a total loss.
Firewire was needed in the DV camcorder days because it could reliably keep up with the data stream while capturing tapes over Firewire. You played the tape in real time, and the computer captured it bit by bit... (hopefully) with no dropped frames.
But, now most video is recorded directly to SD cards or hard drives... so you're just transferring the finished files to your computer after you get done shooting. In the case of moving the files from the camera to the computer... faster is clearly better.
Firewire has DMA, that's why it was better at such stuff, uses much less CPU interrupts, problem is that that also makes it more risky when something goes foul and is a security risk in some circumstances.
Wwhat, firewire has DMA? I had no idea. Screw DMA and screw the RIAA.
Also where is the podcast or live feed.
now wee need a mobile phone with mini usb 3.0 so i dont have to wait minutes to transfer some pictures.
1.9 lbs!!!??? My whole notebook weighs 4lbs!
@Dolphz
Umm you know 1TB drives are like $90 (CAD)? I don't think the enclosure is worth that much.
Nope, I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip :) I've been in the market for a replacement drive, but have been sadly misinformed as to price.
Who is that chick as your avatar.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317&cm_re=caviar_green-_-22-136-317-_-Product
Here's a decent deal for you =D
Woot! You rock. About time I got rid of my sad little 120gig HD :P
It bugs the crap out of me when people start a response with "Ummm"
@ rob
since you're full of shit, you should still be ok
/smart ass comment
"World's first USB 3.0 hard drive, the XS 3.0"
XS 3.0? Excess 3.0.
In other words, "Yeah, we know it's worthless on this drive."
Better than USB 2.0 territory, where you are bottlenecked by the interface by a large margin.
(@Slappy Wag)
A bottleneck is a bottleneck is a bottleneck. If you need disk performance, go SCSI or SAS with a RAID setup. It is expensive, but has much better performance when properly configured.
Too bad this won't be useful for another year.
Freecom should bundle it with a USB3.0 PCI card so you can actually take advantage of it.
Freecom, a Mitsubishi Kagaku Media company and manufacturer of external hard drives and portable storage devices, announced Euro pricing of their ‘Hard Drive XS 3.0’ – the first external hard drive in the world to offer ‘SuperSpeed USB’ technology. Using USB 3.0, Freecom is offering transfer speeds of approximately 130 MB/s
The Hard Drive XS 3.0 will be available in Europe from mid-November in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB capacities. Prices start at 119 EUR for 1TB.
The Controller Card for desktops is 25.95 EUR and the Express Controller Card for notebooks is 29.95 EUR.
There was no mention of cable pricing...
What's the fuss?
As PCWorld noted:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128669-page,1/article.html
1. Vista is incomplete.
2. Vista is expensive
3. Vista needs new hardware.
4. Windows XP Isn't Obsolete
Unless you are a M$ fanboy, Vista won't be a compelling buy until 64-bits apps and drivers are ubiquitous & they've wrung the kinks out of the 64-bit version of Vista.
What on earth are you even talking about ?
Hey guys, I have no idea how this comment got here It was made months ago on another thread. Engadget, please fix this glitch. And for the record, I'm definitely no MAC Fanboy
hahaha. Your post made me confused, I love you.
Sweathog is a Mac user in overdrive... months too late with his slow Mac internet connection!
Yeah, on topic of USB3, I'm looking forward to USB3 for memory card reading, or if someone would make an eSATA reader right now that wasn't internal only... when you have 16gb of pictures itd be nice to not wait 15 minutes before they're all copied.. but the USB3 readers are inevitable