Buffalo MicroStation 32GB external SSD
The USB Flash drive evolves into an HDD killer
Review You can picture Team Buffalo's thinking. Solid-state drives are increasingly being used in notebooks, so why don't we put one in an external storage device? That's what it did, and the result is the MicroStation SSD.
Buffalo's MicroStation SSD: glorified - but fast - USB Flash drive
But did no one point out during the MicroStation's product development process that we already have solid-state external storage? It's called the USB Flash drive and there are millions of them out there.
Many are cheap and not particularly quick, but as Reg Hardware noted last year, there are a fair few premium, performance-oriented Flash drives you can buy. I reviewed a selection, and you can read the results here.
Just as Flash drives are perceived to be slow, they're also considered to be low-capacity offerings, but - again - there are some very capacious models on the market, ranging from 32GB up to 256GB.
Mini USB for data, power
Which leaves Buffalo's 32GB and 64GB MicroStations looking less attractive than they might when lined up against a 2GB job that set you back a couple of quid. And while the MicroStation is certainly a lot more compact than your average portable hard drive, it's still larger than any USB Flash drive and no more rugged.
COMMENTS
Stupid question?
How is this better than an SD card? Is it just that access is faster? I'm asking because my netbook (Samsung NC10) has a built in SD card slot. SD cards are really tiny and you can get a 32GB one for a similar price to this SSD. So would there be any point in getting the SSD?
Buffalo tech support fail
Given a lot of us are still waiting for a proper fix for a wake-on-LAN issue EIGHT months after the initial issue was raised I'd be wary of purchasing any Buffalo product again.
They takes your money and they leaves you waiting.
Not bad, in reality..
Being a Ubuntu Fanboi, the only thing* I'd be concerned about would be write lifetime.
My home machine's ancient, but I'd use "Spinning Rust" as the swap drive. Not for speed, but reliability. It's only 14Gigs (and only half-full!), but does what I'd do. Yep, this SDD drive's getting a reasonable bit of interest from the McCoatover household. (Face it, diff. in price is no more than a decent Friday lager&curry night out)
* These teeny-weeny connectors also worry me. Misalign once, tata. My other bits of kit at home all have little "sacrificial" USB cables. OK, cuts failure by 50%, but it's a start.
sucker....
man, what a waste of cash.
you say why use this as a backup drive? you wouldnt. nobody in their right mind would use ssd yet for this. apart from you by the looks of it.
most people would just have a 40-60gb SSD drive for their OS and apps then run a HDD for everything else. im mulling it over to see if it makes windows and a game any faster. i will still keep my 1/2 tb drive for backups and media as that will be fine.
RE: Stupid question
SD cards max out at 6 Megabytes a second. Class 4 means 4MB/s. Class 6 means 6MB/s. Compact Flash can be found faster, unfortunately it's unpopular because of the size.
