The name Verbatim brings back warm fuzzy memories of 5.25”
floppy diskettes running on Commodores and Ataris during my youth. I may be dating myself but Verbatim disks
were always the ones I used when I KNEW my data was going to stay safe. Now twenty plus years later Verbatim
continues to produce quality storage products although not the now extinct
5.25” floppy.
For today’s review we will look at an external drive
targeted at the Mac market the Store ‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB 3.0 for Mac portable hard drive. This
portable 2.5 hard drive uses some of the fastest drive interfaces available in Firewire
800 and USB 3.0.
While Firewire 800 has been around for quite
some time USB 3.0 is a new player in the market that is starting to become more
prominent in the PC market. Unfortunately Apple has not embrace USB 3.0 but chose to market
Thunderbolt as their fast data connector. This makes the choice of USB 3.0 for a Mac marketed external drive seem
a little peculiar. USB 3.0 add on cards
can be used with MacBook Pros via Express Card slots and MacPros using PCI-e
cards; yet this seems like a niche market at best.
Additionally, the Store ‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB
3.0 for Mac comes formatted in the HFS+ format which is not read by Windows
machines. Of course the drive can be
formatted to FAT32 or NTFS for use with Windows. FAT32 loses larger file size support while
NTFS require additional software installation on the Mac for write
functionality.
Store
‘n’ Go FireWire 800 / USB 3.0 for Mac
Reviewed by: Tomas Ratas
Sponsor: Verbatim
Tech Specs,Features or the
Basic Info:
Store
‘n’ Go FireWire 800 / USB 3.0 for Mac
Fast and portable external storage for the Mac, delivered! The Store ‘n’
Go SuperSpeed USB 3.0/FW800 Portable Hard Drive provides a fast, safe, and
portable solution for Mac users to save and back-up their most important data.
This HFS+ drive is formatted specifically for compatibility with Mac operating
systems; and possess two interfaces—Firewire 800 and SuperSpeed USB 3.0 for
dazzling transfer speeds with a super-cool look. The drive’s USB 3.0 connection
offers expanded functionality, as it is backwardly compatible with USB 2.0
ports. Also included are Verbatim’s Green Button energy-saving software
and Formatter hard drive formatting software.
- SuperSpeed
USB 3.0 delivers transfer speeds up to 10x faster than USB 2.0 - FW800
provides the fastest FireWire connection available - Backwardly-compatible
with USB 2.0 ports - Includes
Verbatim’s Green Button energy-saving software - Green
Button offers 3 sleep/suspend settings, saving power when the drive is not
in use - Features
Verbatim’s Formatter software, allowing users to easily format the drive
to either FAT32 or HFS+, based on their own requirements. - Includes
2-year limited warranty - Time
Machine Ready
Price: $142.00 (from Amazon at time of review)
{mospagebreak title=A Better Look at things}
A Better Look at Things
:
The Store ‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB 3.0 for Mac
arrives in a clear hard plastic clamshell enclosure with the drive visualized
within. On the back is a list of drive
features, specs and package contents listed in numerous languages.
Opening the package reveals the drive, USB 3.0
cable, Firewire 800 cable, USB to AC power connector and quick start
guide. It is currently available in 500
GB and should be coming out in a 1 TB model in the near future.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Store
‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB 3.0 is its size. This drive is fatter than most external 2.5” versions; here is the
Verbatim drive side by side with a Seagate Free Agent GO and Kingston HyperMax
3.0 drives for comparison. The increased
size seems to be related to the size of the Firewire 800 connection.
Appearance wise the Store ‘n’ Go FireWire
800/USB 3.0 for Mac has a sleek piano finish top which looks
terrific but will quickly be marred by finger oils and prints. The person who creates fingerprint resistant
piano black finishes will become quite rich especially from the tech industry
where piano black is the “new black”. The
top of the drive is a smooth black with the Verbatim logo in towards the
front.
The rest of the drive is a matte black plastic
with the connectors found at the rear section. Here we find the Firewire 800, USB 3.0 and 5.0 V connectors. Underneath the Store ‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB
3.0 for Mac are four rubber feet to keep the drive from sliding around and the
product serial/model number label.
The included cables are thick and well made, as
good data cables should be constructed.
Verbatim provides a quick start guide for using
the drive for the first time. A detailed
PDF user manual can be found in the Mac folder or when running the Start Mac
program. From within this program the
user can access programs, manuals and support for the Store ‘n’ Go drive.
Verbatim includes formatting software allowing
the user to format the drive to either FAT32 which can be used across OS
platforms and the OS X specific HFS+ format.
For those who are concerned about the drive’s
lifespan or are energy conscious Verbatim includes something called – Green
Button software that is an energy saver for the drive. This software offers three sleep/suspend
settings.
{mospagebreak title=Installation, Testing and
Comparison}
Installation, Testing and
Comparison:
Since there no native Mac machines using USB
3.0 the options for taking advantage of this new interface involves adding a
PCI-E card to a Mac Pro or using an Express Card USB 3.0 adapter on a MacBook
Pro. Owners of iMacs and MacBooks will
be left out of the USB 3.0 world. The
other option is running a Hackintosh machine, which can incorporate one or both
USB 3.0 and Firewire 800 standards.
Currently the max theoretical speed for Firewire
800 is 800 Mbps while USB 3.0 is supposed to max at 4.8 Gbps, however that
number is theoretical such as the 480 Mbps of USB 2.0, which in the real world maxes
out at around 320 Mbps. From past
experience with USB 3.0 devices I’ve seen speeds in the 60-100 Mbps range.
For testing the Store ‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB
3.0 was run on a MacBook Pro 17” 2008 model using Firewire 800 and USB 2.0
while a Core i7 2600K Hackintosh using an Asus P8P67 Pro motherboard was the
USB 3.0 test platform. The benchmarking
programs used were XBench and AJA System Test.
Here are the numbers for XBench which tests 4K
and 256 K for read/write benches.
First up are the Read speeds.
Here are the Write speeds.
Next we looked at AJA Bench at 128MB, 2 GB and
8 GB for Read and Write speeds.
Finally we tested transfer speeds of a 1.4 GB
file off the Verbatim drive using the AJA Bench.
Overall the USB 3.0 comes out on top in terms
of numbers although the Firewire 800 is no slouch either.
In the past I have reviewed other USB 3.0 drives
including the Seagate Black Armor portable drive. Running that on a Windows USB 3.0 PCI-e
connection I was able to get speeds in the 90-100 Mbps range. Since there are no native Apple designed USB
drivers it would lead me to believe that the USB 3.0 interface is not optimized
for true SuperSpeed USB 3.0 transfer speed.
Summary and Comments
The Store ‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB 3.0 is great
option for those who want fast transfer using the Apple machines. The one caveat is that those Macs need to
have either Firewire 800 ports built in as found on the MacBook Pro, iMac or
Mac Pro or via an add on card to provide USB 3.0 capability via a PCI-e or
Express Card. Of course the drive can be
used via the USB 2.0 connection found on all Macs, so you will always have
access to your data.
Speed wise, the USB 3.0 and Firewire 800
connections provided similar speedy performance with the USB 3.0 coming out
ahead in write speeds. Hopefully Apple
will soon provide native USB 3.0 within OS X as the standard is becoming more
prevalent with each passing day.
In terms of appearance the Store ‘n’
Go FireWire 800/USB 3.0 is a beauty matching the Apple aesthetic with its
glossy piano black finish. Although it
is a fingerprint magnet so keep a cleaning cloth handy. The drive itself is solidly built with a
thick plastic case to keep the drive safe and comes with well-made cables as
well.
Overall I came away impressed with the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB 3.0. The question is do I keep it
formatted in NFS+ for large file transfers or format it to FAT32 for Windows
access and speed gains? Decisions,
decisions……
DragonSteelMods gives the Store
‘n’ Go FireWire 800/USB 3.0 a 5 out of 5 score.
Pros:
+Fast
+Two types of speedy interfaces
+USB 2.0 backwards compatibility
+Stylish appearance
+Works with Windows and Mac if formatted to
FAT32
Cons:
-Thicker than most portable hard drives
-FAT32 does not support large file sizes
-USB 3.0 not prevalent on Macs currently
Review# 704
Disclosure: This product was given to DragonSteelMods for review
by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for the review; we do not, never have, and never
will, accept
payment from companies to
review their products.
To learn more about our review policy, testing methods
and ratings please see this page.