Update 03/01/26: Buffalo Americas has reached out to state that the reported adjustments to Buffalo Japan's product line will have no bearing on U.S. product stocks and commitments. "Buffalo Americas' U.S. operations remain fully committed to supplying optical drives to the American market, and our DVD/Blu-ray drive products are anticipated to remain available for the near future," said the firm's U.S. COO, in an email to Tom's Hardware.

Moreover, Buffalo Americas would like to highlight that its TAA-compliant North American optical disk writer product offerings include: the MediaStation 16x Desktop Blu-ray Writer (BRXL-16U3), MediaStation 6x Portable Blu-ray Writer (BRXL-PUS6U3B-TAA), and MediaStation 8x Portable DVD Writer (DVSM-PUV8U3B-TAA).
Original story follows.

Further signs that the Blu-ray tide is going out, never to return, come from Japanese peripherals maker Buffalo. This week, the networking, external storage, and USB hubs specialist has announced that the three Blu-ray drives that it currently markets are going to be withdrawn in July. Moreover, “there will be no successor model,” according to a report published by AV Watch (machine translation), citing a company statement.

You may be familiar with Buffalo networking, external storage, and hub-style peripherals. But, while we are pretty certain you won’t be familiar with the alphabetti spaghetti named "BRXLPT6U3E", "BRXLPTV63B", and "BRXLPTWOU3" drives. Suffice to say, they are all portable USB-attached Blu-ray drives with read/write functionality. As such, they also cover the read/write bases for folks who need an optical rewriter for DVD and CD-ROM media.

Of the three, the BRXLPTWOU3 is probably the most interesting and peculiarly Japanese, as it is headlined as being ‘Electronic Ledger Bookkeeping Act’ compliant. That is something to do with the (in)famous Japanese official form filing bureaucracy, which required floppies or optical disks to accompany filings, until recently. Thus, the product page for the BRXLPTWOU3 heralds its ‘write-proof’ anti-tampering features.

The Blu-ray tide goes out

The Buffalo announcement is another nail in the coffin for Blu-ray. Sony shipped its final Blu-ray recorders last month, again with effects focused on the domestic Japanese market. We’ve also seen Sony cease some Blu-ray media production lines. LG is another heavy hitter that has exited the market in recent months (media players).

Buffalo’s Blu-ray drives that are now on 'death row' are exactly the style of portable USB-attached devices we thought that might stick around for a few more years. They are great little accessories for anyone who still has a computer optical media collection, wants to occasionally access this archive, and has a recent PC without any optical disk drive, with no option for an internal model. That’s why we still look for USB-attached optical drive deals, like this 42% off Blu-ray writer at Newegg.

Buffalo Japan has launched a special limited edition USB hard disk to commemorate 50 years since the firm's founding. The new Buffalo HD-SKL 'skeleton hard disk' (machine translated) features a transparent panel, which is nicely visible when using the external drive's angled stand. Through the panel, owners can see the platters spinning and the read/write heads skating across the magnetic surface.

As a commemorative product, the attractions of this hardware lean heavily on its looks, rather than its functionality. Buffalo boasts of the "premium quality" machined and anodized aluminum construction of its anniversary 4TB HDD. The packaging is quite lavish for this kind of product, too.

For a real piece of executive desk toy action, users can load up some software from Buffalo called SeekWizard (Windows only). This application allows users to animate the HDD arm visible through the window in the following modes (remember this information is based on a machine translation, but these modes seem to make some sense):

• Random seek,
• Sequential seek,
• Metronome,
• Cascading,
• Second hand stepping,
• Wave,
• and Timer.

Perhaps Buffalo missed a trick by not illuminating the 'skeleton hard disk' window with some kind of lighting effects. But it is not following the latest trend of making products with RGB backlit windows showing inner workings – like the new Asus ROG Flow Z13, and the latest Alienware PCs. In fact, this product is a follow-up to one Buffalo previously launched back in 1978 – its first Skeleton HDD model.

Though they aren't entirely relevant to the appeal of this limited edition product, let's look a bit closer at the specs. We already mentioned that this is a 4TB HDD at heart. The drive sits in a nicely made angled metal bracket and the whole caboodle weighs about 1.5kg. If you want to use it as more than an inanimate ornament, you will need to plug it into your Mac or PC via its USB 3.2 (Gen 1) Micro-B interface. A 1m cable is in the box, as is an AC adapter. Remember, this drive's special SeekWizard software only works with Windows, for now.

Last January, Google launched a pilot program called Google Expeditions that supplied tablets and Google Cardboard hardware to a selection of classrooms in the U.S. and abroad, but that was just the beginning. Now that high-end VR hardware is readily available, at least one company is building educational experiences for elementary students that go beyond the capabilities of Cardboard viewers.

VictoryVR is preparing to launch the first installation of a virtual reality science curriculum. Its science education platform includes virtual field trips to bring students to the places they learn about and science experiments taught by “an elite national teacher.” VictoryVR said the platform also includes movies for students to watch in the Oculus virtual theater.

“Letting students immerse themselves in science and technology learning through virtual reality is one of the promising uses of this new technology,” said Steve Grubbs, CEO of VictoryVR. “Not only does it block out distraction, but it creates a 10x improvement over most existing forms of learning.”

VictoryVR’s first client is Buffalo Elementary School in Buffalo, Iowa. The school received a grant from the Bechtel Trust to help pay for the installation. Thanks to the deal, for the next five years, students at Buffalo Elementary will have access to three Oculus Rift headsets, computers to run the equipment, and the VictorVR School Curriculum Library.  

The school is rolling out VictoryVR’s VR education platform on Tuesday, January 17, 2017, but it's just the first to implement it. VicotoryVR plans to sell the VR curriculum to schools around the nation for the 2017-18 school year.

Whether you love it, hate it, or are indifferent to it, virtual reality is exciting technology that has great potential to change the way we live, far beyond the confines of the entertainment mediums of gaming and film.

Immersive technology applies to many aspects of our lives, such as improved productivity through telepresence communication and virtualized workspaces; medical advancements, such as paralysis therapy through virtual experiences, or brain damage detection with eye tracking; and even virtual travel, such as via Google Earth VR and Destinations.

With VR breaking into a wide variety of industries, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the education sector is starting to embrace this new technology and explore its potential to help students learn in an exciting and engaging way. We recently saw the potential for immersive VR education while taking in the Mars Odyssey VR experience, so we can attest to the exciting and engaging aspect of learning through VR experiences.

Storage news is fun but unpredictable. Some weeks go with nary an announcement, and then the following week we are overrun. This week falls into the latter category, and for some nebulous reason, all of the announcements are of the external storage variety. Let's run through them quickly.

Seagate 5TB Backup Portable Plus HDD

Seagate announced the "world's largest"-capacity mobile drive. This is a true statement for a mobile drive, but there are larger external drives available, such as Seagate's own 8TB Backup Plus. (It requires a secondary power source, so it doesn't count as mobile.) We've also had Seagate's bus-powered Innov8 8TB HDD on the test bench, and because it doesn't require a secondary power source, you could consider it a quasi-mobile device, but its internal 3.5" drive would make that a bit of a stretch for most. It also has limited connectivity options. 

The Backup Plus Portable 5TB drive features an internal 2.5" drive, so it could slip into your pocket, which neither of the aforementioned drives can pull off. The enclosure houses a 5TB BarraCuda 2.5" HDD that Seagate recently announced. Contrary to our original reporting, the 5TB BarraCuda is actually an SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive, which Seagate lists as perpendicular recording technology in the device manual.

The mention of perpendicular recording technology would lead one to surmise that it is the faster and more desirable PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording). Seagate explained that the drive technically has both perpendicular recording technology and SMR, but it neglected to add the SMR tag to the specifications or manual. In either case, it's misleading. Seagate intends to correct the manual. SMR is much slower than PMR and features severe performance penalties with random data, so this drive isn't for performance.

Random performance shouldn't matter for an external product geared for backup roles, which are sequential in nature. The drive spins at 5,400 RPM and has a low startup power consumption that allows it to serve as an external drive with a USB 2.0 connection, though the Backup Plus also supports USB 3.0.

In keeping with most external products, there are no speeds and feeds listed, but the bare drive provides up to 140MB/s of throughput. The drive comes with Seagate's Dashboard backup software, USB cable, and 200GB of OneDrive storage for two years. The OneDrive storage is a nice addition, but the 5TB Backup Plus weighs in on the expensive side with an MSRP of $189.99. Seagate originally quoted a low price of $85 for the 5TB 2.5" BarraCuda; so low in fact, that we verified the price with the company. We still can't find the bare drive at retail in the U.S., but the MSRP for the Backup Plus suggests the original price quote might be incorrect. The Backup Plus comes in a rainbow of red, blue, silver, or black color options. It is available this month worldwide with a two-year warranty.

ADATA SD700 External SSD

ADATA's SD700 is kicking external storage up a notch with its 440MB/s of sequential read/write throughput over the USB 3.1 Gen 1 connection. The SD700 uses an unspecified type of 3D TLC NAND, but we know that currently the only 3D NAND floating around at third-party SSD manufacturers is of the IMFT TLC variety. The SSD comes in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities.

The SD700 features a design that is reminiscent of the SanDisk Extreme 500 we've tested, but ADATA claimed its SD700 is 10/40 (read/write) MB/s faster. The SD700 is IP68-compliant, which means it is dustproof and waterproof according to the requirements of that specification, and it also adheres to the strenuous US Army MIL-STD-810G516.6 shock and drop resistance standard.

In other words, the brightly colored SSD takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin', which is a great example of just why SSDs are great for external storage.

The SD700 is very light at 100g and comes in either two-tone black and yellow, or all black. ADATA said it will debut at competitive price points, but we have yet to find it at retail. 

Plextor EX1 External SSD

The external SSD hits keep on coming, but the Plextor EX1 differs from some competing options because of its slim design. A few other third-party SSD vendors offer a similar form factor, and we've seen a few similar prototypes from NAND fabs, so we expect this svelte form factor to continue to gain steam.

The concept is rather simple: slap an M.2 SSD into a slim external enclosure, add an internal adapter, and off you go. The device measures 3.98 x 1.24 x 0.34 inches, which lends itself well to mobility. The SSDs I've handled fit nicely in my pocket next to my smartphone (just sayin').

The EX1 offers USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C connectivity, and Plextor claimed it offers great external speed at 550/500 MB/s of read/write throughput. The SSDs come in gold and titanium silver and include a Type-C to Type-A USB adapter cable, flannel carrying pouch, and AES-256 encryption software. The EX1 is also compatible with Android devices. The drive features the typical shock-resistance and other advantages of SSDs and comes in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB flavors. The EX1 will come to market in November with a five-year warranty (take that, external HDDs), but Plextor hasn't listed pricing at this time.

Buffalo MiniStation SSD and MiniStation Velocity SSD

Buffalo joined the external SSD party with its MiniStation SSD and MiniStation Velocity SSDs, which weigh in at a mere 30g. Buffalo claimed the vanilla USB 3.1 Gen 1 MiniStation SSD provides 420/370 MB/s of sequential read/write throughput, and it comes in 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB capacities. The drive supports software encryption and comes with a USB 3.0 cable. The 120GB drive is available for $92 USD, but no other prices were provided.

The faster USB 3.1 Gen 2 Velocity model boosts up to 500/480 MB/s, but it comes in only 240GB and 480GB capacities. It includes both USB Type A and Type C cables. The Velocity series starts at $160 for the 240GB model, but Buffalo does not list the 480GB's price.

Texas-based Buffalo Americas has launched a new ruggedized, external hard drive that packs Military Standard shock protection, water resistance and dust resistance. Called the MiniStation Extreme NFC, this storage solution also includes NFC connectivity for unlocking and accessing files with just a tap. The drive is offered in 1 TB ($129.99) and 2 TB ($199.99) capacities.

The new MiniStation Extreme NFC drive includes a smart card, allowing the user to tap the drive with the card to unlock its contents. There's no Wi-Fi involved, so owners will be required to use the built-in wrap-around USB 3.0 cable to grab what they need off the device. Using NFC means customers won't be required to memorize a password, but that also means customers could easily lose the card. What then?

The company provided an example of how NFC could be used, stating that customers could load up the drive with sensitive information and ship the drive using FedEX or UPS. The receiving party won't be able to access the data until the smart card arrives in the mail the next day. This would be good for health facilities, lawyers, local officials and more.

"We designed the MiniStation Extreme NFC to be the most complete rugged portable drive on the market, including features that not only protect against the elements, but also support the latest hardware encryption technology and NFC secure access functionality," said Matt Dargis, COO, Buffalo Americas, Inc.

The drive is meant to handle harsh environments by utilizing a rugged chassis and special internal bumpers that will absorb the shock and transfer it away from the delicate components inside if the device is dropped. Buffalo said that the MiniStation Extreme NFC can withstand falls up to 1.2 meters, and it also adheres to the IPX3 standard (water) and the IPX5 standard (dust).

Finally, the new rugged drive provides automatic 256-bit AES Full Data Encryption, protecting the files from unauthorized eyes. That means if the drive is lost, the data will be unobtainable unless it's accessed by the original owner. Presumably, if both the drive and the smart card are lost, that could spell trouble for your sensitive files.

In addition to providing a built-in USB 3.0 cable, the drive also has free access to Windows-based TurboPC EX2, Backup Utility, Disk Formatter2, and Lock and Go for NFC software. These titles must be downloaded from the Buffalo Americas website after purchase.

We wonder if having NFC capabilities is actually a good thing. Sure, it's a neat idea, but perhaps the best route would have been to rely on the NFC capabilities of a smartphone. Not all phones have NFC capabilities, we know, and that's what the card is all about. Buffalo is going after every consumer, not just the ones with NFC-equipped phones.

We've reached out to the company to find out what consumers can do if they lose the NFC smart card.

Update, 4/21/15, 2:00pm EST: Here's what a Buffalo representative told Tom's Hardware about losing the NFC card: "If the NFC card is lost, the user can still access the stored files by entering a password that they designated during setup, assuming they had set a password. The user does have the option to allow access to the hard drive through the smart card exclusively."

Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Meet Buffalo's Entry-Level LinkStation 420 NAS

Buffalo is no stranger to the network-attached storage world. Surely that means the company has learned all of the lessons needed to build successful products, right?

The technology inside Buffalo's LinkStation 420 is fairly typical of entry-level NAS hardware. Its Marvell Armada 370 SoC consists of a 1.2 GHz ARMv7 processor with 32 KB of L1 instruction and 32 KB of L1 data cache, a 256 KB L2 cache, and a 16-bit DDR3 memory interface. To that bus, Buffalo attaches 512 MB of memory. The SoC includes two Ethernet MAC controllers, support for a pair of SATA ports, and a USB 2.0 controller, so connectivity is somewhat limited. There's a single GbE jack and one USB 2.0 port exposed on the device. USB 3.0 isn't yet standard at the entry-level.

Buffalo gives you a choice of two 1, 2, 3, or 4 TB hard drives already installed in its LinkStation 420, obviating the need to study a hard disk compatibility list and picking storage yourself. The sample we're testing came equipped with a pair of 2 TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001-1CH1 3.5" drives.

The LinkStation 420 sports a BitTorrent client, a DLNA server, an iTunes server, a print server, and a USB device server. It can also serve as a Time Machine-compatible backup target for a Mac. When it comes to backing up its own disks, the LinkStation 420 is able to use attached USB drives or another NAS server.

Specifications: Buffalo LinkStation 420

Design: Angular, Black, and Unadorned

Buffalo doesn’t try to get fancy with its design. The LinkStation chassis comes in basic black and is quite small. The front bezel sports but two status LEDs and one button (and that's not the power button; the on/off switch is in the back of the appliance).

Both drive bays are located behind the front bezel.

The hard disks are not latched in the drive bays, and can simply be pulled out. We're not sure that's the most effective way of security storage. But really, the front bezel won't typically be off, either.

The hard disks are mounted in plain, but functional trays.

The back side of the NAS is also quite basic. You'll find one GbE jack and a single USB 2.0 port. Since Marvell's Armada 370 SoC does not sport USB 3.0 connectivity (and indeed tops out with two SATA interfaces, even), the LinkStation 420 can't offer that functionality without a third-party controller attached to one of the processor's two PCIe lanes. This is an entry-level device though, so Buffalo simply sticks to what Marvell integrates. Other manufacturers do offer third-gen USB and HDMI, so the omission of both is a bit of a bummer.

The power switch is just that, a switch, and not a button. If you want to shut down the NAS, you simply turn it off.

Setting Up And Using WebAccess On The Road

In case you cannot find Buffalo's LinkStation 420 on your network, install the NAS Navigator 2 software on your PC. You can also configure the device’s network settings and set an administrator password from this application.

A configuration wizard, which would allow you to configure the NAS device after answering a series of questions, seems to be missing. As a result, you need some basic technical knowledge to manage the LinkStation using NAS Navigator 2. Once you're able to figure out the appliance's IP address (either through NAS Navigator 2 or from your router's own device list), you can fire up the LinkStation's Web-based setup screen by simply pointing your browser at it. The Web interface sports a wizard of its own, albeit a quite basic one.

I say it's basic because you merely have the option of setting the admin password and configuring network shares. Worse, the character set for the administrator password is severely limited, which is a well-known quirk of Buffalo's firmware.

If you want to dive deeper into the LinkStation's available options, you need to use the Advanced Settings screen, which can be accessed from the device’s homepage.

This default landing page features a clean design. It can be accessed without logging in; however, that convenience comes at a cost: you'll continue to be prompted for your password as you navigate from one submenu to the next. Setting the login time-out period to Unlimited does not help, either.

Since we’re on the subject of ways Buffalo could make the setup routine better, its user interface is sluggish. Inputs are processed slowly, and a "Pleas wait" notification appears very frequently. Perhaps we're just spoiled by the Celeron G550 in QNAP's TS-470, also reviewed today. After all, we are dealing with a relatively slow ARM-based SoC.

If you want to access data on the NAS from a smartphone, there is an app for that. Actually, Buffalo offers three apps: one for iOS, one for Android, and one for Windows Mobile 7.5. The company hosts a DNS server, which is configured from the WebAccess settings page and allows you to access your information with a symbolic URL.

Once WebAccess is configured, you can reach your data remotely from whichever smartphone app applies to your mobile device. And it's good to know that the information is transferred over an encrypted channel.

Testing Buffalo's LinkStation 420

Again, our Buffalo LinkStation 420 sample came with two 2 TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001-1CH1 hard drives, which we configured as a RAID 1 set. The LinkStation uses XFS as its internal file system. Our test device had firmware version 1.31-0.92 installed.

We determined the transfer rates with version 1.7.1 of the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit. If you are interested in details of this test methodology, you can read up about it in Benchmarking With Intel's NAS Toolkit.

Sound Level and Temperatures

The LinkStation 420 does not sport dynamic fan control. However, Buffalo's entry-level NAS appliance remained comfortably quiet through our performance testing, generating an almost-inaudible 29.2 dB(A).

There didn't seem to be a way to read the platform's temperature; maybe there isn't one, or perhaps it's exclusive to the hardware, preventing damage to the SoC. In fact, Buffalo doesn't give us the tools to log much of the LinkStation's behavior, limiting information to some current value without any indication of history.

For instance, the status LEDs turned red to indicate that no RAID array was configured. But it took some digging in NAS Navigator to figure out the root cause. And even then, the software only conveyed an error code that we needed to interpret through a look-up table in the manual. In 2014, that's simply not acceptable. Buffalo should both beef up its logging capability and empower the software to report errors in plain text.

Power Draw

As a dual-drive platform based on an ARM-powered SoC, the LinkStation 420 is not surprisingly a fairly low-power device. With its power switch in the off position, we observed a mere 0.4 W of draw. And when the NAS is running, it tends to remain south of 20 W, except for when it powers up.

Unfortunately, this appliance doesn't support wake-on-LAN. It also can't put its hosted storage into sleep mode. You're exposed to a timer capable of powering the appliance up and down at a regular interval, but that's all. The simple mechanism is no replacement for more intelligent power management. Powered down using the timer, you'll still see around 4.4 W of power consumption, which is more than we'd expect.

Performance Chart

A network-attached storage device's performance is mostly tied to its processor and system memory, so long as you aren't saturating its primary interface (GbE, in this case). And the LinkStation 420 behaves pretty much as we'd expect, given its internals. It's plenty fast for day-to-day tasks, but it won't push a gigabit connection to its limit.

The LinkStation 420 does not give you the option to encrypt stored data.

Simple And Effective, But The LinkStation Can Use Polish

After testing the latest and greatest day in and day out, it's hard to get amped up about mainstream hardware. Really, Buffalo's LinkStation 420 satisfies any expectation you might have of a basic network-attached storage device. It's attractive enough, it's small, it's quiet, and it's relatively power-friendly. 

It'd be nice if Buffalo would improve its documentation to make setup an easier process. USB 3.0 would be welcomed, too. And don't expect to push the limits of a gigabit Ethernet link with Marvell's little Armada 370 in there, either. But then again, this is a 4 TB RAID-capable setup for $340. Just the disks are going to run you $180 to $200. What remains pays for the platform, enclosure, and software.

Sure, we'd like to see some improvements. The interface needs work; it should be more user-friendly and responsive. A faster and more modern file system like ext4 would be a better choice for the LinkStation 420, too.

Typically, this is where enthusiasts chime in to add that they have a spare case, extra hard drives, and the smarts to deploy FreeNAS. If that's you, and you're able to roll your own storage server, then you stand to save quite a bit of cash going the do-it-yourself route. Otherwise, Buffalo's entry-level solution gets the job done affordably. It isn't going to do any more, though it won't do any less, either. When you make your comparisons to other devices, be sure you're looking at appliances with storage included. Otherwise, the side-by-side isn't fair. In this case, you get what you pay for.

This week during Mobile World Congress 2014, Buffalo Americas launched three high speed AirStation Open Source DD-WRT wireless routers: the AirStation AC 1750 WZR-1750DHPD, the AirStation N600 WZR-600DHP2D, and the AirStation N300 WHR-300HP2D. The AC 1750 model is on sale now, while the other two won't arrive until early March.

According to Buffalo, these three new routers sport the DD-WRT firmware right out of the box, which is a Linux-based open source firmware for routers and access points that typically replaces the original OEM-installed firmware. The open source firmware allows the device to have additional features that typically wouldn't be provided in the original firmware.

"The main emphasis lies on providing the easiest possible handling while at the same time supporting a great number of functionalities within the framework of the respective hardware platform used," reads the DD-WRT description. Devices mainly used for private purposes can use the firmware for free, whereas a paid license is required to use the firmware in a commercial product.

As the numbering shows, the AC 1750 model is the fastest in the group, providing Wireless AC speeds up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band, and Wireless N speeds up to 450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band. This router also features a dual-core processor clocked at 800 MHz, 512 MB of RAM, five Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two wireless radios and onboard amplifiers. This router can also be configured as an access point or wireless bridge.

The N600 model is the next class down, providing Wireless N speeds up to 300 Mbps on the 5 GHz channel and Wireless N speeds up to 300 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz channel. This router also packs a processor clocked at 800 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, Gigabit ports, one USB 3.0 port, two wireless radios and onboard amplifiers. This router can also be configured as an access point or a wireless bridge.

Finally, there's the N300 router, a single-band unit that provides Wireless N speeds up to 300 Mbps. This device features a processor clocked at 600 MHz, five Ethernet ports, and onboard amplifiers. Like the previous two, the router can also be configured as an access point or wireless bridge.

"We launched new open source DD-WRT models of the AirStation router to address this rising demand, giving users the ability to unlock advanced capabilities of their wireless routers at a cost effective price," said Matt Dargis, COO at Buffalo Americas (USA), Inc. "These features, such as PPTP, OpenVPN and VLAN, allow network administrators and programmers to enable advanced features typically unavailable in consumer-grade wireless routers."

The AirStation AC 1750 WZR-1750DHPD router is available now for $189.99. The N600 and N300 routers will be made available in early March for $109.99 and $59.99, respectively.

Buffalo Americas has introduced the AirStation AC1200 Dual Band Wireless Router. The company believes this router would be ideal for creating an affordable high speed Wireless AC home network, as it will cost a mere $89.99 when it launches later this year.

As the AC1200 name reveals, this router is somewhat slower, providing Wireless AC speeds of up to 866 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and Wireless AC speeds of up to 300 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band. Keep in mind that you'll need a Wireless AC device to get that max speed.

Buffalo's small list of features include a Gigabit WAN port for high speeds Internet service up to 1000 Mbps (1 gigabit). The router also offers Norton ConnectSafe web filtering and parental controls by Symantec, allowing all users of the local network to surf the Internet worry-free.

The company also boasts an easy setup, as the router provides a step-by-step setup wizard that gets the user up and running within minutes. The router even provides multi-level wireless encryption options so that users can keep the leeching neighbors off the network.

"The increased availability of wireless devices has made it easy for consumers to access content online anywhere at any time. However, this trend has pushed previous Wi-Fi standards to their limits," said Matt Dargis, COO at Buffalo Americas. "We launched new models of Buffalo's AirStation 11ac routers to address these challenges of the modern day consumer by supporting the latest high performance Wi-Fi technologies available."

The AirStation AC 1200 Dual Band Wireless Router (WHR-1166D) will be available in Q2 at an estimated MSRP of $89.99.

Looking to upgrade your wireless network to the latest Wireless AC speeds? Look no further than Buffalo Americas' AirStation Extreme AC 1900 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router, slated to arrive in Q2 2014. This router appears to be Buffalo's fastest to date, providing theoretical speeds of up to 1300 Mbps.

The company's CES 2014 announcement arrives by way of a list of features, reporting that this router will have a dual-core processor clocked at 1 GHz to help the device deal with the high-speed traffic. The router will also be equipped with three wireless transmitters and HighPower Technology for extreme performance and range.

The company reveals that the router is capable of Wireless AC speeds of up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz channel, and Wireless AC speeds of up to 600 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz spectrum. The router also supports 5 GHz Beamforming to any Wireless AC or Wireless N device for boosting performance and range for an even more reliable, high speed wireless connection.

"Priority Control QoS provides a top entertainment experience by automatically prioritizing multimedia and gaming traffic, such as Netflix, YouTube and Xbox LIVE, for uninterrupted streaming and lag-free gaming," reads the press release.

The router also features cloud-based Norton web filtering and parental controls by Symantec, as well as a Wi-Fi Settings Transfer function that allows users upgrading from an older WPS router to keep their existing Wi-Fi profile and settings. Users can also share their printer on the network thanks to an included USB port.

Buffalo's AirStation Extreme AC 1900 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router (WXR-1900DHP) will be available in Q2 at an estimated MSRP of $199.99. Expect additional details regarding the hardware specs as we get closer to the launch window.

Check out all of our CES 2014 coverage!

In addition to introducing its upcoming personal travel router, Buffalo Americas revealed another gadget that will be great on the road: the MiniStation Air Wireless Portable Hard Drive. This Wi-Fi capable external drive allows users to dump data onto 1 TB of storage space without wires, and to steam content back to wireless devices anywhere at any time.

"Today's consumers are constantly on the go and want to have continuous access to their multimedia files while away from their homes," said Matt Dargis, COO, Buffalo Americas. "With a long battery life, compact size, and wireless capabilities, the MiniStation Air makes it easy for anyone to enjoy multimedia entertainment on a long road trip or when traveling for business."

Like other wireless portable hard drives on the market, the MiniStation transmits its own Wi-Fi network that devices like smartphones and tablets can directly connect. Once a wireless connection is established, users simply load up a special app offered for free on Google Play and Apple's App Store, and upload or download files over the wireless connection. A provided USB 3.0 port allows computers to do the same for even faster uploads and downloads.

"Nearly any wireless device, such as smartphones, tablets, computers, media players and more can connect to it wirelessly for instant access," states the company’s press release. "Additionally, the portable hard drive allows users to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot to share its established network and Internet connection with joined devices."

The MiniStation can handle up to eight simultaneous connections. The device can also be used to stream multimedia content to any DLNA playback device, such as smart TVs, media players and gaming consoles. Users can even access and stream multimedia files for up to 10 hours on a single charge, and use the device as a portable battery charger for juicing up smartphones and more while on the go.

The new MiniStation Air 1 TB Wireless Portable Hard Drive (HDW-PD1.0U3) will be available in March 2014 for $199.99.

Check out all of our CES 2014 coverage!

This week during CES 2014, Buffalo introduced the AirStation AC433 Wireless Travel Router, the industry's first compact, bus-powered Wireless AC solution. This device allows users to set up a secure and personal high-speed wireless connection wherever they may go.

According to a brief list of specs, the device is dual-band, allowing other devices to connect on the 5 GHz band and the 2.4 GHz band, whichever is the fastest. However, don't expect the high speeds of Wireless AC. The device is only capable of up to 433 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and up to 150 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band.

"Paired with a USB cable for power and a LAN cable, it provides a complete travel companion, perfect for storing in a brief case, laptop bag or purse," reads the press release. "[The AC433] provides support for multiple levels of wireless encryption and easy AOSS and WPS setup for a reliable and secure wireless connection anywhere."

The AirStation AC433 would be a perfect traveling companion when staying in a hotel, especially those that charge guests $15 per day per device. The AC433 will be available in Q2 at an estimated MSRP of $59.99, so the device would essentially pay for itself when it becomes available later this year.

Currently, a full list of specs isn't available, so we expect to hear more about this portable router this spring.

Check out all of our CES 2014 coverage!

The local branch of Buffalo Inc., Buffalo Technologies USA, said on Tuesday that it has incorporated Buffalo Technology Latin America and Buffalo Brazil into its North American organization to form Buffalo Americas, Inc. It will be headquartered in Austin, Texas and led by CEO Matt Dargis who previously served as vice president of sales and operations for Buffalo Technology (USA), Inc.

According to the company, Read Fenner now serves as vice president of sales for the new expanded North American company. He previously served as vice president of operations and vice president of sales at GUNNAR Optiks, and was responsible for creating and implementing GUNNAR’s multi-channel strategy of selling into consumer electronics, optical, B2B and B2C channels. Fenner also worked with Digital River, Inc., and Commerce5, and was responsible for founding the ecommerce department at D-Link Systems.

Recently, Buffalo Technologies launched the TeraStation 3000 Series of high performance NAS and iSCSI unified storage. The series is comprised of two four-drive configurations, including a 1U rack mount, and capacities from 4 TB to 16 TB. They're powered by a dual-core ARM processor and 1 GB of installed DDR3 RAM, and even offer 10 licenses of NovaBACKUP Business Essentials software for Windows devices.

The company also introduced two new Wireless AC routers at the beginning of July, the AirStation Extreme AC 1750 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router (WZR-1750DHP) and the upcoming AirStation Extreme AC 1200 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router (WZR-1166DHP). Additional recent hardware launches include the LinkStation 400 Series of network storage solutions, the TeraStation 5000 WSS NAS Appliance Series and more.

Buffalo Inc., one of the 14 subsidiaries of Japanese-based parent company Melco Holdings Inc., was initially founded in 1975 as an audio equipment manufacturer. Buffalo entered the PC peripheral market in 1981 with the launch of an EEPROM writer. The name supposedly stems from one of Melco's first products, a printer buffer, and the American Bison. Buffalo Technologies also has three branches in Asia, three in Europe and several other Buffalo-based divisions in Japan.

"By bringing our North American and Latin American operations together under Buffalo Americas, we are better equipped to serve our customers through a single enhanced business and sales operations organization," said Matt Dargis, COO, Buffalo Americas. "We remain committed to delivering on the three tenets of our mission statement: Best Value, Best Support and Best Partner."

For more information about Buffalo Technology and its products, click on the new Buffalo Americas URL here.

Texas-based Buffalo Technology introduced two new Wireless AC networking routers, the just-launched WZR-1750DHP and the upcoming WZR-1166DHP. Both belong in the company's AirStation Extreme family, support Beamforming technology, and provide a new intuitive user interface that allows consumers to easily manage their wireless network. The WZR-1750DHP currently costs $169.99 at participating retails and the WZR-1166DHP will cost $149.99 later this month.

According to the company, both routers are equipped with two wireless radios and Buffalo’s HighPower Technology for extreme performance and range, making them ideal for high-bandwidth applications such as online gaming and streaming HD content. They also have a USB 2.0 port and a USB 3.0 port supporting printers and NAS products, and five Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired devices and the Internet modem.

However the WZR-1750DHP will provide faster speeds, dishing out up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band (802.11ac) and up to 450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz channel (802.11n). The cheaper WZR-1166DHP won't be quite so zippy, providing up to 866 Mbps on the 5 GHz band (802.11ac) and up to 300 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band (802.11n). Otherwise, both appear to be identical save for their power consumption and antenna configuration.

"With each new wireless gadget in the home and increasing online activities vying for bandwidth, consumers push the boundaries of their wireless networks on a daily basis," said Matt Dargis, vice president of sales at Buffalo Technology (USA), Inc. "We designed Buffalo’s new AirStation Extreme 11ac routers to meet these networking demands, providing high performance, feature packed Wi-Fi, ideal for the digital driven lifestyle."

Both routers can be configured as a wireless bridge. For example, consumers can purchase two WZR-1750DHP modems and establish one as the central network router, connecting it to the modem. The other unit can be established somewhere else within range and configured to wirelessly "bridge" network signals to and from the first device. This will help extend the overall wireless network into places the first router is unable to reach – device owners in the extended area simply connect wirelessly or via Ethernet to the second unit.

Buffalo's new routers also feature priority control QoS to regulate media and entertainment traffic such as Netflix, YouTube and Xbox LIVE, web filtering and parental controls powered by Norton, and an easy set-up process. And as previously stated, both routers support Beamforming technology which creates a more direct wireless signal as it specifically targets supported connected devices like the HTC One M7, Samsung Galaxy S4 and others.

Naturally the best compliment to Buffalo's two new Wireless AC routers is its dual-band client adapter for desktops and laptops, the $54.99 WI-U2-866D Wireless AC USB 2.0 adapter. It's only capable of speeds up to 866 Mbps on the 5 GHz band (up to 300 Mbps on 2.4 GHz), so even if consumers bought both the WZR-1750DHP router and this adapter, they're only reaching WZR-1166DHP speeds. That said, a faster USB adapter more suitable for the WZR-1750DHP model could appear on the market before the end of the year.

For more information about the company's new AirStation Extreme wireless routers, head here.

On Monday Austin, Texas-based Buffalo Technology launched the DriveStation DDR, a USB 3.0-based external storage solution that combines an HDD with the company's MegaCache Accelerator in a single enclosure. This new external drive is available now at select retailers nationwide for a starting price of $139.99 USD.

According to Buffalo, the MegaCache Accelerator is a 1 GB DDR3 RAM system that caches data as it's transferred to automatically boost performance for transfer speeds up to 408 MB/s. That's 2.3x faster than USB 3.0 hard drives and more than 10x faster than USB 2.0, the company claims.

"Buffalo has developed the perfect solution for consumers that demand fast storage performance, but don't want to sacrifice drive capacity," said Hajime Nakai, chief executive officer at Buffalo Technology (USA), Inc. "We designed and built the DriveStation DDR to deliver the performance of an SSD coupled with up to three terabytes of storage, giving consumers the best of both technologies at an affordable price."

DriveStation DDR features a sleek, black high-gloss chassis that can be positioned vertically or horizontally. It also comes packed with Buffalo's Backup Utility to back up one or multiple computers with a single Buffalo external HDD. Additional supplied tools include SecureLock for complete data encryption, and RAMDISK which creates a RAM disk on Windows PCs.

"The benefits of DriveStation DDR are automatic. Simple plug-and-play installation requires no advanced setup and no special software or drivers are required to operate at near SSD speeds," the company said. "It is compatible with Windows and Mac devices and it can be used at top speeds with other popular consumer electronic devices that support USB 3.0, such as media players and gaming devices."

The DriveStation DDR is now available for $139.99 for 2 TB (HD-GD2.0U3) and $179.99 for 3 TB (HD-GD3.0U3).

During CES 2013, Buffalo Technology was displaying two unannounced products slated for 2013: a mobile external drive and a desktop external drive, both featuring SSDs. According to the rep, the mobile version had a single 256 GB SSD whereas the desktop version played host to two 256 GB SSDs in RAID 0.

As seen in the photograph (right), both models will sport a USB 3.0 port and a Thunderbolt port. The portable drive will offer write speeds up to 200 Mbps, and read speeds up to 400 Mbps. The desktop model will have up to 600 Mbps write speeds and up to 800 Mbps read speeds.

Also on show were the company's upcoming BuffaloLink (see announcement below) external storage products: one empty model with two drive bays, one with two installed HDDs up to 4 TB each in RAID 1, and a model with a single HDD up to 4 TB. Users will be able to access the stored files on the go without limits, meaning movies, TV shows and music can be streamed to smartphones and tablets without an additional fee or advanced firewall configurations. All three will ship at the end of Q1 or the beginning of Q2 of 2013.

Buffalo's CES "booth" also had on display a wide variety of products including colorful mice, ear buds, iPhone 5 cases, and mobile batteries for recharging smartphones and tablets when a power outlet isn't available. Also on hand were 802.11ac networking gear, and external storage stations for local and network solutions.

* Buffalo Introduces BuffaloLink Service for Simple, Secure Cloud Access
* Buffalo Showcases Assortment of Digital Life Solutions at CES

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802.11ac: The Beginning

At some point, every modern freeway was a dream to drive. The pavement was fresh and the lanes were all but empty. But inevitably, congestion set in. People learned to hop on the freeway to quicken their daily travel needs. As populations steadily grew, so did the number of cars clogging the streets. What was once a breezy late afternoon jaunt eventually became today’s four-hour exercise in asthmatic gridlock.

Automotive analogy aside, we’re really talking about the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum. In the first days of 802.11b (circa 1999), the freeway may have posted a paltry 11 Mb/s, but there was hardly anyone else on the road. Fast forward to the present. Despite evolving through 802.11g and 802.11n, the 2.4 GHz band became a congested mess clogged with notebooks, netbooks, wireless speakers, Bluetooth peripherals, smartphones, tablets, set-tops, TVs, consoles, appliances, and all manner of other devices. These gadgets compete for what boils down to essentially three (after considering bandwidth overlap) possible transmission channels under 802.11b. A 20 MHz-wide 802.11g/n network has four such channels, while a 40 MHz-wide 802.11n network has just two.

True enough, 802.11a, which resides on the 5.0 GHz band, offers more non-overlapping channels (23, to be exact). While 802.11a offered comparable 54 Mb/s speeds to 802.11g, the 2.4 GHz solution won out in the market thanks to the fact that longer wavelengths have better ability to pass through obstructions. With an oscillation roughly twice that of 2.4 GHz, a 5.0 GHz signal was more likely to die in less distance than its competitor, and so 802.11b/g went on to become the dominant public wireless communication standard. By the time 802.11n arrived supporting both radio bands, wireless had become so popular that interference and congestion was a significant problem for many users. While 802.11n employed several technologies to help improve wireless performance, it was clear that the 2.4 GHz band was becoming ever more bogged down. For a more thorough look at these problems and some of 11n’s answers to them, we strongly recommend reviewing our two-part series, Why Your Wi-Fi Sucks and How It Can Be Helped and What To Do About It.

Today, the successor to 802.11n, dubbed 802.11ac, is far enough down the road of standardization that vendors have the confidence to start releasing product. At present, 802.11ac is working under Draft 4.0. The 802.11 Working Group expects the standard to be finally approved by late 2013, although by then the technology will already be pervasive in the market.

The first 802.11ac chipset, from Quantenna, began shipping in November 2011. In April 2012, Netgear arrived with the first 802.11ac consumer router, fueled by Broadcom innards. Other vendors soon followed. By the end of 2013, we expect mid- to high-end consumer routers to have completely switched over from 802.11n.

But for now, 11ac is new, still relatively scarce, and priced accordingly. Is it worth it? We’ve seen pre-standard Wi-Fi advances that didn’t merit their price tags in the past. Are we in for another round of disappointment, or is today’s price premium for 11ac a bargain for the performance boost? We only know of one way to find out.

802.11ac Advances

Gigabit Wireless. This is the phrase that pays when it comes to marketing 802.11ac, because finally the wireless providers have a technology able to compete against structured CAT5e or CAT6 wiring. Why would you hassle with the deployment and location restrictions of wired networking if you can get the same results from Wi-Fi? You wouldn’t...if the promise held true, that is.

We saw in Gigabit Ethernet: Dude, Where's My Bandwidth? that you can get 100 MB/s+ throughput on a gigabit network using 28 feet of cable the same as 50 feet. The same story showed us it's nearly impervious to environmental interference. So, unlike wireless, we’re not left thinking, "Well, it says 1000 Mb/s, but I'm really only getting 30 MB/s." Providing you don't have any bottlenecks, gigabit is gigabit, period. As we’ll see, 802.11ac is not gigabit-class wireless. That's marketing. But is it better than 802.11n? Oh, most definitely.

To understand why 802.11ac is superior, we need to delve into some of its key advances over the prior Wi-Fi technology.

Exclusive use of the 5.0 GHz band. 802.11n makes use of either 2.4 GHz or 5.0 GHz, but we know that the 2.4 GHz range is already congested. It works, but 2.4 GHz is unreliable, and the more we want to trust it with high-bandwidth data, such as streaming HD video, the more reliability becomes a factor. Simply put, 2.4 GHz is almost tapped out, at least with current-gen approaches. You can force it into providing more performance, through “bad neighbor” tactics like channel bonding, but this has counterbalancing negative effects for others in the wireless community. The 5.0 GHz range is largely pristine land for wireless drilling, if you will, and the IEEE forces behind the new wireless standard opted to open it up for its next-gen resources.

Wider channel bandwidth. The 802.11n standard allows for the combination of two 20 MHz channels into a single 40 MHz bonded channel. In the 2.4 GHz range, already having 40 MHz channels dropped the number of effective channel options to just three. With 5.0 GHz Wi-Fi, we have 23 possible 20 MHz channels. This yields 11 effective 40 MHz channels. And now, with 802.11ac, we’re starting with 80 MHz channels, of which there are five non-overlapping options. And yes, the 802.11ac spec does scale up to 160 MHz bonded channels, but there will only be two such channels available. We’ll suspend judgment on whether 160 MHz is a good thing when we start hearing reports of how such super-wide channels perform in residential areas, particularly in the company of competing HDTV sets and smartphones.

Mo’ MIMO. Multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) technology provides for the separation of a single data stream into more than one sub-stream able to travel along different radio paths. This separation and recombination of signals yields higher total data throughput in many circumstances. However, more sub-signals (properly called spatial streams), results in the need for more transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) antennas. The 450 Mb/s rates advertised in the latest, highest-end 802.11n products are only possible with a 3x3:3 (three transmit, three receive, three stream) antenna array. While 802.11n provides for up to four spatial streams, 802.11ac can use up to eight.

MU-MIMO. Multiple-user MIMO can turn multiple users into spatially disparate, but wirelessly linked transmission resources. In other words, with multiple radio terminals in a given area, all can cooperate in order to improve each terminal’s performance. The singer-user MIMO found in 802.11n can only operate with the multiple antennas hard-wired into a single terminal. With MU-MIMO, 802.11ac access points will be able to process MIMO signals from multiple clients simultaneously, rather than having to hop quickly (and inefficiently) from one to the next. This should dramatically help with airtime fairness issues in highly-populated client environments.

Optional beamforming. In Why Your Wi-Fi Sucks and How It Can Be Helped, we spent considerable time delving into beamforming and the circumstances in which it can dramatically improve wireless throughput. At the time of that writing, there were no industry standard approaches to beamforming, leaving buyers to pick among a few vendors who chose to improve their 802.11n products with proprietary approaches to the technology.

Broadcom: Insider Comments

As the single source for 802.11ac silicon, we figured we could interview no one more authoritative on the subject than Broadcom. We sat down with Dino Bekis, senior director of the access and wireless entertainment unit (AWE) and Richard Ybarra, technical marketing for AWE, to get their thoughts on the state of this wireless advance today and what it heralds for tomorrow.

Tom's Hardware: So now we have this new wireless spec that will push a ton of today’s current 2.4 GHz traffic onto the 5.0 GHz band. Aren’t we just going to run into the same congestion issues again a couple of years from now as everyone transitions over?

Broadcom: That possibility is always there, but with the new modulation schemes and using 20, 40, 80, and eventually 160 [MHz channels], we have more modulation schemes to work with. We have more bandwidth capability. So even though it may be congested, we still have a fatter pipe from the modulation schemes to push data. Will it get constricted? Yes, that day will eventually come, but we’re a ways away from that. Especially if we share the two spectrums we have with different types of traffic and different technology, I think it will help the overall wireless spectrum. If we share both of those bands with different technologies, it’ll help alleviate some of that congestion and allow us to do some interesting things in the 5.0 GHz space.

Tom's Hardware: Such as what?

Broadcom: Video streaming is one of our priorities. Obviously, video streaming is a major uptick as far as types of traffic across the Internet. Streaming video, downloading video, projecting video. That takes a lot of bandwidth, and that has to be bandwidth that’s dedicated. We see the 5 GHz space dealing with that pretty efficiently at this point. Maybe we send a lot of our data traffic over 2.4 and we use 5 GHz as more of a mechanism for video transfers. We’re kind of already seeing that now throughout the industry. However, I want to stop short of saying that’s a strict policy that we or any of our customers are advocating.

Tom's Hardware: Obviously, faster is better. But is there more significance to the 802.11ac transition than just another speed jump?

Broadcom: When I look at 5G [fifth-generation] Wi-Fi, four advantages stand out. First, there’s overall throughput, the ability to get really wireless gigabit Ethernet capability available to the home. Up until now, that really has not been achievable. Second, for a given throughput requirement per user and because of that higher aggregate capability, we can support more users on a given network. The radio design itself is more robust than the 802.11n design. We’re getting a lot better performance in terms of rate and range than in the past with 802.11n.

We’re also able to support much lower power for a given amount of data that needs to be transferred than with 802.11n. That’s very important for a couple of different products, whether it’s battery-powered products where you can get better life out of them or whether it’s products plugged into the wall, so they’ll be able to achieve higher efficiencies and lower power consumption, which feeds into some of the green standards for products being rolled out in the industry.

Finally, we have a much more standardized approach across the board to achieving the things than we did before with 11n. For example, we support higher throughputs, like 256-QAM, for applications such as fast synching or side-loading. In the past, these were attempted by various people in proprietary fashions—Turbo Mode, etc. That no longer is required. Before, beamforming mechanisms were proprietary, and now we have a standardized approach to beamforming that will support interoperability across various manufacturers. You don’t have these islands of technology that force you down a specific vendor’s path. You’ve got higher throughput, more users with respect to rate range, lower battery power. Those are all the key benefits to 11ac.

Broadcom: Insider Comments, Continued

Tom's Hardware: Broadcom has its silicon. Are we going to see other vendors share your enthusiasm for such an industry-unified approach?

Broadcom: From a market adoption perspective, we’re the only ones with a product today that’s shipping. We’ve been in production since May, and we’re seeing very strong adoption across the board. As of June, the first PCs with embedded 5G Wi-Fi were being launched, particularly from Asus at Computex. We expect that by early 2013, you’ll see some of the high-end electronics platforms, like TVs, launching with 11ac integrated. Within the first quarter, we’ll have multiple phones being launched into production with 11ac.

Tom's Hardware: Some people might still be leery of jumping on 11ac without a finished standard in place. We remember the incompatibility debacle from the days of 11g Turbo, Pre-N, Draft N, and so on.

Broadcom: Also, after the 11n battle, no one felt like a victor. So when it was time to look at the 11ac standard, every vendor made a conscious effort not to have a repeat of that mistake. Very early on, the 11ac spec gelled much more cleanly than anything that ever happened with 11n. So we’re in the final draft stages. 11ac will be ratified in Q1, and very few changes have been implemented. The different constituents converged very quickly. Where we think there will be some variances, they’ll be minor, and the expectation across the board is that they’ll be easily addressed through minor software updates. It’s not going to be driving any hardware changes. I can’t say it’s zero probability, but it’s as close to zero as anyone could claim. I think we’re very safe.

Tom's Hardware: These wider 5.0 GHz channels give us a little cause for concern. We’ve got 11ac specifying up to 160 MHz while 11n was already causing some issues at 40 MHz. Should we be worried?

Broadcom: The work has gone into making sure that 11ac doesn’t impact [5.0 GHz devices] significantly. Now, you can’t avoid the fact that as you go from 40 to 80 to 160 MHz channel bandwidth you’re gonna be using up more of the spectrum. At some point, you’re going to have a limited number of channels that you can take advantage of with those higher bandwidths. So yeah, there are ways to step back from 160 MHz to narrower channel bandwidths, but physics is going to prevent multiple 160 MHz channel bandwidth clients in the same location operating in a very high number. But the adoption we’re seeing today has 80 MHz channel bandwidth as the baseline people want to run with. 160 may apply in longer-term applications, but it’s not something we’re seeing very high demand for today.

Also, from a standards perspective, 80 MHz is mandatory and 160 MHz is not. And for what we’re doing now, 80 is sufficient. As you look at current router options, you’re going to find you’re locked into 80. People are being much more conservative in their deployment, more metered in their approach. They want to make sure there’s a successful roll-out before they take the next turn of the crank.

Broadcom: Insider Comments, Continued

Tom's Hardware: Is the 80 MHz limit in today’s routers enforced at the hardware level rather than in firmware? I’m sure people will want to hack their way to the higher speed if possible.

Broadcom: No, it’s not in firmware. The 80 MHz cap is currently done at the hardware level.

Tom's Hardware: With 802.11n, we had the potential for four spatial streams, and hardly anyone went past three. Now, with 11ac, we have a maximum potential for eight. Will we take advantage of it?

Broadcom: True, 11n supported up to four spatial streams. There weren’t many folks that implemented that. Broadcom did three, then two for the tablet space and one for mobile phones. Three was for high-end PCs and infrastructure. When you go to 11ac, yes, the standard supports up to eight. From what we’ve seen from our market analysis and customers, there’s an aesthetics angle. In North America and Europe, everybody loves sleek designs and embedded antennas. When you go to Asia, the more visible the antennas, the higher the perceived performance level of the device. I found that interesting from a cultural perspective. But what we’re hearing from customers is that their view in terms of trading cost and performance is three spatial streams is probably what the vast majority will want to deploy for infrastructure. And certainly, three spatial streams of 11ac over 11n will give you a 3x capability improvement. I don’t see strong interest in 11ac, at least at this point, for anything beyond that. Additional spatial streams might give you some incremental performance improvement, but you’re going to pay a significant cost premium for that.

Tom's Hardware: Look six months out and describe a common use scenario for 802.11ac and the bandwidth required behind it.

Broadcom: You know, AT&T U-verse has been a watershed launch event for this industry. You’ve seen the ads, maybe, where they have this wireless set-top box receiver out by the pool or wherever they want without having to worry about a cord being connected to it. Every one of the carriers we’ve spoken to is trying to move toward that. So you couple that with very high bandwidth, whole-home DVRs, wireless DVRs transmitting multiple programs simultaneously to different TVs. You’ve got these portable devices in the home with friends coming in or you wanting to share on a big screen. All these things take up bandwidth. So if you’re slicing and dicing today where, in the best case, you have maybe 300 to 400 Mb/s of throughput, when you’re talking about HD video streams, especially 3D, you’re anywhere from 10 to 25 Mb/s per stream. You quickly start consuming the capability of your home’s router. So moving to 11ac is going to let you share video, both at the consumer and carrier level.

Test Setup And Methodology

We must begin with the usual caveats about wireless testing. As we detailed in Part 2 of Why Your Wi-Fi Sucks, environmental conditions wreak havoc on residential throughput tests, such as those we’ve conducted here. However, unless one has access to an industrial-class, sealed RF test chamber or perhaps the isolation of lunar orbit, there’s nothing to do but try to pick an environment with fairly limited competing RF traffic and interference. That is, if that’s what you want. There’s a convincing counter-argument that can be made for picking a highly congested environment, as this will reflect difficult real world conditions and pose greater challenges to routers. Real world is good. Randomly fluctuating conditions are bad. Still, by looking for patterns across a diversity of tests and traffic types, we believe we can draw some fairly reliable general conclusions.

We conducted all testing in my home, a 2,650 square-foot, two-story house in a suburban area outside of Portland, Oregon. We conducted all 2.4 GHz tests using 40 MHz/auto settings on channel 1, as this channel (out of the selections 1, 6, and 11) tended to have the lowest number of visible competing access points. Similarly, we used channel 161 for all 5.0 GHz tests. Like so many other variables in Wi-Fi testing, there was some debate over this point as well. We ultimately decided on fixed channels for the sake of consistency across the routers being tested. We might have alternately selected the more popular 2.4 GHz channel 11, as higher frequencies tend to offer higher throughput, even at the risk of encountering more obstruction from surrounding traffic. Moreover, we might have left channel selection unlocked to better see how routers coped with changing environmental conditions. There is no right or wrong approach here, and we might return to test these variables in a future follow-up article.

We tested with two systems, a “server” desktop system and a “client” notebook. The server remained positioned in the home’s upper floor corner office. The client rested in either the same office at a direct line of sight distance of 10 feet from the server or it was positioned about 70 feet away, in the home’s opposite downstairs corner. In all tests, the server connected to the router via gigabit Ethernet. The client connected to a spare Netgear R6300 router in bridge mode for 2.4 GHz testing, and a Cisco Linksys WUMC710 bridge for 802.11ac work (via gigabit Ethernet). The directional orientation of the routers and bridges was kept consistent for all tests.

We conducted three basic tests. First, we created a 2.00 GB folder containing hundreds of MP3, EXE, and stray work document files. This was used to test transfer throughput speeds in both directions. Next, we turned to the networking test module in PassMark’s PerformanceTest 7 suite (we'll transition to version 8 in subsequent articles.) As a corroboration of PerformanceTest 7, as well as a deeper look at some of our traffic’s attributes, we ended with Ixia’s IxChariot. Specifically, we ran two of IxChariot’s built-in scripts. We transferred 100 records with the High-Performance TCP Throughput script and 1000 records with the UDP Throughput script.

Here are our two system configurations:

AirLive N450R And Asus RT-AC66U

AirLive N450R

AirLive is the odd man out in our round-up. The N450R is a dual-band router, but it is not 802.11ac-compatible. Rather, it uses beamforming for dual-band 802.11n. The company specifies 450 Mb/s for 5 GHz and 300 Mb/s for 2.4 GHz. On paper, this looks to be the best 5.0 GHz that one can hope to get, short of hopping to 802.11ac. Also, we wanted a low-cost, high-performance example of prior-gen technology to compare against our 802.11ac line-up. AirLive tells us the router should be priced around $116. Unfortunately, though, it isn't available in the U.S.

Compared to the rich GUIs found in many top-name routers, AirLive’s menus are fairly plain, reflecting the sort of menus found in routers five or six years ago. That’s not to say they’re bad. The N450R comes stocked with all of the basic features we wanted, including thorough and understandable English documentation. As with all of the routers here, the N450R comes with four gigabit Ethernet ports and a Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button for easy connection with WPS-ready client adapters. AirLive also houses two USB ports for NAS storage and a 3G network adapter dongle.

Asus RT-AC66U

Like AirLive, Asus also employs three external antennas, but Asus goes nearly all out to maximize their potential. The RT-AC66U ($190 at Newegg) applies 3x3:3 on both radio bands, specifying 450 Mb/s for 2.4 GHz 802.11n and 1300 Mb/s for 5.0 GHz 802.11ac. To be clear, Asus does not specifically state that it uses beamforming, but the company’s "exclusive AiRadar technology" is able to "detect the direction" of connected clients and amplify their signals, which sure sounds like beamforming to us, though it could be something else. If you were so inclined, you could remove Asus’s detachable antennas and opt for higher-gain alternatives.

Our focus in this article is on hardware and performance, so we’re going to glance over a lot of usability and non-performance features. However, the RT-AC66U is a model of user-friendliness, starting with the browser-based setup process, host of internal monitoring screens, and perhaps the most attractive and intuitive menu system we’ve ever seen in a router.

Most of all, there’s AiCloud, which is a bit like having an Asus version of Pogoplug built into the router. Like AirLive, Asus builds in a pair of USB 2.0 ports, but AiCloud makes much better use of them. Essentially, any storage device (PC, NAS, USB, and so on) connected to the router can stream files through the AiCloud service and out to your Android or iOS mobile device or PC (via a Web browser). Compared to getting the same functionality through the old-school DDNS methods, AiCloud is effortless and immensely more gratifying.

Belkin AC1200 DB And Buffalo AC1300/N900

Belkin AC1200 DB

Bad news first. We spent about an hour on the phone with Belkin’s tech support and ended up getting a replacement unit when the first unit wouldn’t connect to our client in the long-range tests. The second unit had the same problem, which is why we won’t bother with the usual "well, maybe this particular unit was a lemon" spiel. No, the problem was that Belkin tried to undercut its 802.11ac competition ($150 at Amazon) with a 2x2 antenna design and did a terrible job of implementing it. This has "marketing decisions trumped engineering" written all over it. We don’t like bashing hardware, and we don’t have to in this case. The results depicted in our charts will speak for themselves.

In case you were curious as to why Belkin’s advertising talks about the benefits of 802.11ac rather than its own model’s specific results ("up to 2.8x faster physical data rate when compared to 802.11n Wi-Fi routers using two antennas to transmit and receive data"), now you know.

We won’t belabor the pointless. Yes, the AC1200 has four gigabit ports, some basic QoS features, parental controls, WPS push-button support, and so on. Yes, it can handle traffic on both bands simultaneously. The menu screens are nothing special. But why discuss this further? Our support rep mentioned that the company is working on a 3x3 update to this product. Wait for that if you’re interested. This 2x2 AC1200 functions at close range, but any decent 802.11n router will blow it out of the water for far less money. Weak sauce, Belkin, weak sauce.

Buffalo AC1300/N900

On the other hand, Buffalo’s AirStation AC1300/N900 (WZR-D1800H; $160 at Newegg) holds a few pleasant surprises. While a bit on the boxy side, the relatively low price is very attractive for a model that delivers a fair amount of performance. Setup is straightforward, we like the inclusion of guest SSID access, it can serve as an access point, and it’s DLNA-certified for easy media streaming.

For us, Buffalo’s chief weakness is its menus, which are occasionally confusing, always unattractive, and comparatively slow to refresh. We do like the explanatory text that Buffalo builds into the right side of its interface, but overall, the firmware (v1.89) is in need of a major makeover (Ed.: As of publication, the newest firmware version is 1.91, though all vendors had to compete using versions submitted by a cut-off date). If you have your doubts, check out how Asus and Linksys do things, then ask yourself which approach you'd rather take. Still, Buffalo does use a 3x3:3 antenna design.

Linksys EA6500/AC1750 And Netgear R6300

Linksys EA6566/AC1750

The Cisco Linksys EA6500 ($200 at Newegg) arrived in our hands, along with Cisco’s bundled WUMC710 802.11ac bridge ($150 separately). Based on some of our prior testing with the E3000 and other Linksys models, we had high hopes for the EA6500, and there were times when those hopes were met. However, we would recommend that, if you’re interested in the EA6500, you should read through the recent Newegg customer comments on the model. Some of the negative comments are indeed reflected in our results; others have clearly been addressed by Cisco already.

The EA6500 has a lot going for it, though. The router is simultaneous dual-band, with 3x3:3 antenna configurations in both bands. Two USB ports allow for printer sharing and add-on USB storage. DLNA support provides media serving, and QoS tools help prioritize certain traffic types.

As with Asus, Cisco has whipped up an app/browser-based control and file-streaming platform, called Linksys Smart Wi-Fi. This gives you the ability to control several of your router’s features, such as parental control, guest access, QoS, and USB storage, straight from your handset or tablet. Additionally, there are half a dozen applications (some of which are iOS- or Android-only, while others support both) for IP security camera monitoring, network security, media streaming, and so on.

As mentioned earlier, Cisco has continued Linksys’ propensity for kicking butt on its router’s built-in menus and options. While deep, the feature set is tidily swept inside of a very elegant, largely intuitive tabbed interface. That is, if you’re using a compatible browser. When we tried to log in via Chrome, all we saw was the “Log in” button and the country pull-down menu. Remember that Chrome is now the dominant PC Web browser. Oops.

Netgear R6300

Last up, we have the Netgear R6300 ($200 on Newegg). After the Asus and Linksys models, the R6300 is going to look a bit repetitive, but that’s primarily because the major router vendors have their businesses pretty much down to a pattern these days. A premium model, such as one debuting the latest Wi-Fi technology, is going to have two USB ports, simultaneous dual-band with a 3x3:3 design on both bands, a streamlined installation process, WPS, and four gigabit ports. All boxes come checked off here, and if you like Netgear’s upright, trapezoidal design, even better.

Not to be outdone by Linksys Smart Wi-Fi, Netgear has its own Netgear Genie, available for Windows, OS X, Android, and iOS. Netgear Genie lets you monitor and manage your network from afar. Apple iOS users can also output to any AirPrint-compatible printer using the AirPrint app through Netgear Genie.

Because we received two R6300s, we used our second unit as a 2.4 GHz bridge, given that Netgear advertises the router as being configurable to both bridge and AP modes. However, be prepared to do some research on how to get back into the device after switching modes because it’s no longer accessible from the default IP, and Netgear doesn’t go out of its way to illustrate the process. We'll give the company fair marks for a deep, feature-rich menu system with both Basic and Advanced tab views.

Results: 2 GB Folder Copy

Our first glimpse into the performance of our six contestants reveals some interesting points. The most obvious question is: what the heck happened to Belkin? We thought this must be a fluke of some sort, but subsequent tests across this and other benchmarks corroborated our first impression. The AC1200 DB is not only crippled by its dual-antenna design, it’s not even able to perform at 802.11g levels. As mentioned previously, we got Belkin tech support on the phone, walked through all of the settings, and so forth, but there was no help for it. Belkin has an improved design in the works, and we hope to test that at some point, but for now...consider our data an object lesson in why you want your WLAN gear well-reviewed and utilizing 3x3 antenna tech. Alas, the AC1200 DB would get spanked by many 10-year-old 802.11g routers.

While we’re on the 3x3 subject, check out AirLive. By bringing beamforming onboard, the $116 N450R pulls in some remarkable results for being "just" 5 GHz 802.11n. In one direction, it even outperforms the Buffalo 11ac router. Overall, the N450R still trails every 11ac router (except Belkin), but not by much. On a performance per dollar basis, in this location and application, the N450R definitely provides a pleasant surprise, if not new legs for the current-gen tech.

Keep in mind that this is our same-room test, which theoretically should reflect optimal conditions. However, as we step back to 2.4 GHz 802.11n, transfer performance plummets. Look at the difference in uplink speed for Netgear. That's a difference greater than 600%! What causes such a drastic change? Yes, we found between four and seven competing networks in our airspace at any given time during testing, but these were fairly faint. Moreover, AirLive actually does its 2.4 GHz work with only a 2x2 antenna setup, and it still manages to trounce every competitor except Asus. That’s insane. How the likes of Linksys and Netgear, both of which were double-checked on this test, could pull in such embarrassing numbers is a mystery. Suffice it to say that we have renewed respect for Asus' product engineering and AirLive’s beamforming implementation.

As we switch to our 5.0 GHZ distance test, the tide turns. We’ve actually seen many routers over the years fail across this distance in this location. Like Belkin's solution, older hardware often won't connect at all. So, the fact that we’re measuring triple-digit Mb/s results from the four real 11ac competitors strikes us as miraculous. Also consider how little throughput loss there is between our two locations. We’re used to seeing 60% to 80% loss in these circumstances, but the 11ac routers shed almost no performance at all, and in some cases do even better at distance.

Yes, it’s great that AirLive can still pull in enough average throughput to sustain multiple HD video feeds, a feat we would not have expected, but its rivals are hitting numbers three times larger. This blows us away. This chart alone makes us want to recommend 802.11ac without reservation.

Our 2.4 GHz cross-house test doesn’t surprise. Again, Asus and AirLive dominate, Belkin can’t connect, and the other three limp by. Later on, we’ll get a better idea of what’s happening to stream integrity during these diminished transfers. Hint: It’s not pretty.

Results: PerformanceTest 7, Same-Room

PerformanceTest 7’s network test is similar to IxChariot in some ways, and it provides a graphically friendly way to cross-check other benchmark results. Here, in our 5.0 GHz TCP same-room test, we see Asus pull back a bit, even slipping in behind AirLive. Buffalo, Linksys, and Netgear all perform in the 165 to 180 Mb/s range, which, as a general average, meshes well with what we saw in our 2 GB transfer tests. In fact, Asus is the only player here that sees a significant difference between the two benchmarks.

In moving to UDP, throughput suddenly skyrockets, then crashes into some sort of bottleneck. Netgear's R6300 is the only router to not pass the 600 Mb/s mark.

To double-check our assumption and find out why traffic was maxing out, we went to David Wren, the creator of PerformanceTest.

“My guess at what is happening is that the device driver is just accepting an unlimited amount of data, then what can’t be sent with the available bandwidth gets thrown away,” he replied. “UDP was designed for tasks like streaming video and VoIP. So it would be like trying to push a super high definition video across the link, but on the receiving side you find that five out of every six video frames didn’t make it. But from the point of view of the sending application, everything is sent. In real life situations UDP is not used for transmitting as much data as possible as fast as possible. It is used when data needs to arrive on time, meaning that lost data isn’t worth recovering (or retransmitting) because you know that new data, e.g., the next frame of the streaming video, will arrive soon enough. You might find the CPU or PCI bus maxed out at 600 Mb/s, preventing even more data from not being transmitted.”

When we inquired as to why IxChariot’s UDP data might be so much slower than PerformanceTest 7’s (as you’ll see in a bit), Wren was quick to point out that he has never used or investigated IxChariot. However, he suggested this:

“From what I have read here, it looks like [Ixia] have implemented (by hand) their own version of TCP (with ACKs, sliding windows, and retransmissions) on top of UDP. Quote: ‘...This datagram protocol is a subset of the functionality TCP provides to ensure that data is received reliably....’ Which doesn’t really make sense to me, as no one in real life would do this. If you want a reliable connection, then you use TCP. If you want a lossy connection, then you use UDP. If I understand their paper, they are really measuring two different versions of TCP, the full Winsock implementation and their own custom coded TCP-like protocol.”

Switching to 2.4 GHz TCP, we again nose dive well below 802.11ac levels, just as in our 2 GB transfer tests. Asus easily trounces the field, with Buffalo coming in second and trailing by over 40 percent. So far, we’re having a hard time reconciling the 802.11n performance of these units, as we’ve seen prior-year models that perform better on 2.4 GHz for half the price.

In the 2.4 GHz UDP test, Netgear recovers into the 600+ Mb/s range, with overall scores running only slightly lower than in our 5 GHz pass.

Results: PerformanceTest 7, Across-House

Now onto the long distance TCP trials for PT7. Once again, Belkin can’t connect, which is only slightly worse than its performance in our same-room setting. Even with beamforming, AirLive takes a hefty hit on throughput, although it still holds up admirably in the 55+ Mb/s range. Asus, Buffalo, and Netgear nearly triple that number, with Asus again emerging the victor. The gap for Linksys is noticeable. Having been fans of the company’s recent consumer routers, we’re starting to wonder if Linksys might have shipped its firmware a little earlier than engineers might have liked. Hopefully, a subsequent update will help.

Not much news here with UDP. Netgear now jumps into first place, suggesting that perhaps there's 5% worth of wiggle room in our tests. If so, then all five functioning routers are statistically in a dead heat for this test.

Moving to 2.4 GHz TCP at distance, we should restate that what we see in Belkin here used to be the norm for 2.4 GHz routers at this location. All five remaining routers deserve praise for holding a connection at all in this difficult arrangement. Linksys finally shows some moxie, coming in second to Asus, the only product to break 100 Mb/s on this chart.

The UDP results are all over 600 Mb/s. Move along, nothing to see here.

Results: PerformanceTest 7 Graphs

One of the things we love about PT7 is its data graphs. Now that we’ve seen the raw comparative results on the previous two pages, we want to look a little deeper into the data to show throughput over time. That said, we don’t want to get exhaustive and boring, so we’re going to cherry pick our results in order to illustrate points rather than be overly redundant.

To begin, let’s look at the effect of distance on our AirLive router under 2.4 GHz TCP traffic. Ideally, you want to see a straight line, signaling that throughput isn’t getting hammered by interference and traffic is moving smoothly. With more distance and obstacles, the propensity to see drop-outs in the chart increases. Thanks to its beamforming, the AirLive does a very respectable job and shows minimal erratic behavior in the second chart.

When we switch to 5.0 GHz for the same TCP tests, we see a much different and less expected story. Our same-room test with the AirLive looks blissfully even, although we see throughput take a sudden jump about 45 seconds into testing. This might signal something like a piece of interfering equipment suddenly turning off. While we ran our tests in fairly static conditions, we still saw such plateau hopping repeatedly in our test results across vendors.

Throughput hopping aside, look at our distance test results. What looks like a fair 57.6 Mb/s on our bar chart looks more like a manic disaster here. Throughput ranges from almost 80 Mb/s down to 0 Mb/s during one precipitous drop. While a cursory glance at averages could lead one to think this router can support HD streaming at distance, you have to watch where the graph bottoms out. This is the real qualifier. If, for example, a stream needs 10 or 20 Mb/s before system overhead, than this router clearly cannot deliver reliably under these conditions.

Lest anyone think we’re only picking on AirLive, let’s examine a TCP quartet from Asus. Looking at 11ac same-room performance, we get a little jiggle in the opening second or so as the connection stabilizes, then a long, stable plateau at 90+ Mb/s, then a sudden jump into the 140+ Mb/s range. Then when we switch to 802.11n, all semblance of stability vanishes. Performance swings across a 100% range from 70 to 140 Mb/s. This is obviously workable from an application standpoint, but it shows the striking variability of 11n throughput, even for such an excellent-performing router.

Going back to 11ac in our distance setting, we once more see a fleeting ramp-up in the connection, then an impressively narrow throughput band around 145 Mb/s. Seeing this performance level across the house still makes us giddy. Our 802.11n distance test shows another throughput leap in mid-test, but we again see a much broader performance band within the main plateau. Note, however, that we’re not seeing those drastic pits with Asus. Once it locks onto a throughput level, it’s very good about maintaining a floor.

Finally, let’s look at our remaining four routers under best-case TCP conditions. Even without looking at the y-axis numbers, Belkin is obviously out. Buffalo has the most stable, perfect-looking chart of the bunch, though Netgear gives Buffalo an interesting challenge. While it has that little warm-up blip, Netgear’s sustained throughput is slightly better than Buffalo’s. Linksys looks much more erratic, but watch those y-axis values. Numbers over 300 Mb/s for TCP? Dang!

Why we sometimes see those performance plateau shifts remains a mystery. Since we’re only seeing upward shifts in our data, in future testing we may want to look at patterns over longer periods of time, say a half-hour or more. Maybe these stable plateaus aren’t so stable with a longer time scale. These shifts happen in both test locations, so it’s not a local effect, nor does there seem to be a correlation with router/bridge combinations. It could have something to do with the TCP/IP stack, but digging into this will require additional research. For now, it remains a question mark to revisit another day.

Results: IxChariot, Same-Room, 5.0 GHz

Last up, we have Ixia’s IxChariot, which is probably the most widely used and trusted benchmark in wireless networking.

In our same-room 802.11ac testing for TCP traffic, Belkin sells the only router that falls flat. Even the next-lowest performer, Linksys, averages 160 Mb/s, which is stunning for TCP. Note that AirLive continues to impress at 189 Mb/s, solely on the basis of its beamforming. Just imagine when 11ac vendors cycle through their first wave of routers and decide to implement optional beamforming in their second-gen follow-ups in 2013 or 2014! Now, remember to approach those huge top-end numbers for Asus, Buffalo, and Netgear with caution. For example, here’s what was going on under the hood in Asus' IxChariot throughput graph:

See the plateau shift again? For sure, if we could count on Asus to average 320 Mb/s consistently, we’d bow down and worship this router. However, until we get a better fix on why these shifts keep happening, we’ll keep our adoration in check.

For Netgear, the situation is very similar. While its plateau averages are slightly higher than Asus', and its peak-to-trough range is similar, Netgear’s plateau shift arriving later in the test skews the average throughput downward.

We did not break out response numbers in these analyses since they were essentially inverse mirrors of our throughput charts. Take Linksys’s response graph (above) as an example. One can say that 0.5 second is the average response time, but this clearly depends on when in the test cycle we’re talking about.

If that’s not confusing enough, let’s switch to UDP traffic for the same-room set. Remember how we redlined most UDP results in PerformanceTest 7? IxChariot’s UDP script clearly limits bandwidth—so much so that our UDP numbers underperform our TCP results, which almost never happens.

Yes, our UDP throughput is roughly half of what we saw with TCP. However, regardless of the ways in which IxChariot constricts or relaxes data flow through its scripts, we still have an accurate relative ranking of routers all adhering to the same test process. And within these rules, we see all four of our serious 11ac routers averaging a statistical dead heat.

The plateaus we see in our TCP tests don’t appear here. On the other hand, we see a startling difference in throughput patterns. Consider these two graphs from Buffalo and Linksys. The averages are very close, but the patterns obviously differ.

Which graph is better? We would argue for Linksys. Whereas Buffalo seems to be struggling to keep pressed against a 118 Mb/s ceiling, Linksys has a very defined floor of around 112 Mb/s. When it comes to maintaining quality of service in a stream, the latter pattern is clearly preferable.

Results: IxChariot

Crossing over to 2.4 GHz 802.11n in the same-room tests, we have more weirdness. For once, Belkin does not have the lowest number on the chart. Whereas AirLive, Asus, and Buffalo are do a respectable job of not letting throughput drop under 50 Mb/s, Linksys and Netgear both have instances where they bottom out at 5 Mb/s. Even Belkin manages a fractional improvement over that. Sure, Belkin has the worst average, but we’re looking under every rock for good news at this point. Because we’re working with 802.11n, we should be dealing with a level playing field stocked with vendors handling a fully mature and refined technology. So it’s interesting to see AirLive edge past a respected name like Buffalo and fully trounce Linksys and Netgear. Only Asus manages to keep the small upstart in second place (by a gaping margin).

With our UDP chart, we see the throughput numbers shift relative to TCP. AirLive and Asus nudge down a bit while Buffalo, Linksys, and Netgear all edge up. Since Linksys stands out as the chart’s highest outlier, let’s take a look at that.

Pretty telling, right? The top spike on this chart is almost five times higher than the clearly visible average line. Just as disturbing are the many dips into the sub-20 Mb/s range. Keep in mind that this is a same-room test. We are left acknowledging that there is a fair amount of ambient noise and unpredictability in our test environment, but, at the same time, it’s a fairly average suburban scenario, and this is what routers need to cope with in the real world. We find the fact that Linksys and Netgear struggle here disturbing.

Now for the cross-house 11ac test with TCP traffic. Again, we see Belkin failing to connect, and AirLive finally manages to walk off a cliff. In fact, here’s what life looks like at the bottom of that cliff:

The good news is that AirLive managed to transmit all 100 IxChariot test records. The bad news is that most of those records came in two bursts, like flashbulbs in the dark, and the rest of the time saw almost no throughput. AirLive aside, we’re very impressed with the TCP results for our remaining competitors, although Linksys does noticeably lag behind the other three. With an average of roughly 180 Mb/s for Asus, Buffalo, and Netgear, this compares very well with the approximately 240 Mb/s averaged by those three in our similar close-distance test. A 25% throughput loss under such difficult conditions is actually phenomenal.

UDP across the house 11ac is definitely slower under 802.11ac, but still very usable and reliable in most cases. Netgear now turns in a stable performance with the best minimum throughput rate on the chart. Asus wins on the average number, but look at the deeper test chart:

For a long-distance test through flooring and walls, Asus’s stability here is outstanding. We only see one major blip, and we’re guessing that some random bit of ambient interference clobbered throughput for an instant, and the router responded by boosting power to compensate. When positive ambient conditions returned, the router dropped power back to normal levels. That’s a guess, but no matter what, this chart illustrates the Asus product’s ability to hold an 802.11ac signal with excellent stability and respond very quickly to adverse conditions.

Results: IxChariot, Across-House, 2.4 GHz

We’ll move quickly through the 2.4 GHz cross-house tests as these results largely repeat what we’ve observed previously.

Again, AirLive and Asus prove their strength in TCP testing through their minimum throughput times. AirLive in particular shows a narrow delta between minimum and maximum results, which is good. Of all the routers here, Asus emerges as the easy victor on this test, with Linksys coming in a distant second.

With UDP traffic, the story repeats. Asus is the only router we’d trust with a high-def stream, although we’d settle for the Buffalo in a pinch.

The difference in data patterns between our two traffic types can be striking. With 1,000 records passed using UDP, compared to 100 for TCP, one gets a better sense of where the “normal” bandwidth of UDP rests. In contrast, TCP seems much more meandering and variable.

One cool feature within IxChariot is its automatic report of how many bytes of data are lost in a given UDP communication. This is something you generally don’t see reflected in speed results. Does it matter if you see 200 Mb/s performance if only half of your data shows up? Maybe, depending on the application. This is why we took some of our long-distance data and broke out the bytes lost into separate charts.

Belkin scores 100% loss because it wouldn’t connect at this range. While not technically accurate since there was no actual data transmission, we felt it important to visually represent a worst-case.

The difference between 5.0 and 2.4 GHz is remarkable. Now we see AirLive’s adherence to prior-gen 11a, even with the assistance of beamforming, start to become a serious obstacle. Buffalo and Linksys have zero loss under 11ac, which is phenomenal.

Our situation reverses with 2.4 GHz. Buffalo and Netgear drop over half of their packets, and AirLive isn’t far behind. Only Asus manages nearly flawless reliability. This should be of particular note to users who anticipate using clients on both radio bands.

802.11ac: A Substantial Step Up From 802.11n

Again, we’re going to ignore Belkin here. Perhaps a firmware update will bring the AC1200 back from oblivion, but we’re not going to hold our breath.

In evaluating Buffalo, Linksys, and Netgear, one can cherry pick results to arrive at a favorite. To our eyes, there really isn’t a clear winner in our charts. Linksys and Netgear definitely have an edge in the menu interface department, and we like Linksys in particular for its richer Smart Wi-Fi app platform.

If you’re on a budget and aren’t close to adding clients with 802.11ac support, AirLive remains a surprisingly compelling option. You won’t find bells and whistles, but you will get some of the best performance we’ve seen in a mid-range router. It's unfortunate that the company doesn't have anything for sale in the U.S.

Then there’s Asus, which won this contest hardly breaking a sweat. The company simply out-engineered its competition and came up with a best-in-class feature set. Even more amazing is that the RT-AC66U accomplished this in essentially a first-generation product and delivered it at a price point that handily bests its closest competition. For all of the above, we believe the RT-AC66U deserves our infrequently-bestowed Elite award.

Stepping back, are we ready to give our blessing to 802.11ac and recommend that you run out and start investing in it? Yes. Obviously, many vendors still have work to do. We want to circle back later and investigate factors like the impact of channel selection on performance, maximum usable range for 802.11ac, and other variables we deliberately tried to isolate. There's also the issue of maximum throughput, since we saw numbers that might have indicated the limits of our test systems' storage subsystems. For now, though, we’ve seen enough to believe that 5G Wi-Fi is ready for primetime.

We’d hoped to see real-world sustained transfer rates in excess of 300 (or at least 200) Mb/s. That didn’t happen. Perhaps it will take beamforming, more antennas, and other enhancements to get us there later in 2013. But we can live with 150-ish Mb/s in the same room if we’re also seeing 100 to 150 Mb/s transfer rates across significant distances through multiple barriers. For us, that was absolutely huge. When done right, 802.11ac doubled what we could achieve with 802.11n. That alone is worth buying.

Folks, the time to start your 802.11ac adoption is now.

On Tuesday, Buffalo Technology announced the availability of the MiniStation Thunderbolt / USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive. Now available through distributors, online resellers and Buffalo's website, the 500 GB version (HD-PA500TU3) costs $199.99 USD, and the 1 TB version (HD-PA1.0TU3) costs $229.99 USD.

The MiniStation Thunderbolt made its first appearance earlier this month at Computex, marked as the "world's first" dual-interface external drive featuring these two super-speedy connections. It's housed in a sleek aluminum body with a translucent frosted top. It also features an indirect disk access LED indicator mounted on the underside which illuminates its supporting surface.

"Creating, storing and moving digital content on the go has always been a challenging proposal for all types of users as either the interface was incompatible or too slow or the storage solution was physically too large," said Brian Verenkoff, director of marketing at Buffalo Technology. "Collaborating with Intel to deliver the world’s first dual-interface Thunderbolt and USB storage solution as well as the world’s first portable Thunderbolt hard drive reaffirms Buffalo’s pioneering spirit and engineering excellence."

As previously reported, the USB 3.0 interface will provide transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps whereas the Thunderbolt connection will support up to 10 Gbps transfer speeds. The bus-powered drive will be compatible with both the Windows and Mac platforms, it won't need a separate power connection, and it will be backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports.

"The MiniStation Thunderbolt is a complete portable Thunderbolt storage solution that comes with a USB 3.0 cable and a Thunderbolt cable, normally sold separately on other Thunderbolt storage solutions," Buffalo said on Tuesday. "Simply plug it in to any available Thunderbolt or USB port on your Mac or PC and securely store files to take on the road."

THe drive's technical specs reveal it to measure 3.17(w) x 5.12(h) x 0.91(d) inches, and comes pre-formatted as HSF+. Consumers can reformat its capacity as FAT32 or NTFS for use with Windows. For more information about the dual-interface external drive, head here.

This week during Computex, Buffalo Technology demonstrated the world's first portable Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 dual-interface external drive. Dubbed the MiniStation Thunderbolt / USB Portable Hard Drive, it features a sleek aluminum body with a transparent frosted top, and an indirect disk access LED indicator on the underside that will illuminate a desktop or any other supporting surface.

"Creating, storing and moving digital content on the go has always been a challenging proposal for all types of users as either the interface was incompatible or too slow or the storage solution was physically too large," said Brian Verenkoff, director of marketing at Buffalo Technology. "Collaborating with Intel to deliver the world’s first dual-interface Thunderbolt and USB storage solution as well as the world’s first portable Thunderbolt hard drive reaffirms Buffalo’s pioneering spirit and engineering excellence."

Buffalo Japan offers a few additional details, reporting that it will be offered in 500 GB and 1 TB capacities, and technically labeled as the HD-PATU3 Series external drive. The USB 3.0 interface will provide transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps whereas the Thunderbolt connection will support up to 10 Gbps transfer speeds. It will be compatible with both the Windows and Mac platforms, it won't need a separate power connection, and it will be backwards compatible with USB 2,0 ports.

Buffalo’s MiniStation Thunderbolt drive will be available later this summer, so expect additional technical details -- along with pricing -- to be revealed soon.

Typically, SSDs use flash as cache memory as opposed to the much faster DRAM, but Buffalo says that MRAM can bridge the gap between NAND flash and DRAM and provide a much better cache solution as a result.

Flash is used today as it has non-volatile properties and does not lose its content like DRAM when the power is cut off. MRAM, which is similar to DRAM structure, is also a non-volatile memory technology, but faster than flash. The technology has been in development for more than a decade. In the 2005 time frame, MRAM was believed to have an opportunity to succeed flash as a mass-market solid state memory technology, but has been held back by low density and, as a result, high cost.

In the Buffalo device, however, the SSD uses 4 GB of NAND flash storage and just 8 MB of MRAM cache, which makes the use of MRAM a much more compelling proposition. It's not a consumer device either as the SSD will be targeted at extreme industrial applications and for integration in machinery that runs at up to 85 degrees Celsius. Buffalo states that the use of MRAM makes its SSD more reliable overall and reduces power consumption as well. However, we know that new technologies and expensive ideas tend to trickle down from the high-end if they make sense. It's not entirely unreasonable to foresee an MRAM SSD for the consumer market at some point in the future.

Following Netgear's 802.11ac entry into the networking market back in April, Austin, Texas-based Buffalo Technology is now announcing the release of two 802.11ac products of its own: the the AirStation WZR-D1800H wireless router and the WLI-H4-D1300 wireless media bridge. Both are based on Broadcom's 5G Wi-Fi chips, offering speeds up to three times faster than the 802.11n standard. Buffalo is actually claiming first to market, as Netgear's solution doesn't arrive until sometime during this half of May.

"Operating in the 5 GHz spectrum, 802.11ac offers transfer speeds up to 1300 Mbps, ideal for uninterrupted HD video streaming and concurrent Internet access," Buffalo said on Monday. "Along with gigabit speeds, Buffalo's 802.11ac products with improved radios will feature improved reliability and produce better in-home coverage for ultra-portable devices such as tablets and smart phones. As 5G WiFi proliferates into phones and tablets, the WZR-D1800H will enable even better coverage as well as incredibly fast download times, improving the battery life of clients."

Buffalo said the router integrates a class leading 2.4 GHz 3x3 802.11n radio providing backward compatibility and offering speeds up to 450 Mbps. Add that to the speeds coughed up on the 5 GHz spectrum, and users have a total aggregate wireless throughput up to 1750 Mbps. This should be ideal for family members who typically fight over bandwidth for streaming seamless video from Netflix or Hulu.

For the uninitiated, a wireless media bridge serves as a huge dual-band Wi-Fi dongle, allowing users to connect up to four Gigabit Ethernet-based devices like Blu-ray players and gaming consoles. Like the router, it features 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz radios, the former providing theoretical speeds up to 1300 Mbps. This is the ideal spectrum if the connected devices are bandwidth hogs.

Even more, Windows 7 customers could attach a Windows 7-based PC to the media bridge, install Connectify, and use that PC as a network extension for wireless devices. The only drawback is that media bridges typically create a mini-network for all connected devices, and sends/receives network requests to the router via one set IP address. This makes transferring files between the two groups a little weird. Media bridges also don't connect directly to the Internet, meaning users still need the router.

Buffalo said that both products are backed by a limited three-year warranty that includes toll-free U.S.-based technical support available 24/7. The WZR-D1800H and WLI-H4-D1300 are available now at Fry's, Frys.com and NewEgg.com at estimated street prices of $179.99 each.

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Buffalo is claiming "world's first" with the upcoming release of its portable BDXL drive, the BRXL-PC6U2-BK drive. The device is slated to launch first in Japan by the end of the month for 23,205 Yen. However, there's currently no indication of when the drive will land here in the States, or if it will sell for a comparable $286 USD.

For the uninitiated, BDXL (RE4) is a new Blu-ray specification defined back in June 2010 that allows capacities of 100 GB (three layers) and 128 GB (four layers) for write-once BD-R discs, and 100 GB for rewritable BD-RE discs.

"By using the existing Blu-ray technologies, we have created a long-term and stable solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images," said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair.

According to Buffalo, the new slim and compact drive can burn data to these new discs at 4x speed. The only drawback is that the drive requires two USB 2.0 connections to burn at full throttle, but can still perform at 2x speed by using only one USB 2.0 connection.

But until the price of BDXL discs come down, we bet supporting optical drives like this one won't be in high demand on the consumer front for quite some time. As of December 2010, the price of each 3-layer 100 GB BDXL disc roughly costs around $57 USD a piece... nearly one-fifth the price of the Buffalo BRXL-PC6U2-BK external drive itself.

Buffalo DriveStation Axis 1TB External Hard Drive (model no. HD-LB1.0TU2) on sale for $79.99 - $20 off =$59.99 with FREE shipping. Tax in most states and this is the lowest price that we have currently found.Can be positioned horizontally or vertically. Features fanless design, Mac compatible, energy efficient and improved transfer speeds.Click here for the deal.

Monday Buffalo Technology announced the upcoming release of the world's first Blu-ray burner that supports the new 100 GB (3-layer) / 128 GB (4-layer) BDXL format introduced back in April.

Currently slated for the Japanese market, Buffalo will offer external and internal options--the BRXL-6U2 connecting via a USB 2.0 port and an internal model labeled BRXL-6FBS-BK using an SATA interface. Both can record on BD-R XL discs at 4X, BD-RE XL at 2X, and two-layer BD-Rs at 6X. Special software will also be included for 3D video playback.

Although Buffalo did not offer pricing, the drives are expected to hit Japan “shortly.” Currently a North American release date is not available however the drives should reach the States sometime shortly after the initial Japanese release..

Also on Monday Pioneer announced its plans to launch a BDXL drive sometime around mid-November. This will be an internal model only that can write BD-R/-R DL discs at 6X, and BD-RE/-RE DL discs at 2X. Called the BDR-206MBK, the optical drive can also record to DVD and CD media and use a 4MB buffer. Pioneer will also include a software suite for 3D playback, video editing, backup and more.

Pioneer's BDR-206MBK will retail around $372 (30,000 yen) when it hits the Japanese market next month. As with Buffalo, Pioneer did not specify a North American release date however the drive should be available worldwide soon.

Buffalo Japan announced on Wednesday that it will make available the BG3D-PI6U2-BK, a compact, portable, external optical drive for 3D Blu-ray playback. Users simply plug the device into a USB port via Windows XP, Vista and 7 to view 3D Blu-ray movies or other 3D content. Naturally consumers will need a 3D-enabled PC or display to view the content.

According to the specs, the portable drive measures 5.39 x 5.78 x 0.78-inches and weighs 340g. The Blu-ray drive writes data on BD-R/RDL6 discs at 6x, and on BD-RE/RE DL discs at 2x. The drive will cost around $354 and is expected to hit Japanese stores within the month.

So far a North American release has not been announced, however Buffalo devices typically come to the States after a Japanese release.

Recently Buffalo made the larger MediaStation 12x external USB 3.0 Blue-ray writer available to consumers in the States. Deemed as the fastest external drive on the market, the optical drive measures 6.3 x 2.0 x 8.7-inches and is capable of writing speeds of up to 12x for BD-R (SL/DL), 2x for BD-RE (SL/DL), 16x for DVD-R/+R, and more. The drive also comes bundled with software that supports 3D Blu-ray.

Expect to hear more about the thinner BG3D-PI6U2-BK optical drive next month.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Retail Drives Reviewed

USB 3.0 hasn’t yet become the standard interface for external connectivity, but only because there still aren’t any chipsets that come with integrated USB 3.0 controllers. The interface itself is mature, and there are more and more storage products and host adapters coming to market. Today we're looking at three new USB 3.0 devices  (two portable 2.5” drives and one 3.5” external storage product) to get a glimpse of what the future has in store.

We first wrote about the finalized USB 3.0 specification in 2008 and provided a detailed article on USB 3.0 roughly a year ago. Another story on different PCI Express implementations that might bottleneck USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s solutions provides more insight, and we analyzed a few USB 3.0 enclosures for 2.5” hard drives, as well. Finally, you could look at our USB 3.0 thumb drive review from a few weeks ago. Now, it’s time to look at retail storage products.

Less technical users might wonder why USB 3.0 is so important given that USB 2.0 works fine. True though that may be, USB 2.0 bandwidth is effectively capped at just over 30 MB/s. This creates a serious bottleneck that not only impedes enthusiasts, but also mainstream users who find themselves waiting longer for file transfers as they try to move more data.

Consider a few examples. If you mainly handle small files, then you probably don’t need to worry about USB 3.0 just yet. However, high-definition content and large media libraries (photos, videos, music), as well as backups, require larger and larger disk capacities. Sure, you can buy huge hard drives nowadays for relatively little cost, but it's actually the time required to copy your data over an external interface that turns into the real issue. A 20 GB system backup typically requires 12 to 15 minutes to copy onto a USB 2.0 drive. A large 400 GB video archive  can take hours. If you’re in a hurry, that's too bad. Fortunately, USB 3.0-based solutions require only 1/3 or even 1/4 of the time.

Let’s look at what the three new USB 3.0 drives from A-Data, Buffalo, and Western Digital can do for you.

USB 3.0 Basics And Connectors

USB 3.0 sports a raw bandwidth of 5 Gb/s versus USB 2.0’s 480 Mb/s, and the beauty is that USB 3.0 will eventually entail no additional cost. For now, USB 2.0 remains the undisputed standard for thumb drives, external storage, portable drives, smart phones, digital cameras, and anything else requiring a cheap, reliable data interface. It will take a few years until USB 3.0 becomes as popular as USB 2.0, and there will be segments in which USB 3.0 isn’t necessary at all.

USB is backward compatible, meaning that a USB 3.0 device also supports USB 2.0 speeds, just like USB 2.0 supports the 12 Mb/s link speed of USB 1.1. All you need are suitable cables. The type A USB 3.0 connector is mechanically similar to the USB 2.0 plug, but it comes with additional wires for USB 3.0 link speeds. If these aren’t available on both the plug and the port, the USB link will automatically run at USB 2.0’s 480 Mb/s speed. Type B is the new Micro USB connector, which we found on all three hard drives in this review. Compared to Micro USB 2.0, the new connector offers a flatter design, which will help devices with USB 3.0 type B plugs to be thinner.

Most portable USB storage devices don’t have a power plug, but larger external drives do. This is because of the power requirements. SSDs and 2.5” hard drives can typically be powered through the USB connection, while 3.5” drives and RAID solutions require more peak power than this link can carry. This is the case for the WD MyBook 3.0 we’ll review in a moment.

A-Data Nobility NH01 (500 GB)

A-Data specializes in memory products, but the company also focuses on storage devices, including SSDs, and both external and portable drives. The Nobility NH01 is the company’s first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 drive. It can be located on the A-Data Web site under the portable storage section. The firm promises throughput of up to 95 MB/s on the 2.5” form factor.

The Nobility NH01 is available at 320 GB, 500 GB, and 640 GB capacities. The 6.7-ounce weight is only a bit heavier than an iPhone, so the drive is clearly portable. The black plastic case sports a glossy frame, and there are no buttons or other controls. Just plug in the USB 3.0 cable to switch the drive on and unplug it to power down. A-Data bundles a USB 3.0 cable, but nothing else.

We measured a maximum interface bandwidth of almost 182 MB/s, but the actual throughput is much lower. Peak performance reaches almost 77 MB/s with minimum transfer rates of 38.6 MB/s, making it faster than Buffalo’s offering, yet clearly slower than the 3.5” drive from Western Digital, which isn’t really a portable option. Our real-world copy testing shows that the drive is also faster than Buffalo's when reading or writing different file types and sizes, plus it actually also outperforms WD’s product in this test. I/O performance isn’t spectacular, but you wouldn’t expect much from an external storage product anyway.

We couldn't find the drive on various price comparison sites in the U.S., but the roughly 100 Euro price suggests a retail tag of approximately $130. Compared to the more than $100 price points for 500 GB portable drives, this seems reasonable. A-Data provides a three-year factory warranty on all portable storage products.

Buffalo MiniStation Lite (HDPE500U3, 500 GB)

Buffalo is strong on networking and network storage devices, but the firm also offers basic storage products. The MiniStation Lite (HDPE500U3) is being offered in 500 GB and 640 GB capacity points with a two-year warranty. The case is black and glossy; Buffalo calls it Crystal Black. Four other colors are available, as well. A USB 3.0 cable comes included, and the weight mirrors A-Data’s 6.7 ounces.

While A-Data claims throughput of up to 95 MB/s that it could not reach, Buffalo advertises up to 78 MB/s and actually tests very close to that target. Peak throughput was limited to 67 MB/s. Minimum transfer rates dropped to 32.8 MB/s, which is still as much as USB 2.0 delivers.

The MiniStation Lite takes the bronze in our benchmark results, but it is still twice as fast as conventional USB 2.0 drives on data transfers. Also, Buffalo bundles encryption software called SecureLockMobile. After installation, you can create a custom capacity container and select 128- or 256-bit AES encryption. The encrypted container behaves like a ZIP archive. You can drag and drop files into it, but you can’t execute software out of it. Instead, programs are copied and executed in your temporary files location. We find other tools like TrueCrypt to be better, since the container can be mapped and used as an additional drive.

Other Buffalo add-ons, including TurboPC and TurboCopy, weren’t really exciting, either. TurboPC acts as a system cache for the MiniStation Lite, and TurboCopy is an Explorer extension that adds “TurboCopy” to the Explorer context menu. Since we had to return the drive very quickly, we couldn’t do extensive testing, but the performance gains don’t move the MiniStation Lite USB 3.0 much closer to A-Data’s performance. In addition, most users probably won’t think of using an extra app, and might not want to install additional software.

Western Digital MyBook 3.0 (1 TB)

Our third USB 3.0 drive, WD’s MyBook 3.0, is based on a 3.5” hard drive and the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. The external hard drive looks somewhat like a book made from black plastic. Since it’s not glossy, you don’t see fingerprints on it as easily as many other drives. With an overall weight of 2.6 lbs., we wouldn’t quite call this portable.

WD’s drive bundle includes a x1 PCI Express add-on controller for USB 3.0. Such cards aren’t available from A-Data, but Buffalo has a similar (optional) product. We like WD’s decision here because it lets users take advantage of the higher transfer speeds immediately.

The MyBook 3.0 is substantially faster than the two other drives in our read/write copy tests with the exception of the small files test, where throughput is slowed down by frequent head repositioning. We measured peak throughput of up to 141 MB/s. This is an excellent result, and just as fast as an internal hard drive would be. The minimum throughput of 69 MB/s is actually faster than Buffalo’s maximum transfer rate. We also found the 14.7 ms access time to be very quick, and even the I/O performance results are impressive.

WD provides a two-year warranty in the U.S. There are 1 TB and 2 TB models available, with or without the PCIe adapter. Keep in mind that the card won’t work in older systems lacking PCI Express slots.

WD has MyBook 3.0 products with or without a bundled USB 3.0 controller for x1 PCI Express 2.0. Watch for a red sticker on the box that indicates a complete bundle.

Test Details, Test Setup and Comparison Table

Test Details

We ran several benchmarks for storage testing, including c’t Magazine’s h2benchw benchmark for throughput testing and Iometer for I/O performance. However, we decided to add a few more tests that reflect everyday usage, so we created batch scripts that copy a certain number of JPEGs, MP3s, and small text files. We tested read and write speeds and used Microsoft’s Robocopy utility, which comes with Windows Vista and 7. Last but not least, we used IOMeter to test average combined throughput if the drives have to read and write concurrently.

Copy Workloads:

Images (JPEG and RAW files), 2.01 GB (2,167,562,240 bytes), 790 files, 1 folder
Music (MP3 and WAV files), 2.00 GB (2,149,851,136 bytes), 356 files, 33 folders
Small files (TXT, XLS, DOC files), 395 MB (414,482,432 bytes), 22,704 files, 2,167 folders

We used an IODrive from FusionIO to avoid any bottlenecks in the copy testing.

Test Setup

Benchmark Results: Throughput

As expected, the fastest drive in this roundup is WD’s MyBook 3.0, not because of superior design or implementation, but due to the use of a 3.5” drive. The A-Data and Buffalo solutions are based on 2.5” drives, which are slower on throughput.

Write performance is comparable to the read results.

Interface performance shows the peak bandwidth that the USB 3.0 implementations could reach if only the drives were fast enough. Clearly, SSDs on USB 3.0 would make sense for enthusiasts.

Benchmark Results: Access Time And I/O Performance

Access times are very close to what we’re familiar with on bare drives. It appears that the USB 3.0 interface doesn’t introduce much latency.

The I/O performance results show what could happen if many concurrent users or programs access your USB 3.0 drive.

Benchmark Results: Copy And Combined Read/Write Testing

The following tests are based on copy batch scripts using Microsoft’s Robocopy tool.

The MyBook 3.0 delivers much better performance thanks to its higher throughput.

However, the fastest drive overall isn’t necessarily fastest if only small files need to be copied. If you need to handle thousands of log files or similar data, the 2.5” drives will effectively be as fast as the more powerful 3.5” drive by WD.

Simultaneous writes and reads are also quickest on the 3.5” WD MyBook 3.0.

Conclusion

The three drives we're looking at represent some of the first USB 3.0 products. There will be many more in the following months, flooding the market with drives all claiming to be fastest. Our three products deliver great performance compared to USB 2.0 solutions, reaching at least twice the throughput as prior-generation products. If we judge only by generational progress, then all three drives can be recommended. They behave and perform very much like an internal hard drive.

However, significant differences between these drives remain, so it’s important to know exactly what you need before making a decision. WD’s MyBook 3.0 drive is hard to compare against the A-Data and Buffalo drives since it’s based on a 1 TB, 3.5” drive and the two others use 500 GB, 2.5” drives. As a result, WD beats the 2.5” drives in almost all performance benchmarks at the expense of portability. Users looking for stationary external storage will get maximum throughput and capacity from WD’s lineup. Since our MyBook 3.0 kit included a PCI Express USB 3.0 adapter, users with fairly modern PCs get a complete solution here.

The two other drives differ in performance. A-Data’s Nobility NH01 drive delivers noticeably higher throughput, most likely because of a faster internal hard drive. In exchange, Buffalo bundles a few pieces of software with its MiniStation Lite USB 3.0. A-Data remains faster, despite Buffalo’s software optimization. Our benchmarks list test results without additional software in order to maintain a level playing field.

In the end, WD has the first retail USB 3.0 external storage product and provides great performance comparable to SATA/eSATA storage. In the portable offerings, price should probably be the deciding factor for mainstream users. Enthusiasts looking for high-speed portable drives will want the A-Data Nobility NH01 for its higher performance. It's unfortunate, then, that A-Data hasn't seen fit to make the drive available yet in North America.

Consumers looking for solid state disk (SSD) speeds and capacities--but are stuck with an IDE-based motherboard--will soon see a solution from Buffalo. Slated for a release later this month, a new 256GB addition to its current line of IDE-based SHD-NHPU2 SSDs will offer both a USB 2.0 connection and an IDE interface. The SHD-NHPU2 line was originally introduced back in April.

Although the drives use multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory and 64MB of DRAM cache, end-users won't see blazing fast improvements as they would if using an SATA 2-based motherboard and SSD. Still, there should be some slight improvement when compared to the clunkier mechanical hard drive. For consumers with low budgets, this may be a cheap way to increase performance without buying a new motherboard and processor.

Reports indicate that this new 256GB addition will provide read speeds of up to 101 MB/s (no writes indicated) and come in a standard 2.5-inch package measuring 70-mm x 100-mm x 9.5-mm. This particular drive will be priced at $1,220 when it hits the market, however no specific date or retailer was given (and will not be available in Europe).

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Graph It (iPhone/iPad) App for $0 (normally $.99).

Monopoly (iPhone/iPad) App for $2.99 (normally $4.99).

SimCity (iPhone/iPad) App for $2.99 (normally $4.99).

Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front (iPhone/iPad) App for $6.99 (normally $7.99).

Buffalo announced today that it is launching a series of solid state drives (SSDs) that address the needs of users with older machines--namely those old-school notebooks without SATA connections. Arriving in a 2.5-inch form factor, the new SHD-NHPU2 line will instead offer Parallel ATA (Ultra ATA/133 UDMA mode 6) support and a USB 2.0 jack located in the back.

Along with 64MB of buffer cache, the drives are capable of up to 101.3MB/s through the PATA connection. As for storage capacities, the new SHD-NHPU2 line will be offered in three delicious flavors: 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities. The 32GB model will cost consumers around $250, $360 for the 64GB version, and $630 for the 128GB version.

The drawback--at least for now--is that the SSDs are hitting the Japanese market. Still, it's only a matter of time before the SHD-NHPU2s line eventually hit stateside--at least through Newegg or other online venues.

Introduction

Meeting the folks who read Tom's Hardware and Tom's Guide is always a real treat, whether we're at a convention, a LAN party, or even on the street. It's even better when they're able to swing by the office, especially when it's our shiny new office in downtown Culver City, California.

Last weekend, five readers, who were chosen at random, had such an opportunity. They stopped by our facility to give us some feedback on AMD's Eyefinity technology, which is part of all ATI Radeon HD 5000-series cards launch thus far. No reader was harmed in the making of this photo album or video, we promise.

If you'd like to read a little more about our initial impressions of Eyefinity, check out this page from Chris Angelini's Radeon HD 5870 launch coverage.

THG Readers Unite!

Meet the readers who were kind enough to stop by, from left to right: Eddie, Chris, Kyle, Lucas, and Anthony.

The Eyefinity Setup

The day was focused on an AMD Eyefinity gaming setup, which consisted of a powerful desktop PC and three widescreen monitors. Running at a total resolution of 5760x1080, Eyefinity (as you know) allows you to to use three monitors through a single Radeon 5000-series graphics card. Every card in the family can utilize the technology, even if it takes some ingenuity. Our Eyefinity rig employs three Dell ST2310 monitors, and each 23-inch LCD is running at 1920x1080 on its own.

The "Standard" Setup

For the sake of comparison, we also had a gaming rig with one 22-inch monitor set up. Not to give a single-display gaming setup a negative connotation, but you'll agree that it isn't as impressive as the Eyefinity rig. The monitor here is a 22-inch 1920x1080 LCD from HP.

What's Inside The Box?

While the monitor configuration is certainly different, the insides of each computer are more or less the same, with a few subtle exceptions. Each system is using an ATI Radeon HD 5870, a Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition @ 3.2 GHz, an MSI 785GM-E65 Socket AM3 motherboard, 4GB of Corsair DDR3 memory, and one 150GB VelociRaptor from Western Digital. All of that hardware is enclosed in a sleek Lian-Li case.

The differences: the Eyefinity-based config utilizes an 800W Thermaltake power supply, while the other box uses a Corsair TX 750. Also, the Eyefinity rig has a BD-ROM drive, but this wasn't used at all during the day's festivities. Again, these systems are as similar as you can get.

Mingling In The Office

Here the readers are staring in disbelief at what my desk looks like. The Dell laptop, the LowePro camera bag...I know, it's awe-inspiring!

Dragon Age On One Monitor

The Tom's readers start by playing a little Dragon Age: Origins on the single-monitor setup. The Radeon HD 5870 serves up enough performance to make this a smooth experience, whether you're playing at 1920x1080 or 5760x1080 on one or three monitors. We didn't take many videos of the game being played on the Eyefinity setup, but check out the video on page one for more extensive coverage of that setup.

Gaming On Eyefinity

While Dragon Age: Origins was the game everyone wanted to see and play (since it is specifically optimized for three displays), we did have plenty of other games to try out. Reader Anthony is playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. A bit squished-looking at some points, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

H.A.W.X., Anyone?

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. is a prime example of a game capable of making you lust after three displays. Flight simulators and combat titles can take serious advantage of the extra space, giving reader Lucas a fantastic extra-wide view of the battlefield. Because the game isn't twitchy (your combat flights are smooth, for the most part), it's possible to take in much more of the environment shown on three monitors.

Supreme Commander

The Supreme Commander series includes some of the best-looking games available. And they're resource hogs, too. It takes a lot of muscle to make this title look this good on three monitors, but the Radeon HD 5870 and Phenom II X4 955 handled it without breaking a sweat. We weren't as concerned with running benchmark numbers here as we were with making sure each of these titles we tried (many for the first time) actually looked good and were playable.

Supreme Commander, Close-Up

A better view of the action...

Prizes!

No trip to the Tom's Hardware office would be complete without some free stuff! We had some great Tom's swag, as well as gear from Creative, Buffalo, Gigabyte, Nikon, SanDisk, and Zalman.

Before The Drawing

The prizes were given away randomly, to be fair. While all the prizes were a pleasure to give away, the Zalman water cooling kit was probably the most coveted item. Each reader was also given a Dragon Age: Origins activation key to be used with the EA Download Manager. Along with the game, you also get the full soundtrack and too many desktop backgrounds to count.

After The Drawing...

After a random drawing, the loot was split amongst them...

Kyle's Prize

Kyle, who was thinking about using a water-cooling system on his home gaming rig anyways, was ecstatic about the Zalman system he received. Put it to good use, dude!

Chris' Prize

Chris walked away with a digital camera from Nikon and an SD card from SanDisk. Here's hoping that we inspired the shutter-bug within!

Lucas' Prize

Lucas won a Socket AM2+ motherboard from Gigabyte. The hammer on the right is the coveted Tom's Hardware multi-tool with built-in screwdrivers. Legend says these go for hundreds of dollars on eBay (Ed.: a valiant attempt at boosting the market price of the box of hammers in the office, Devin).

Anthony's Prize

The more storage, the better, is my motto. Anthony seemed to agree when we gave him a 500GB external hard drive from Buffalo.

Eddie's Prize

Last but not least, Eddie came away from the event with some I-Trigue 3330 speakers from Creative. By the look of it, someone else at the event was pretty jealous...

The Gang

It was an exciting Saturday at the Tom's Hardware offices. Junk food was eaten, games were played, jaws were dropped (and put back into place), and prizes were won.

We want to send out a huge "thank you" to AMD and EA for providing the hardware and software, as well as our other sponsors, who provided the prizes. Also, thanks to Kyle, Eddie, Anthony, Chris, and Lucas for coming in and making the video shoot a blast. Until next time!

On Turkey Day (last Thursday), Buffalo revealed the BR-X126U3, an external Blu-ray burner that can cram data on both single and dual layer Blu-ray disks at 12x write speeds. While the new external burner certainly makes a tasty alternative to shoving an internal drive into an open bay (or chucking out the current lame DVD burner), the USB 3.0 connection should make it even that more appealing.

That is, of course, if consumers have swapped out current motherboards for newer ones with USB 3.0 support. Those who want the SuperSpeed love without having to tear apart the desktop could always resort to various PCI-e cards just hitting the market, providing USB 3.0 without all the fuss.

But don't fret: consumers who want Buffalo's self-touted "fastest Blu-ray burner ever" can still plug the external drive into a USB 2.0 port. The drawback is that Buffalo's burner throttles the burn speed down to 7X, making it a slow burn compared to the speedier option of 25 GB in 11 minutes.

According to Akihabara, the new Blu-ray burner is expected to hit Japan by the end of December for a whopping $453 USD (39100 Yen). Currently there's no word of when the external drive will appear in the States, so stay tuned for more.

Get more tech and gaming news by hitting me up on Twitter here.

Differentiation Doesn’t Always Help

We receive lots of different storage products for review. Regardless of whether or not we like the different concepts, ideas, and solutions these products represent, we typically find that most of them make sense in some way—unless they fail utterly at performance, reliability, or providing decent bang for the buck.

This time we looked at three storage products that are a bit different from what you’ll typically find at your local retailer. Buffalo offers all-flash portable storage, Chaintech sells a flash SSD that comes with an additional USB port, and LaCie sent us a state-of-the-art RAID product based on two 2.5” drives.

LaCie: Fast and Mobile Storage

LaCie is a popular storage vendor that is known for well designed, high-performance storage solutions for enthusiasts at the high end, or for small business users. The Little Big Disk Quadra is, despite its oxymoronic name, that type of an elite drive. It consists of two 500 GB 2.5” mobile hard drives inside a stylish and solid enclosure. It offers all popular interface types, and RAID technology to maximize performance. If you really need to combine high capacity and high performance with mobility, then this could be your product.

Buffalo, Chaintech: More Flash, Just Different

The flash market, especially the flash SSD segment, is changing so quickly that it is very difficult for smaller companies to keep pace. They are constantly working to release attractive products at acceptable prices before someone else releases the next product generation—which can sometimes offer double the performance and capacity at the same price points.

Because of this issue, Buffalo and Chaintech provide products for very specific niches that are less sensitive to product cycles. Buffalo believes that there is room for 1.8” storage products that are entirely based on flash memory. We tend to disagree at capacities of up to 64 GB—where you can get USB thumb drives—but in the range of 128 GB and more, this looks like a market segment to address. Chaintech believes that flash SSDs should not be limited to the SATA interface, and designed a 2.5” flash SSD, which comes both with SATA/300 and USB 2.0 interfaces.

Let’s look at some details.

Buffalo Microstation Portable Silicon Disk, SHD-UHR64GS (64 GB)

We’ve looked at various Buffalo storage products before, including 500 GB portable drives, a Ministation with the Turbo USB feature, a 1 TB Drive Station, and such exotic devices as the Power Booster. This time, we received another exotic product: the Microstation Portable Silicon Disk looks and behaves like other portable, 2.5” HDD-based drives, but is entirely built from flash memory. Buffalo offers 32, 64, and 100 GB capacities. We received the 64 GB model for review, which promises throughput of up to 35 MB/s thanks to Buffalo’s software-assisted TurboUSB. This technology requires a driver to increase throughput, but Buffalo doesn’t explain how it actually works.

Small and Lightweight

The Microstation Portable Silicon Disk utilizes a 1.8” form factor, making it smaller than most 2.5”-based portable drives. However, the USB cable, which conveniently wraps around three sides of the device, requires some more space, effectively making the drive utilize almost the physical space of a 2.5” drive. Still, it is much lighter than a 2.5” unit, at only 64 g (2.26 oz). Even though Buffalo says that it should be 57 g, it is nonetheless amazingly light, and the device is more robust than 1.8” storage devices that are based on hard drives. The Buffalo drives just do not yet reach the 160 GB capacities of HDD-based portable storage products—with more to come soon. The maximum power consumption of 1.25 W is an excellent value that cannot be matched by any mechanical USB 2.0 1.8” hard drive.

Not Fast Enough and Quite Expensive

We found in prior reviews that TurboUSB operation increases throughput by a few megabytes per second, but since this product is meant to be a portable storage device, you might not always want (or be allowed) to install a driver to manage data on the drive. That’s why we decided to try the device via regular USB 2.0. We also did not run all benchmarks on Chaintech’s drive using SATA (it’s not eSATA compatible), but mainly using USB 2.0.

Overall performance of the Buffalo device was acceptable, but the drive is split into two major segments that show different characteristics. Both segments allow reading data at 30 MB/s, but write performance differs: while the first 32 GB can only be written at around 12 MB/s, the second half of the drive writes at 22 MB/s.

Finally, the $150 price tag is not cheap, as you can get hard drive based storage products at half that price. Clearly, the Portable Silicon Disk is only worth it if you insist on the robustness of its flash memory, or if you wait for prices to drop some more.

Software

Buffalo bundles two tools with its product: SecureLockWare allows encrypting files or the entire drive, and Mobile Launcher 1.25 includes the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client. Since all settings are stored by Mobile Launcher, you always have your personalized browser and email settings with you on the Buffalo drive.

The Mobile Launcher installs into the Windows tray once you connect the Microstation.

Mobile Launcher allows you to take your Firefox and Thunderbird browser and email client settings with you.

The Mobile Launcher program starts Firefox off the drive without requiring any installation.

SecureLockWare is a tool to encrypt individual files or an entire drive.

Select the parameters for encryption…

… and for decryption of files.

You can adjust encryption performance by changing the compression level.

You can select a password of up to 127 characters, and set a password hint text, if you want.

Access to the encrypted drive requires entering the password.

Encryption can be triggered easily, if you have the password.

Decryption can be done as well, again, as long as you know the password.

Walton Chaintech Apogee 64 GB

Apogee is Walton Chaintech’s brand for memory modules, and it is now also used for flash SSDs. The Apogee SSDs are available at 32, 64 and 128 GB capacity points, and are based on either MLC or SLC flash memory. We received a 64 GB 2.5” MLC model, which is the reason for the poor write performance. We measured up to 111 MB/s on reads, but as little as 27 MB/s on writes—that’s only a fraction of the 149 to 89 MB/s promised on the Walton Chaintech website, and it’s even less than what USB 2.0 can support. Chaintech says that the SLC versions are faster, stating 163 MB/s for reads and up to 142 MB/s for writes. We are skeptical, upon looking at the results for our MLC-based sample.

However, the 0.68 W to 1.8 W power consumption is very acceptable, and the drive comes with a second interface: you can also connect it via USB 2.0. This is the main reason why we included it in this little roundup, as it can either be used as a system drive, or as a portable storage device. Thanks to its low power consumption, the device runs on USB power. Its weight of 86 g is approximately 15% less than what a conventional 2.5” hard drive would weigh.

USB 2.0 Performance

SATA or USB 2.0: The Mini USB port lets you hook up this drive to a plethora of possible hosts. All you need is a suitable Mini USB to USB cable (which isn’t included with the drive).

We looked at the Apogee SSD as a multi-purpose flash SSD, rather than as a drive that would serve as a system drive. For example, you could use it in a hot swap bay as a fast drive for your personal files on your PC. In this case, you would, of course, utilize the fast SATA interface, which provides up to 111 MB/s of throughput, as mentioned above. Whenever you need to travel, you could remove the drive, and hook it up to your notebook or other PCs using the USB interface.

We talk about the Apogee's SATA performance in our most recent flash SSD roundup and focus on the USB performance here. The drive reads at approximately 30 MB/s, which is what we’d expect, but it only writes at approximately 15 MB/s when using USB 2.0. Flash-based SSDs can definitely do much better than this.

Walton Chaintech ships the Apogee Flash SSD SATA II in this nice black box.

The bottom side holds the product label.

LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra 1 TB

LaCie’s Little Big Disk Quadra is a controversial product. First of all, we have to point out the price of $599.99, which deserves being called “excessive” in the light of current hard drive prices, which have reached $100 for a 500 GB 2.5” mobile unit. That heavy price will get you the Little Big Disk Quadra, which comes in an enclosure that was designed by Neil Poulton.

You get eSATA, USB 2.0, and both types of FireWire interfaces, as well as the option to run the device powered by the FireWire interface. Unfortunately, neither eSATA nor USB 2.0 can do this—USB 2.0 can’t supply sufficient power, and power over eSATA has not been specified. LaCie adds a small power supply for USB and eSATA users, though, and you’d need an external supply for any other storage device that offers 1 TB of storage as well.

Terabyte Capacity Thanks to RAID 0

The terabyte capacity can be achieved by operating the two drives in RAID 0 striping mode, which results in considerably increased read and write throughput when compared to a single hard drive. The result is convincing: almost 100 MB/s of read and write throughput, and a minimum of at least 70 MB/s is not bad, although solid RAID 0 setups using two modern 2.5” drives could probably yield even better throughput. Using FireWire 800 will give you more than 65 MB/s read and 51 MB/s constant write throughput, while USB 2.0 is limited to 33 MB/s reads and 27 MB/s writes. We found that the device supports only RAID 0; a secure RAID 1 array cannot be configured.

Impressive Build Quality and Power Consumption

The aluminum case, with its hard drives built in, is certainly a heavyweight at 645 g (1.4 lbs), but again, we have to compare that to other 1 TB 3.5” solutions, which won’t be lighter. And the enclosure is amazingly well built and makes a solid impression. The rear side includes all of the interfaces, such as eSATA, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, while the front holds the huge, blue status LED and backup button.

We also liked the power consumption figures: a 4 W idle power requirement and peak power consumption of 7 W is really amazing, considering that it is necessary to power two 2.5” hard drives, the RAID logic and the power supply. Unfortunately, LaCie did not include a physical power switch, which forces users to disconnect the power supply if they want to completely shut down the Little Big Disk.

LaCie Software

LaCie bundles a backup solution with its product, which is nice, but does not particularly add value. It is essentially a copy utility that creates new backups by creating a new folder. Folders are named by the name of the backup paired with an index, and backups are always complete—it’s not possible to make incremental backups, nor to schedule them. The only option is an automated execution of the backup tool at the time Windows starts, which will automatically trigger a backup run.

Test Setup, Transfer Diagrams

Transfer Diagram: Buffalo Microstation Portable Silicon Disk

Transfer Diagram: Chaintech Apogee SSD

Transfer Diagrams: LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra 1 TB

Read/Write Throughput

Access Time, Power Requirement

Compared to other 1 TB storage solutions, the LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra requires the lowest operating power.

Conclusion

These three storage products are certainly different from mainstream products, but it is questionable as to whether or not the different approaches make sense.

The Buffalo device looks like a portable 1.8” hard drive with a USB interface cable wrapped around the drive. It is available in capacities of up to 100 GB, and it comes at a premium price due to its flash memory architecture. It is robust, but it does not deliver the performance you’d expect from a flash-based premium storage device, even if you install the TurboUSB drivers. The Microstation Portable Silicon Disk works well, and it is convenient, but it’s expensive, and not really superior to other portable storage solutions. Check prices before shopping—you can get a portable 320-500 GB hard drive for the same money.

Chaintech provides a flash SSD with SATA/300 and USB 2.0 interfaces, which in theory provides ideal connectivity. But the device faces the same challenges as Buffalo’s Microstation: portable hard drives provide much greater capacity at a lower cost with similar performance, making robustness and SATA performance the only real advantages. We included this drive in our most recent SSD roundup, so if you'd like to check out its SATA performance, be sure to give that story a read.

Finally, there is LaCie’s Little Big Disk Quadra, which provides excellent benchmark results and impressive build quality. The drive is fast, very power efficient and relatively light, thanks to its RAID 0 array layout and two 2.5” 500 GB hard drives. It can even be bus-powered if you use FireWire, while USB 2.0 or eSATA require using the power supply. However, there is no option to set the drive to safe RAID 1 mode, and its backup software is disappointing considering the device’s hefty $599.99 price.

Mainstream ready?

How do you define mainstream in an enthusiast market dominated by value-seeking overclockers ? Everyone loves performance. Yet, even in enthusiast circles the average buyer is looking for the best value. A memory budget limit of $200 should be reasonable for a mid-priced performance PC, and kits over $300 should be reserved for big-spenders, but that leaves a huge grey area in the middle.

Vendors and readers alike have been asking for a DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) shootout ever since our DDR3-1333 Comparison, but we waited for these parts to reach mainstream prices before obliging. By the time 2 GB kits finally reached out price point, the reality of living with Windows Vista and its huge memory demands had finally set in.

That left us in another tight spot. Should we compare the sub-$200 2 GB kits an average enthusiast can afford, or should we instead choose the 4 GB capacity that performance buyers really want ? Capacity was the dominating factor for us.

The average buyer might instead choose a DDR2 configuration, but that would only be a short-term solution. Intel’s new socket is on the way, with mainstream parts following the high-end release by only a few short months. Today’s article comes in anticipation of tomorrow’s needs.

9/26/08—Update : Our tests in this story were conducted on an ASUS X48-based motherboard chosen for its overclocking capabilities in our X48 Motherboard Comparison, Part 2. However, the benchmarks in that piece were run using a pair of 1 GB (single-sided) memory modules, resulting in the observed performance.

We didn’t see the same yields in this comparison of 4 GB kits made up of double-sided modules—clear from our overclocking results across the board. We weren’t the only ones to notice the shortfall, though. We’ve been talking to representatives at Corsair, who say the company’s own 4 GB kit should be able to do more than 1,800 MHz, whereas we clocked them under 1,700.

As it turns out, Corsair’s testing reveals that you may need a northbridge voltage manually set to 1.61 V in order to achieve optimal overclocking of these 4 GB kits with the X48’s memory controller. Given the 1.25 V stock voltage of X48, we wouldn’t recommend running voltages that high for prolonged periods of time. However, it is worth noting that faster frequencies should be possible for many, if not all of these kits.

Aeneon XTune AHX860UD20-16H-K-4G

Aeneon may be the retail brand for famed manufacturer Qimonda, but old timers will instead remember the company from which Qimonda was spun, Infineon. Today’s first set of modules are also the only parts to run full rated speed and timings at JEDEC standard 1.50 volts

The use of standard voltage means these parts don’t require any extravagant cooling solution, but the standard voltage also implies run-of-the-mill timings. Thus, rated latencies of 9-9-9-28 are not surprising for XTune PC3-12800 modules.

What is surprising is that Aeneon didn’t go by the book with its SPD timing values, tossing in both XMP and EPP 2.0 modes in addition to odd speeds such as DDR3-1500 and DDR3-1866. In fact, even though the package explicitly states that no more than 1.50 volts are needed, the rated speed and timings are only programmed with an elevated XMP voltage.

We found XTune DDR3-1600 modules ran quite easily at rated speed and timings using only 1.50 volts, just as the package stated.

Using two AHX860UD20-16H modules, Aeneon’s XTune AHX860UD20-16H-K-4G dual-channel kit is the only product in this roundup to achieve its full ratings at stock voltage. All of its competitors use higher-voltage “factory-overclocked” settings. But this key advantage comes with a disappointing lack of automatic configuration data, forcing neophytes to jump into unfamiliar territory of manual BIOS configuration, just as with competing products.

Memory that doesn’t require over-voltage to run at its rated speed probably uses higher grade chips, adding to the product’s expense. That added expense shows up as a slightly elevated Web price starting at around $360 for Aeneon’s AHX860UD20-16H-K-4G set.

Buffalo FireStix FSI1600D3G-2G (FSI1600D3G-K4G)

Buffalo sent two separate packages of its high-end FireStix FSI1600D3G-2G modules, rather than the –K4G twin pack. We expect to see a lot of companies make the switch back to individual packages as we approach the launch of Intel’s next-generation triple-channel memory configuration, but Buffalo appears to be ahead of the market this time.

However, Buffalo doesn’t lead the market in distribution. We only found the –K4G twin pack in Japan and the -2G single modules in Germany. To the best of our knowledge, today’s comparison is the first time these parts will appear in the United States and we can’t even quote a U.S. dollar price. Until we do find these in the broader market, we’ll have to treat this as a preview set.

CPU-Z detects these as DDR3-1333 modules, which implies that they consist of lower-speed components that have a factory overclock rating. There’s always the possibility that these really are DDR3-1600 parts of higher rated voltage, and that the lower speeds were simply chosen to make sure any system would boot at default voltage. Our overclocking test will reveal more about how well FireStix FSI1600D3G-2G modules compare to competing parts.

Corsair XMS3 TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV

Corsair takes a multi-layered approach to memory cooling with two additional rows of fins to cool its circuit board, a method that occasionally gives its products a slight overclocking advantage while allowing somewhat higher voltage levels than competing products. The extra cooling can’t turn ordinary components into golden samples, however.

Standard timings at elevated voltage sends up a red flag for factory-overclocked modules made of slower parts. But Corsair has a plethora of overclocking data to prove that its XMS3-1600 uses top-quality parts.

Two CM3X2G1600C9DHXNV modules comprise the TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV dual-channel kit, each rated at 9-9-9-24 timings for DDR3-1600 speed using 1.80 volts. EPP 2.0 extensions allow the higher speed and voltage to be semi-automatically configured in the BIOS of Nvidia-based motherboards by selecting the appropriate profile.

Corsair’s TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV has so many SPD timings that CPU-Z runs out of registers without showing EPP 2.0 extensions, but EPP 2.0 values for these modules’ rated settings are well-documented by Corsair. Corsair recommends using the nForce 790i Ultra SLI-equipped Asus Striker II Extreme for best overclocking results.

Web prices starting around $330 exceed Corsair’s estimates by 10%, so we expect a noticeable decline over the next few weeks.

Kingston HyperX KHX12800D3K2/4G

Better known for its value-oriented upgrade parts, Kingston has a long, but lesser-known history in the performance market under its HyperX brand. Its KHX12800D3K2/4G dual-channel kit offers many of the similar specifications as those of better-known competitors, but with less superficiality.

Rated timings of 9-9-9-27 at DDR3-1600 and 1.70-1.90 volts sounds very familiar. The moderate timings and voltage levels once again hint at factory-overclocking of lesser-rated parts, but our own overclocking test is a more reliable way of defining quality.

The most troubling aspect of Kingston’s timing tables is that they don’t even go as high as DDR3-1333. Yet DDR3-1066 is a setting that Intel chipsets can use with FSB-1600, so at least the modules will be boot-stable prior to the mandated manual BIOS adjustment.

Kingston even prices its HyperX DDR3-1600 similarly to its competitors, and we found a familiar-looking Web price range starting at around $330. The lack of fancy fins and EPP 2.0 programming might turn a few buyers away, but we’re more interested in how these kits perform.

Mushkin HP3-12800 P/N 996629

Two things that really stand out about Mushkin’s HP3-12800 996629 dual-channel kit are its heat spreaders and latency ratings. Looking like the edge of a plastic handbook binder, the aluminum heat spreaders cover modules with 8-8-8-24 timings at 1.80 volts, DDR3-1600.

Like most performance memory, SPD values only allow motherboards to auto-detect the modules at a slower speed in order to make them stable at default voltage. Mushkin adds XMP extensions for semi-automatic switching to rated speed, voltage, and timings on XMP-enabled Intel chipset motherboards. Installers can simply chose an XMP profile from within BIOS rather than making a multitude of adjustments.

In addition to its slightly more aggressive rated timings, Mushkin tries to beat major competitors on value. We found this HP3-12800 part number 996629 kit starting at around $260 at several Web stores.

OCZ Reaper HPC OCZ3RPR16004GK

OCZ takes a slightly different approach to RAM cooling, placing a heat pipe atop its Reaper HPC modules with an elevated sink that allows air to travel underneath. These also make fairly nice handles for removing the modules, though we wouldn’t recommend pushing extremely hard on the sinks during installation.

Reaper HPC OCZ3RPR16004GK modules leapfrog past even Mushkin’s timings, with 7-7-7-24 latencies surpassing most of the field. Of course, these tight timings do require old-fashioned overclocking tricks, such as the use of 1.90 volts and low SPD speeds.

With a DDR3-1333 SPD value of 7-7-7-21, we’d have expected OCZ to instead use the rated 7-7-7-24 timings. Such a move would allow installers to change only the voltage and speed from within BIOS to reach the kit’s ratings.

CAS 7 timings are a good start, but OCZ beats many of its competitors on price as well. Web prices for this OCZ3RPR16004GK 4 GB dual-channel kit start at around $240.

Patriot Memory PVS34G1600LLK

Aesthetics are a matter of taste, but Patriot’s PVS34G1600LLK kit certainly puts a flashy spin on a sink design originated by rival Corsair. Patriot doesn’t have Corsair’s extra internal rows of fins, but instead beats this rival on latencies.

Like competitor OCZ, Patriot uses 1.90 volts to reach its CAS 7 ratings. Unlike OCZ however, Patriot offers the convenience of an XMP profile, allowing installers to change only one setting in the BIOS of many Intel chipset performance motherboards. Patriot also edges out OCZ with a tRAS of 20 rather than 24 cycles.

Patriot Memory is no stranger to high-value performance, so a Web price starting around $320 was somewhat of a surprise for us. Rated latencies of 7-7-7-20 certainly beat those of similarly-priced Corsair modules, but the price can’t beat that of similar-latency Reaper HPC modules from OCZ. Perhaps the test results will provide a more convincing reason to buy from Patriot ?

Wintec AMPX 3AXH1600C8WS4GK

Wintec surprised us with budget-priced parts that take up the speed and timings challenge against high-end contenders. The biggest feature of its AMPX 3AXH1600C8WS4GK is a low Web price of $216, but this isn’t the only trump card in Wintec’s hand.

Rated timings of 8-8-8-24 beat most of the $300+ high-end competitors, even though an overclock-friendly setting of 1.90 volts is needed to get them there. As with most competitors, these DDR3-1600 modules appear to the system as DDR3-1333 and require manual changes to BIOS settings in order to reach full rated performance levels.

Wintec doesn’t include EPP 2.0 or XMP programming to ease BIOS configuration, and these modules don’t even have an 8-8-8-24 timing set for a lower speed. This shouldn’t trouble experienced builders, but it will prevent many “cheap” motherboards with missing BIOS settings from running these inexpensive modules at full speed. AMPX 3AXH1600C8WS4GK should probably be viewed as budget RAM for overclocking fanatics, and used on an appropriate mainstream-or-better motherboard.

A-Data, Chaintech, and Super Talent

Today’s comparison is among four gigabyte dual-channel kits consisting of two 2 GB modules. Three memory vendors instead sent us two gigabyte (2 x 1 GB) dual-channel kits. Because they have fewer or simpler components, lower-capacity modules often support higher speeds and lower latencies than their higher-capacity counterparts. Thus, we weren’t able to test these smaller kits against the 4 GB offerings in our roundup. Nevertheless, they’re notable offerings that we still wanted to include.

With latencies of 7-7-7-20 at DDR3-1600 and 1.75-1.85 volts, A-Data’s Vitesta X-Series DDR3-1600 modules could have been contenders, had the company only sent its 2 x 2GB kit. During a brief overclocking test, its 2 x 1 GB kit reached a data rate of 1784 MHz at 1.90 volts CAS 9.

Walton Chaintech offers a great many DDR3 performance kits, but only produces 2 x 2 GB GT Blazer kits at a higher DDR3-1800 rating. Its DDR3-1600 kits only come in 2 x 1 GB capacities, and the samples they sent are rated at admirable DDR3-1600 timings of 7-7-7-18 at only 1.60 volts. A brief overclocking test achieved 1656 MHz at CAS 9, revealing that increased latencies don’t give the modules much room to overclock. We tested these at 1.60 volts, because increased voltage didn’t help us to go any further. Our samples wouldn’t even boot at the 1.90 volts we’d normally use for overclock testing, but the lower required voltage is good news for anyone seeking energy-efficiency at relatively high speeds and tight timings.

Featuring fancy cooling and aggressive timings, Super Talent’s ProjectX lineup shows plenty of promise. However, ProjectX isn’t available in DDR3-1600 2 x 2 GB sets, and therefore unable to compete in the benchmark component of our roundup.

Rated at superb 7-6-6-18 timings for DDR3-1600 speed at 1.90 volts, we were able to push these to an equally impressive 1808 MHz data rate by increasing latencies to CAS 9.

Hardware Configuration

Getting a good memory overclock requires a good motherboard, so we picked the memory-overclocking winner from our X48 Comparison Part 2, the Asus P5E3 Premium retail revision 1.0.

We wanted to test the fastest memory at DDR3-2000, DDR3-1666, and DDR3-1333, so we changed our CPU multiplier and FSB clock from 9x 333.3 MHz to 6x 500 MHz, resulting in its original 3.0 GHz clock speed.

Benchmark Settings

Overclocking and Latency Results

We tested each 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) dual-channel memory kit to find its highest stable speed in Memtest86+ v1.70, using a maximum 1.90 volts and CAS 9-9-9-24. One module set, Aeneon’s XTune AHX860UD20-16H-K-4G, didn’t respond to such high voltage levels and was instead tested at 1.54 volts. The results were somewhat surprising.

Buffalo FireStix uses a similar heat spreader design to Corsair, but without the internal rows of fins to cool the PCB. Buffalo’s “simpler” parts still took a clear overclocking lead, probably due to slightly higher-quality chips.

Aeneon XTune came in second place, even with the lower required test voltage. These appear to be true PC3-12800 components rather than the most overclockable of lesser-rated parts.

Kingston’s HyperX modules do without so much as a single fin on its heat spreaders, yet these edged out Corsair’s similarly-priced XMS3.

Corsair defends its parts by stating that these are optimized for Nvidia chipsets, and also claims an average overclocking capability of 1800 MHz at CAS 8 using an Asus Striker II Extreme. We didn’t use the Striker II Extreme for today’s comparison, but Corsair’s claims are worth investigating when searching for the best memory for Nvidia’s 790i Ultra SLI chipset.

We were hoping that at least some of the modules would overclock to DDR3-2000, and chose the appropriate 500 MHz FSB clock. While none of today’s competitors overclocked that far, we were able to get some interesting results at DDR3-1666 and DDR3-1333.

Two dual-channel kits achieved low 7-7-6-15 timings at DDR3-1667, and two achieved 6-5-5-10 timings at DDR3-1333, but only Kingston’s HyperX could do both. A second-place finish at both speeds sets OCZ Reaper HPC apart in value, since careful shoppers can find these around 25% cheaper than the Kingston parts.

Benchmark Results: Games

Benchmark Results: Applications

Benchmark Results: Video and Synthetic

Conclusion

We didn’t see much performance difference between the various DDR3-1600 module sets, regardless of speed or timings—not even when using an enhanced FSB-2000 to the processor. If we assume that benchmarks are only consistent to plus or minus 0.5%, we could simply state that when it comes to DDR3 memory, the cheaper the better.The overclocker in all of us wants the best RAM, but the best overclocking memory of today’s shootout is not yet widely available in the U.S. market. Buffalo FireStix FSI1600D3G-2G will certainly get a lot of attention from buyers once availability improves, regardless of price.

Aeneon XTune AXH860UD20-16H is available, so its second place overclocking-capability would put it at the top of our shopping list if not for the comparatively higher timings required at slower speeds. Another factor benefiting Aeneon’s potential customers is its low voltage requirement, which results in lower power consumption, lower heat, and possibly better longevity.

Kingston HyperX KHX12800D3K2/4G came in third for overclocking, but supporting superior latencies at lower speeds allows it to leap past second-place overclocker Aeneon to make it the most desirable of available parts. Of course its relatively high price will prevent Kingston from winning any value awards, given the proximity of lower-cost competitors.

Who, then, provides the best value ? Enthusiasts on a budget might choose Wintec AMPX 3AXH1600C8WS4GK as the least-expensive of all DDR3-1600 competitors, but OCZ’s Reaper HPC OCZ3RPR16004GK costs only around 12% more. That 12% price increase gets buyers a third-place contender in the ever-so-close latency battle and a set of modules able to handle a 5% overclock that cheaper parts can’t tackle.

A newly released internal Blu-ray drive by Buffalo Technology claims the position of world’s fastest Blu-ray drive

Buffalo Technology recently released to market the world’s fastest internal Blu-ray drive, capable of up to 8x read and write speeds. The drive has write speeds of up to 8x, achievable when using capable single-layer BD-R media and up to 2x write speeds capable when using BD-RE, LTH BD-R, or dual-layer BD-R media. The drive features an 8 MB buffer and is capable of reading and writing to DVD and CD media as well. An external version of the drive is also available, although write speeds are limited to 6.5x when using it over a USB 2.0 connection.

The internal SATA drive, BR-816FBS, and the USB 2.0/eSATA external drive, BR-816SU2, are based on Panasonic’s SW-5584. Early tests of the drive show it took 13 minutes and 44 seconds to fill up a 25 GB BD-R disc. The test was performed using 6x media, which is the fastest currently available BD-R media, yet the drive seemed to work fine while writing at 8x speeds with it anyways. The maximum theoretical speed for the reading and writing of Blu-ray discs is about 12x, so these new drives are getting pretty close to the maximum allowable speeds.

The new Buffalo internal Blu-ray drive is expected to cost between $350 to $400, it will include CyberLink’s Software Suite, and is currently beginning to fill retail outlets worldwide.

Data Mobilization By Buffalo And Toshiba

The market for external storage products is divided into drives based on 3.5” hard drives, and others utilizing 2.5” or even 1.8” disks to store data. Obviously, all of them depend on available capacities in the hard drive segment, as Flash-based storage products are still limited to 32 GB, with 64 GB coming soon—clearly not enough for backup and archiving purpose. Of course, 3.5” external drives are hard to make truly portable, while 1.8” based drives increase cost per gigabyte for the sake of mobility. Hence we looked at two high-capacity 2.5” hard drives by Buffalo and Toshiba.

It appears to be difficult to find meaningful differences among obviously similar products. Both are similar in size, Toshiba is somewhat lighter, Buffalo offers higher capacity (500 GB vs. 320 GB). Both come bundled with backup software and they are available at similar prices. There are differences in performance (although these only matter for enthusiasts), in exterior quality, and in features. The latter is an issue we’ll discuss at the end of this comparison.

Power consumption has become increasingly important, as users are becoming aware of efficiency for different reasons, but mainly because of energy costs. In the case of portable 2.5” hard drives, all of these have to be able to run on USB 2.0 interfaces, limiting the power requirements to 500 mA at 5 volts. Theoretically, this limits the peak power consumption of portable drives to 2.5 watts. In practice, interfaces are capable of providing a bit more, so most portable 2.5” hard drives can run on only a single USB 2.0 connection. Some, however, like Buffalo’s Mini Station Turbo USB, may require more power still.

Let’s look at the features and performance of the two portable storage flagships by Buffalo and Toshiba.

Buffalo Mini Station TurboUSB, 500 GB

Performing Well

The Ministation Turbo USB is a product we’re familiar with, as we looked at the 320-GB version half a year ago. The notebook hard drive market has moved on and now offers up to 500 GB capacity, so the new Mini Station at 500 GB capacity doesn’t come as a surprise. Performance, however, does surprise a bit, as the latest version provides a few megabytes per second higher read and write throughput, maximizing the available USB 2.0 bandwidth. Access time could also be reduced from 22.6 ms to 19.1 ms for average seeks, which still isn’t enough to beat many other portable 2.5” drive products. Luckily, access time is secondary for this type of storage product.

But Not Well Finished

Buffalo claims that the product is shock-resistant thanks to its plastic enclosure. Clearly, it could be finished much better, as you can actually see the PCB inside the enclosure if you look at the power or USB connector on the back. Tighter mechanical specifications would help in providing better clearance, meaning smaller gaps between the two parts of the enclosure.

Wrap Up the Cable

The USB 2.0 cable can be wrapped around the Mini Station. To facilitate this process and to minimize the physical space used—and to make sure traveling with the drive and the USB cable is as convenient as possible—the mini USB connector is bent by 90° so this can be done while the unit remains connected. Buffalo includes a USB data cable and an auxiliary cable.

Buffalo ships the Mini Station Turbo USB with a USB data cable and an additional USB power cable.

Power is supplied via a USB power adapter cable. Should your USB port not be capable of providing the required 2.5 W, then you can hook up the power port to a second USB port using the additional cable to ensure a stable power supply.

The FDE models come with full disc encryption, and the PF series includes the U2 software that allows users to install applications onto the U2 framework of the Ministation Turbo USB drive rather than on a host PC’s operating system. These are not yet available at the 500 GB capacity point, however.

Secure Lock Ware

Buffalo includes a software program called Secure Lock Ware, which can be used to encrypt files and lock access to the drives. Encrypted files are always compressed as well, and they are copied either into their source, onto the desktop or to another directory. Be aware that Secure Lock Ware does not modify the source, so you’ll have to erase your source files securely if you intended to encrypt files without moving them off your PC.

Memeo AutoBackup

Toshiba Portable External Hard Drive, 320 GB

We’re not sure if we like the stripes, but the surface and finish is much nicer than Buffalo’s.

Other vendors have been in the external storage market much longer than Toshiba, but the Japanese company tries to score by having the nicer product. Indeed, the finish of the Portable External Hard Drive is much better than what we saw with Buffalo’s Mini Station. And the Toshiba drive is lighter as well, coming in at 6.25 ounces (178 g) versus almost 8 ounces (224 g). The cable, however, cannot be wrapped around the device as nicely, and Toshiba failed to include a carrying bag or a similar housing to accommodate the drive and the cable. We found it nice that this product will always work reliably with a single USB 2.0 connection thanks to the efficient Toshiba hard drive.

The surface is black and glossy, and you can see that the connector fits well into the opening. The Japanese designed hardware clearly shows greater perfection.

Toshiba offers quicker access time (17.8 ms vs. 19.1 ms), but less throughput. The Buffalo product with TurboUSB—which is supposed to be much faster—is only somewhat faster at an average of almost 32 MB/s, while Toshiba stays at 29.7 MB/s. In both cases, the hard drives could provide data at least twice as fast as USB 2.0 allows. Write performance is equal at almost 27 MB/s.

Toshiba provides a quick installation guide, which is sufficient for this product, and a USB data cable. The drive works with the 500 mA provided by USB 2.0 ports and hence does not require auxiliary power.

Toshiba wasn’t very creative with selecting a product name. Almost every external drive is just called Portable External Hard Drive.

NTI Shadow Backup

Comparison Table And Test Setup

Test Setup Table

Results: Transfer Diagrams And Access Time

The Buffalo Mini Station Turbo USB 500 GB is one of the fastest portable USB 2.0 storage solutions, providing 33 MB/s read throughput on average and almost 27 MB/s write performance. However, USB 2.0 is a bottleneck, as all modern 2.5” hard drives reach at least 60 MB/s today.

The Toshiba Portable External Hard Drive averages around 30 MB/s read throughput and 27 MB/s write performance. Again, a faster interface would result in a diagram that starts at 60 MB/s and drops to around 35 MB/s towards the end of the medium.

Access time isn’t really an issue over USB, since the interface generates some overhead as well. However, the Toshiba drive is quicker, which matches the test results from our last 500 GB notebook hard drive roundup : these devices store a lot of data, but they aren’t quick to access it.

Results: Read/Write Throughput

The Buffalo Mini Station Turbo USB is the fastest 2.5”-based USB external hard drive we’ve tested, although SimpleTech’s SimpleDrive Portable and the Western Digital Passport are almost as quick. Differences only exist if the hard drives used are particularly slow, which should only be the case for older products. All modern external 2.5” storage solutions reach the bandwidth limitations of USB 2.0 even when the hard drives are completely full of data.

Write throughput is always somewhat slower than reading and the difference between Buffalo and Toshiba is almost zero here.

Analysis And Conclusion

When we last reviewed portable storage products, we named these products “convenience storage," which is a very precise explanation. You can get 160 GB to 500 GB of 2.5”-based portable storage products at your retailer, but depending on the country of purchase, you will also find them in supermarkets, in gas stations, at the airport or in hotel vending machines. Basic storage products have become commodity goods, and we expect them to be convenient and somewhat stylish. But the industry is falling behind capacity when it comes to performance, and features also aren’t where they could be.

It is very important to realize that almost all storage products based on USB 2.0 and on hard drives perform similarly. Some are limited to less than 30 MB/s, some reach slightly more, but USB 2.0 just does not offer more bandwidth—even though USB 2.0 is specified at 480 Mbit/s, that doesn’t translate into 80 MB/s in the real world. It is getting to be time for USB 3.0, because copying data onto a USB 2.0 storage device takes up to 90 minutes for 100 GB—be prepared to wait many hours if you have to copy hundreds of gigabytes onto such a storage device. eSATA shows that faster technology is already here.

At the same time, storage vendors can only differentiate their products by features and convenience, and we found that both Buffalo and Toshiba failed in this category. Both provide basic backup software, which does its job, but none includes additional features such as U2, which allows users to carry installed applications with them. They can then run these apps off their storage device once it is connected to a host PC where the US launch pad provides access to these programs. Online storage is also increasingly important, although features should not stop here.

We realize that encryption, while important, might not be suitable for everyone, but we would like to have synchronization options, as you might not only want to run backups, but rather take all of your key data with you. These features might go as far as including some useful web services such as Plaxo, which are used to synchronize your contacts with its platform so you have them available online.

Conclusion

From a performance standpoint, the Buffalo Mini Station Turbo USB is the better product. Although the difference is not large, it provides better throughput. Access time is longer, but that should not matter much for storage applications.

From a style and quality standpoint, Toshiba offers a much more beautiful product, which does not even require auxiliary power. This, we believe, is part of the convenience equation, which storage products for the mainstream must have. Enthusiasts, however, may want to live with connecting two cables to get access to up to 500 GB of storage, which Toshiba doesn’t offer at this time.

Toshiba’s style and quality perfection together with smaller weight comes at a price, as the retail price tags of both products are in the $200 range. That’s not quite a bargain, but still acceptable for high capacity portable storage. Buffalo still gives you more bang for the buck, though, if storage is your main objective.