RGB Invasion Continues With New Asus External Hard Drive

If you're a RGB addict who loves collecting exotic hardware, Asus's new 2.5-inch FX external hard drive with RGB lighting certainly deserves a spot in your collection.

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With the whole RGB lighting trend stronger than ever, it was just a matter of time before we saw an external hard drive with RGB lighting. Well, Asus has made that dream a reality. The Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer's newest creation measures 128 x 80 x 16.3 millimeters and weighs a mere 145 grams. It features a sleek, futuristic body that flaunts a hairline finish and a skidproof mat to prevent the device from sliding around your desk.

Asus claims that 5-axis engraving and double injection molding technologies were utilized in the FX external hard drive's fabrication to produce an elegant and durable surface and provide an improved grip and repel fingerprint smudges. However, the incorporated Aura Sync RGB lighting is the device's strongest selling point. Owners can personalize its lighting and synchronize it with other Aura Sync compatible devices through Asus' Aura Sync software.

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The Asus FX external hard drive features a high-speed USB 3.1 Gen 1 port to offer speeds up to 5GBps. In order to manage and maximize this level of fast performance, Asus employed ASMedia's ASM1153E1 controller, which features its own 8-bit micro-processor complemented with embedded program RAM and ROM. The FX external hard drive is shipped with a complete software backup package that facilitates the boring task of backing up user data. Users can schedule automatic backups of their systems, social media, cloud storage and wireless mobile data. There's also an option to add a 256-bit AES encryption feature to protect files with a user password. The device is compatible with the Windows 7, 8 and 10 operating systems from Microsoft and the Mac OS X 10.8 or higher from Apple.

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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

19 Comments Comment from the forums

g-unit1111

Reply
Zaporro

Why people still wet their pants on every little thing with LEDs?

Its literally just a piece of plastic case and a few LEDs underneath. They act like if its some kind of rocket science or breakthrough discovery.

So pathetic.
Reply
Darkbreeze

If your hard drives "strongest selling point" is the fact that it has RGB, then the drive is trash to start with.

I would certainly hope there is are other qualities that outshine the fact that it has RGB.
Reply
rantoc

Where is the more cost effective non-led version?
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newsonline5000000

So instead of putting the money on something innovative , you waste it on RGB Light . yea right .

Hey ASUS , here is a Hint , you make Motherboards , next time , instead of wasting money on useless things , make the bridge board with 32GB SSD chip/controller on it and make it work as a cache for the slow 2.5 inch 1TB/2TB Harddisk inside the external box , then connect it to a Gen 2 USB-C bridge chip..
Reply
engineer5261

Average cost of small form factor surface mount LED's = less than 9 cents/unit when bought in bulk. Manufacturers have figure out that this is a very cheap addition to their product to sell more units, and it seems to be working but i'm right there with RANTOC, i'll go with the more cost effective, power consumption and heat efficient version without LED's, IF this thing is even worth picking up.
Reply
rickhal

I agree that the RGB craze is kind of stupid to many people. However, for some of us a bit of "style" and color on our PC hardware is a fun, lightweight addition. I still buy quality hardware. But, if it has a little pizzazz to it, so much the better.
Reply
Darkbreeze

A "bit" of fun and style is fine. I have two LED strips inside my case. EVERYTHING being RGB is ridiculous. Hard drives, power supplies, shower heads, toilets, razors (The kind you actually shave with, not the gaming company) and mouse pads are not items that need to be RGB. It's too much. Soon there will be RGB skin implants and jewelry. RGB cabling and wall outlets. Enough already.
Reply
jimdodds

Ummm.... what is the point of all this RGB stuff?
Reply
newsonline5000000

21202309 said:
Ummm.... what is the point of all this RGB stuff?

taking your money lol

Reply

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