Wednesday, storage company Iomega, released its new 320Gb USB 2.0/eSATA drive. Available in a sleek “black series” enclosure, the 320Gb external hard drive sells for around $240 and is currently available with free shipping via their website.
Priced in line with other external 300-320GB USB 2.0 drives from the likes of Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital, the unique advantage to the Iomega Black Series is the eSATA interface. eSATA stands for External Serial ATA (AT attachment) and eSATA offers transfer rates that are 6 times faster than USB 2.0 and Firewire 800. With this new interface, users with room for an additional PCI card, get the flexibility of external storage, but with the speed to rival most internal drives.
EAch drive comes with eSATA PCI card and a cable that augments your motherboard to make it eSATA capable. But don’t worry, if you’re not a desktop owner or are out of space inside your desktop case, simply use the provided USB 1.1/2.0 cable to attach the drive to your system.
Due to the fact that Iomega has priced the 320GB Black Series USB 2.0/eSATA comprable with its competitors, it’s easy to see why desktop users would choose it over the rest. Whether you need the fast transfer rates from eSATA for editing Video and music, or whether you’re just a speed junkie, if you have a free PCI slot why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of eSATA?
