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Ten... FireWire 800 hard drives
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G-Tech G-RAID
To those in the know, G-Tech is really Hitachi in disguise and with the G-RAID it takes the G-Drive to the next level by cramming style, finish and impressive performance into the same box. Despite all this, it’s still not the fastest drive on the list, but certainly one of my favourites.
The G-RAID sports all of the same features as the G-Drive, but is a double-height unit accommodating two hard disks. The review model weighed in at 6TB and, given this unit’s immense capacity. I had hoped that I would be able to configure it to use RAID-1 for data protection, but it is disappointingly fixed as RAID-0. However, the G-RAID mini has a RAID-1 capability, as does the G-SAFE.
Even with the lack of RAID options, the G-RAID is still an excellent drive if you’re after performance and high capacity, bringing the speed improvements that the G-Drive really needed.
Reg Rating 85%
Price £220 (2TB), £350 (3TB), £520 (6TB)
More info G-Tech
Iomega eGo Mac
It seems that there are two worlds of design when it comes to FireWire hard drives – there are imitators of the Mac's unibody aluminium and there are also clones of the iDevice theme. Going with the latter, Iomega’s eGo Mac looks like an overfed iPhone 4 with its piano black centre and aluminium edge. It also includes a rubber bumper case to protect it from knocks.
While features are sparse, as this is a portable drive, it does include USB 2.0 as well as two FireWire 800 ports and is the fastest writing portable drive on test, with read speeds for the 500GB unit exceeding 70MB/s and writes at nearly 80MB/s. Even so, there's no escaping that you do pay a premium for this stylish portable package.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £155 (500GB), £192 (1TB)
More info Iomega