Description

KC21 500GB 7200rpm Ultra Portable Firewire 800 & USB2 Disk Drive

Atlast! you can now get massive capacity in an ultra portable, Firewire 800 and USB2 self-powered disk drive!

Features:

• Ultra fast 7200rpm disk, 16MB Cache
• Fastest Oxford 934 Firewire chipset
• Solid aluminium body - 3 Way Cooling
• Latest high capacity 2.5" SATA disk drive
• Self powered from USB2 port
• Self powered from Firewire port
• Can be used as Apple Mac Boot Disk
• 2-Year Warranty

The revolution is happening... you can now get performance and portability!  Using the latest laptop-sized 2.5" disk drives you can now get performance close to that of full size external desktop disk drives,  yet in a pocketable size that is powered by firewire or USB2.

Perfect for Apple Mac Professional users or PC users, this product is ideally suited to professional video and audio editors and photographers, who need the performance and compatibility of the Oxford 934 chipset... the best on the market.

Look at the performance graphs below... over 73MB/s read speeds through firewire.  And on the full PCMark05 tests of real world performance, the disk drive has over 85% of the performance of the full sized Pleiades Firewire 800 external disk drive with Oxford 924 chipset which has the latest desktop Barracuda 7200.12 500GB disk drive inside.

The enclosure is made of solid aluminium with unique 3-way cooling (see details below) enabling heat to be dissipated from the disk so you can use it for extended periods without any danger of overheating. The disk is practically silent both when idle and when in operation.

Prior to shipping we fully format the disk for Apple Mac (HFS+ format) guaranteeing that you can plug in the disk and use it within seconds.   If you want the disk partitioned in other formats, such as for Windows XP or Vista, then let us know, and we will do it free of charge prior to shipment.

Note:  PC Laptops have un-powered 4-pin firewire 400 ports.  So to use this disk with a laptop you would need to use the 5V Power Adaptor included and purchase a Firewire 800 to 400 (9-pin to 4-pin) cable.  See recommended products below (bottom of page).

Note:  The Firewire 800 port is backwards compatible with Firewire 400.  We can supply a Firewire 800 to 400 cable (9-pin to 6-pin) which enables the disk to be used with any PC or Mac 6-pin Firewire 400 port.  See recommended products below (bottom of page).

Contents

Hardware:

• Firewire 800 and USB 2.0 KC21 Aluminium Enclosure containing a
• 500GB Seagate 7200spin, 16MB Cache, 2.5" SATA disk drive
• Firewire 800 (9-pin to 9-pin) Data Lead, approx 30cm
• USB 2.0 Data lead (USB2 to mini-USB2),  approx 30cm
• On/Off switch
• Quality Travel Wallet
• Mains Power Adaptor, 5V, 2A
  • Has Euro 2-pin plug + UK 3-pin Adaptor
  • Only needed in rare situations where firewire/usb2 power insufficient

Software:

• No driver software needed for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Apple Mac

Warranty

The product has a 2-year return to base warranty with us. 

Product Specification

Connection:

Disk Drive:

• Seagate Momentus 7200.4 Series, 500GB 7200rpm with 16MB Cache.
• SATA 3Gb/s NCQ interface
• Leverages Seagate laptop power management technology, delivering the lowest-power 7200-RPM laptop hard drive yet
• Utilizes ramp load features which remove the head from the disk during idle periods, improving idle power consumption and adding to the durability of the drive
• QuietStep™ ramp load technology enables ultra-quiet load/unload acoustics
• Perpendicular recording technology
• Fluid dynamic bearing motor
  

Important: If, when you try connect the external disk, you hear it making a "ticking" noise then it does not have enough power to operate correctly and you will need to use the mains power adaptor.

Dimensions:  132 x 85 x 23/29 (LxWxH, mm)

Operating System: Windows XP, Vista, Apple Mac

Disk Performance

Sequential Read/Write Performance:

These tests are comparing this KC21 enclosure fitted with the Seagate 500GB 2.5" 7200rpm disk with the latest Pleiades (desktop size) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB disk drive, which is one of the fastest disks on the market.

As you can see below, this drive really does perform like a desktop sized disk drive... amazing considering its size, and that it is self powered from the firewire port.

Performance measured with "Performance Test v4" by www.passmark.com

Performance measured with "Performance Test v6.1" by www.passmark.com

PC Mark 05 Disk Performance:

We have measured the performance of this KC21 drive, using the firewire 800 interface. This performance measures REAL LIFE disk performance with simulations of starting the Operating System, loading applications, and general writing and reading data.   So the relative performance gives an indication of the difference you should expect between various products.

KC21 Seagate 500GB 7200rpm (FW800) = 4755
Pleiades 500GB 7200.12 Series (FW800) = 5552

Tested on a MacMini 2009 edition, Bootcamp Windows XP, using firewire 800 interface.

This score of over 4700 is fantastic for a portable self powered disk. Its faster than the desktop sized disks we were selling only a few months ago, and not much slower than this latest Barracuda 7200.12 disk drive that uses the latest 500GB per platter technology.

Disk Cooling

Unique 3-Way Cooling

1. Solid Aluminium Enclosure, including top/bottom sides, naturally heat dissipating

2. Cooling Fins down both sides increase surface area for cooling

3. Perforated Grill allows heat to escape from inside

Product Tour

On the rear are 2 Firewire 800 ports (the second port enables you to daisy-chain to another device).  Also a mini-USB2 port, on/off switch and power socket are included.

On the front is a power/activity LED:

Shown by a Laptop, you can see how small and portable the disk drive is:

The neat travel wallet has access to the ports, enabling the disk to be used for quick jobs while still within the wallet.

5v Power Adaptor

A 5V adaptor is included, which has a Euro 2-pin plug.  We include an adaptor plug for the UK, which is easily assembled as shown below