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Buffalo showcases comprehensive USB 3.0 external storage family

Buffalo's external storage devices now all support the high-speed USB 3.0 connection.

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CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
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The DriveStation Duo USB 3.0 external hard drive from Buffalo.
The DriveStation Duo USB 3.0 external hard drive from Buffalo. Buffalo

LAS VEGAS--Eight months after releasing its first USB 3.0 external hard drive, the MiniStation Cobalt, which was also one of the first on the market, Buffalo showed off today at CES 2011 a comprehensive family of external storage solutions based on the high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity.

USB 3.0 is the next generation of USB connectivity that's slated to replace, and is backward-compatible, with USB 2.0. USB 3.0 has a ceiling speed of 5Gbps, which is about 10 times the speed of of USB 2.0, which caps at 480Mbps. It's likely that most new computers will have built-in support for USB 3.0.

Buffalo's new USB 3.0 family of external hard drives includes those with multiple internal drives as well as single-volume portable drives:

Buffalo's new MiniStation Stealth USB 3.0 portable drive.
Buffalo's new MiniStation Stealth USB 3.0 portable drive. Buffalo

  • DriveStation Quad USB 3.0: A full-featured external drive designed for quick transfer and storing important information. The drive has four internal hard drives that can be set up in multiple RAID configurations, including RAID 1, RAID 0, and RAID 5. The drive is available in 4TB (model HD-QL4TU3R5) and 8TB (model HD-QL8TU3R5) versions that cost $630 and $1,200, respectively.

  • DriveStation Duo USB 3.0: This is a smaller version of the DriveStation Quad and has only two internal hard drives and supports RAID 1 or RAID 0. It comes in 2TB (HD-WL2TU3R1) and 4TB (HD-WL4TU3R1) versions that cost $280 and $460, respectively.

  • DriveStation Axis USB 3.0: This is a single-volume desktop external hard drive that comes in either 1TB ($100) or 2TB ($150).

  • MiniStation Stealth USB 3.0 :

    A portable, bus-power single-volume drive that's based on a 2.5-inch internal hard drive. It's available in 500GB ($90) or 1TB ($130) versions.

Buffalo says that all of these drives are available immediately. The DriveStation Quad and DriveStation Duo also come with NovaBackup Business Essentials for Windows PCs and Windows Server 2003 and 2008, including servers running Microsoft Exchange and SQL.