APC - September 2015 AU.pdf

$105
WWW.SILICON-POWER.COM
500GB, $65; 1TB, $90; 2TB, $150
MYTOSHIBA.COM.AU
$120
MYTOSHIBA.COM.AU
500GB, $80; 1TB, $100; 2TB, $160;
3TB, $285
WWW.WDC.COM
Silicon Power
Armor A65 1TB
Bulletproof vest
included.
Toshiba Canvio
Basics 2TB
A discount drive
for those willing to
manually backup.
Toshiba Canvio
Slim II 1TB
An average
performer that’s
stylish and compact.
WD My
Passport
Ultra 1TB
Good value, and good
at the basics too.
The Armor A65 form
Silicon Power is
middle of the road
in terms of speed,
price and size, and
although it has a soft
rubbery casing, it still
looks like your typical
external hard drive.
But it’s not every day
there’s a portable hard drive
that is waterproof, dustproof
and shockproof. So if you
work on a construction site,
are thinking of taking a
portable hard drive hiking in
the Himalayas, or your PC
gaming setup simply has
more than its fair share of
hazards, then the A65 might
just be the perfect fit.
Though the original
formatting gears it towards
Windows use, you can
configure the drive to work
equally well with Apple’s OS.
At the time of
writing, Toshiba
was offering the
bigger 1TB and
2TB Canvio Basics drives
for between $10-$20 less
than street prices for
equivalent WD My Passport
Ultra products. Considering
the Basics range offers
similar read and write
speeds, if you can get them at
that price, you’d be silly not
to. It’s worth noting that the
Toshiba Basics range don’t
include any backup software
and are simply just plug and
play devices that come
preformatted for Windows.
You can reformat it from
NTFS to exFAT using a
Windows computer so it’ll
work on both OSs, but if you
think you’ll need dedicated
backup software then WD’s
Passport Ultras might still
be a better choice.
Grab this compactlooking
unit out of
its box and you’ll be
impressed by its
pocketable size and feel.
Brushed aluminium graces
nearly every surface, and it’s
light-weight, coming in at
150g. What’s impressive is
that the drive light alters its
colour depending on whether
you’re using it with USB 2.0
or 3.0 — a handy indicator of
how fast it’ll go. (USB 2.0 is
limited to about 30MB/s.)
The most unique feature of
the Canvio Slim 2 is the suite
of third party software as we
pointed out on page 49.
Coming preformatted for
Mac and Windows use,
there’s also an alternative
driver software to allow
Apple OS users to read and
write in Windows’ NTFS
format. A great choice if you
need full-featured software.
The Ultra is the
smallest and most
affordable offering
from Western
Digital, weighing in at just
150g (for the 500GB model)
and costing a quitereasonable
$80. The
hardware here is top notch,
with an attractive external
design, plus hardware-based
256-bit AES encryption and,
most importantly, decent
read and write speeds. And
the software suite is
likewise a good overall
package, with useful tools
that cover most basic needs,
including backup in
Windows. The Ultra’s
higher-capacity models do
take up a bit more physical
space, but considering these
are premium drives, the
price remains comparably
low, with the 2TB Ultra only
costing around $160.
Verdict
A rugged and competent drive
that comes with a little extra
protection.
Verdict
A good entry-level drive that
sacrifices software to undercut
the market.
Verdict
A fine range of software
and pleasing design make
this a hot contender.
Verdict
An surprisingly affordable
premium drive with good
hardware and software.
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