Buffalo MiniStation Lite USB3.0 (HD-PEU3 Series)

Just got myself a Buffalo MiniStation Lite USB3.0!

Check out the specification:

• Support for legacy USB 2.0 and SuperSpeed USB 3.0 
• Preformatted hard drive is ready for immediate use with Windows® and Mac®
• Connect to your computer for additional storage or backup of your music, photo, video and data files
• Perfect comopanion for your laptop or netbook - No external power supply needed
• Enhance the overall perfomance of your PC and increase file transfer rates up to 135% over USB 2.0 hard drives
• Eco minded power management tool regulates power usage, conserving energy and battery consumption 
• Buffalo's Backup Utility for automatic backup of your PCs, and Time Machine® support for continuous backup of your Mac computer

I got this at the Digital Mall Petaling Jaya with the price of RM219 and mainly I will be using this to store all the VPC or Virtual Hard Disk. The key point about this portable hard disk is the transfer rate by using USB 3.0 (Max 3 Gbps) and the utilities bundle together to make the transfer speed even more faster.

 The  USB SuperSpeed portable HDD + USB3.0 Mini Connector + Manuals

USB 3.0 A side Mini Connector and B side connector

The USB 3.0 is like an extension of micro USB B. It's easy to identified the USB 3.0/SuperSpeed cable since the inside plastic is blue and the indicator of 'SS' on the USB sign.

USB 3.0/SuperSpeed is backward compatible with USB 2.0/1.1

I have tried using my micro USB from my HTC Desire HD cable and it fits

LED light indicator

LED emits white light for the Buffalo logo and kinda like greenish/yellow light on the left side when loading data. There is a short blue light emitted when I plug in the cable to my laptop USB port.

Application and Utilities for the Buffalo MiniStation Lite USB3.0

 BuffaloTools - Utilities for better performance

I would mostly use the TurboPC and TurboCopy as it does improve the performance of file transfer. This is done by configuring and managing well on the data caching. At the moment I can't really test the performance as I don't have a USB3.0 port on both my laptop and desktop yet it's good to have it once USB 3.0 is more widely available in the market.

Buffalo TurboCopy

The installed utilities actually improve the User Interface and additional features shown when copy or move files. This actually apply to all file copy or move the the cached being use when transferring file.

I personally like the sleek and compact design of the portable HDD yet this is the MiniStation Lite which lacking Encryption Model available at the HD-PXTU2 Series. Still! The LED emitted light on the Buffalo logo is very solid and bright =P

USB 3.0 was release more than a year but the adaptation for this SuperSpeed for the mainstream consuption is so laggard due to the complication of Intel updating their chipset specification. Right now most USB 3.0 port available in the market is not direct support from the native chipset and Windows 7

Intel basically have their own plan on the development of Light Peak technology.i Rght now, Intel basically change their mind and finally adopt USB 3.0 in the Sandy Bridge chipset. I guess this is due to the overall demand from the mainstream consumer and pressure from AMD to adopt USB 3.0 to their Fuzion chipsets.