Dane-Elec Readies Drives For Nov. USB 3.0 Launch

By John Laposky On Oct 26 2009 - 6:00am

Dane-Elec introduced its So SuperSpeed line of USB 3.0 external hard drives last week, in advance of the new high-speed transfer standard's November launch.

The line includes what the company is calling “the world's first USB 3.0 solid-state drive (SSD) capable of true data transfer speeds of 250MB per second.”

Consumers will be able to purchase the devices from Dane-Elec and its U.S. retail partners starting Dec. 11, following the Thanksgiving launch of USB 3.0-compatible laptops and PCs from leading OEMs.

The new USB 3.0 hard drive devices (HDDs) offer storage options ranging from 500GB to 2TB, and are available in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch formats.

The So Extreme SuperSpeed SSDs offer storage options of either 80GB or 160GB.

USB 3.0 devices will be able to transfer bandwidth-intensive content, such as photos, music and video, to and from USB 3.0 built-in port laptops and PCs at speeds up to 10 times faster than current USB 2.0 devices.

Dane-Elec will also be offering USB 3.0-compatible adapters for desktops with PCIe slots and laptops with PCIXpress slots. This will allow consumers using current machines without built-in USB 3.0 ports to take advantage of much of the increased speed capabilities of USB 3.0, the company said.

The line is made up of three models.

The So Extreme SuperSpeed Portable 2.5-inch SSD is powered by an Intel X25-M chipset which has been clocked at sequential read speeds of 250MBps and sequential write speeds of 70MBps.

It is available in white or black and measures 4.7 by 3 by 0.75 inches and weighs about 11 ounces.

The step-down So Mobile SuperSpeed portable is a 1 SATA hard drive device with the same form factor as the So Extreme. It is available in 500GB and 640GB capacities.

Also available is a desktop model, the 3.5-inch So Ready SuperSpeed drive available in 500GB, 750GB, 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB capacities. These drives come in black and measure 7.2 by 4.8 by 1.5 inches.

All the new USB 3.0 drives are compatible with Windows XP/Vista/Win7. Macs not supported by USB 3.0 at present.

Pricing will be announced.