Iomega sent its popular eGo range of portable hard drives to the speed academy to be able to deliver portable hard drives which offer up to ten times faster transfer speeds via USB 3.0.  

 

 

This compact (13.6 x 8.9 x 1.6 cm) and lightweight (181 g) drive works perfectly well with the run of the mill USB 2.0 connection, providing you with an acceptable data transfer rate of 480 Mbits/s.

 

What sets it apart though is its USB 3.0 connection. This offers data transfer speeds of up to 4 Gbps or ten times the speed of USB 2.0 drives, allowing for a tremendous boost in speed - if you have the support pieces in place.

 

Pieces such as a system that boasts a motherboard which supports USB 3.0. These are neither commonplace nor inexpensive at present. Asus’ AMD 800 chipset-based motherboards such as the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX motherboard costs around R3 600 and Gigabyte’s GA-P55A-UD4P Intel P55 Motherboard goes for about R3 200. 

 

The eGo drive is also USB powered making it even more portable as you don’t have to carry a power adaptor around. It doesn’t come with a stand, seen on bulkier HDDs such as the Seagate FreeAgent Desk External Drive but with a compact device like this it isn’t really needed.

 

 

The eGo can definitely be employed as a backup device as well. As is the case with the Iomega eGo Desktop Hard Drive 1 TB, this eGo drive doesn’t come with any backup software solutions, such as Nero BackItUp Essentials or NTI Shadow, directly out of the box.

 

You have to download the Iomega Protection Suite (for free using your product serial), which is a collection of software solutions that allow you to backup and protect your data. This includes Trend Micro Internet Security (with 1 year free subscription), EMC Retrospect Express Backup software (23 MB download), Iomega QuikProtect (file-level backup, 30 MB download) as well as MozyHome Online Backup (2 GB of free storage) service.

 

 

 

If you have a USB 3.0 enabled system then this would be the perfect addition for all your portable storage needs. In the absence of that, you’ll have a Clark Kent drive that works fine using USB 2.0, but ready to turn into Superman once your structures are in place. 

 

You can get it for a RRP of R1 799 and for more info you can visit Iomega’s webpage.