The USB HDD Dock we saw a few months ago just got a USB hub upgrade. Not only does it still take 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA drives in the top like a Famicom cartridge, there's an added 4-port USB hub on the front. Because if you're going to take up one of your machine's precious USB ports for something, it's even better when that something gives you 3 extra ports in return. [Brando]
HDD USB Dock Gets USB Hub Integrated, Still Plugs in Like NES Cartridges
12:30 PM on Fri Mar 28 2008
By Jason Chen
12,028 views
70 comments













Comments
I like this.
WANT
@Darrone: Ditto. Would be great for replicating HD's easily.
Yeah me too, It may look funky, but it is VERY useful.
I'm one of those people who usually sell my older PC's without
my old harddisks - because family photos and important stuff (well..personal and important to me) is inside these, and
even though I'm an avid backup'er ...there's still something
I forget every time.
This thing makes it a breeze to connect in style...instead
of always disconnecting an IDE cable ...or reverting to an old
computer to make those old drives work.
Pure genious! Put me up for one!
Gimme!!!
This is actually a great Idea I think....
Often times I've had misc internal HDDs laying around wondering what (if anything) is on them. This could be very handy.
I want a hard drive enclosure that makes em look like NES cartridges.
@Out2gtcha:
"Often times I've had misc internal HDDs laying around wondering what (if anything) is on them."
you know damn well that 2GB behemoth rom 1998 is filled with megabytes, literally megabytes of 20 second porn clips you DL'd over dialup, and a couple of Marcy Playground MP3s you pulled from napster...
Great idea, but it lacks firewire and is too expensive.
This is awesome, except for the TWENTY-EIGHT DOLLARS they want to charge you for shipping.
Does it still cost a ridicules amount to ship due to the "weighted Base"?
DAMMIT.
Busted. :/
@Eric: Well assuming it's coming from Hong Kong, I would say that sounds pretty reasonable.
Woops forgot the @nutbastard:
in that last one.....
they could've added a 91-in-1 card reader while they were at it. I would totally buy such product!
you know, i think mine and eric's comment should be reversed...i would look just that much less silly.
too bad they don't have this in FireWire...
Cool worth looking at but is it really safe for the hdd to sit out like that... What happens if last night you came in from work and your dog walked up to the door after you came in and you stood still for like 40 mins and your dog wasn't sure you came in anymore and got all confuse and wonder were you went and started to bark randomly trying to get you to move but it didn't work and then after he thinks your really really gone he walks away then you jump and scare "ITS THE VET!" and he gets scared and you don't see him for the rest of the night and you leave your hdd on there and go to bed. Then during the night you dog steals your harddrive and deletes all you important information the loads child porn on there and pictures of himself beaten and battered and then sends a email to child and animal protective services saying that he is your neighbor and expects that your up to no good and after all that he loses your hdd and now your upset.
but no it looks pretty cool might have to get one
Can i RAID the HDDs by daisy chaining them through each other?
All Lacie drives should come with this.
I guess they didn't hear me the first time around. Lemme yell it a little louder...
FIREWIRE FIREWIRE FIREWIRE
I know others have said it as well, I just wanted it to be heard
@discounteggroll: But then I couldn't use it with a Macbook Air, lol.
@discounteggroll:
but hardly any computer HAVE firewire anymore, although the option would be welcome.
firewire is the betamax of transfer standards...
@P3nnst8r:
that's an interesting idea, i mean, it DOES have USB ports...
I think this is a pretty dang nice idea. Throw in a choice of USB or ESATA and you'll have a really great external hard drive unit.
@nutbastard: "firewire is the betamax of transfer standards..."
Funny you said that because all DV cameras uses Firewire.
Do they make a PATA version for hard drives that take ide cables? Just saying, cause I have extra ones of those, but not extra SATA drives.
Actually, more like a SNES than a NES.
I saw these @ Fry's In Downers Grove, IL for $39.99. They might have them on their website as well. I believe it may have been under a different brand name though
This is pure brilliance....even more brillinance would be a firewire version because firewire is so much faster than USB 2.0 much faster. Or even better combine fire wire and usb and provide a simple switch on the back to change the HDD between fire wire and usb and have usb and fire wire ports on the front of the unit.
I wonder if you have to blow in the hard drives pin connector until they whistle to actually get em working.
@genius74: Fry's in DG, huh? I hate that place. It's close, but the employees don't want to help unless you already have everything and are heading up to the register (they want comission for nothing)
@P3nnst8r: This would most likely work. However due to the way the USB bus allocates bandwidth it would be pretty much useless for anything other than RAID 1.
@genius74: Thanks for the info. I thought, "$28 shipping? What do they ship it on, a unicorn?"
That's pretty kickass. My HDD thing is a full enclosure and needs to be taken apart to change the drive around.
Although it is PATA-compatible too. And cheap.
I should build one of these, I mean a usb to sata adapter costs what, 20 bucks? A usb hub, $10? The rest of the box could be built with wood, and you could epoxy some lead weights in the bottom so its weighted. You don't need a release lever, just have an on/off switch for the power input. It would cost like $40 total to build, or less if you already have the parts, as I do. Heck, I could even make it two slot, one for sata, and one for ide. The adapter I have can do both at the same time.
Damn I have some old IDE drives, I'd love to hook this up to get copy data over and toss them. This would have been great for that but only SATA, oh well.
There is a version with Firewire A, B and eSATA. but no additional front ports
Hmmm... can a drive removed from an iPod be used in this? If so, I'm off to Fry's ASAP.
$86 dollar?????? You gotta be kidding me.
This can be found in the States already:
TT BlacX w/o USB hub
[www.newegg.com]
BlacX w/ USB hub
[www.newegg.com]
Oh yeah.. I saw these in Fry's already.
after I did a search on thermaltake's website, they have an eSATA version available too, but I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere. maybe later..
FYI: [www.thermaltakeusa.com]
@Darrone: I really reaally like this - more than you with gummi bears on top!
@nutbastard: yeh where did the firewire go if its so fast? Is it too on the HD Island?
NES case mod soon to follow
It could be really good when your computer is damaged and the only thing that could be saved or is useful is your hdd.
I like the concept and i wouldn't mind having this because then you could take out your ps3's hard drive put all of the files you want onto the hard drive and enjoy a whole bunch of hd media goodness.
@ripfire4:
"Funny you said that because all DV cameras uses Firewire."
oooooh kaaaay... that's still pretty useless when most computers dont have FW ports, and isn't really germane to the gadget at hand.
and when i said it was the betamax of transfer standards, maybe you didn't get the analogy.
betamax was clearly a better standard, yet it lost out in popularity, and eventually went away.
maybe a more contemporary analogy is to say FW is to USB what diesel is to gasoline?
@ripfire4: Funny you said that because your wrong. Firewire does not in fact appear on most new consumer level Camcorders. My Canon didn't come with it, and the Sony and Panasonic models I was comparing it to didn't have it either.
...but hey, don't take my word for it!
[www.camcorderinfo.com]
I'm waiting for the firewire 800 version.
and you clueless fools who think firewire is "gone away" - look at every single pro level mac - now look at sony laptops and desktops..lenovo laptops (the T60's have 4 wire fw 400 now)
I put fw 800 cards in my servers for routine backups to external drives. fw800 kicks usb's ASS.
This. Is. Awesome! Me wantee!
Whether or not fw800 kicks ass is not really the question, is it?
USB is everywhere, Firewire isn't. It hasn't gone away, it may never go away, but neither is it gaining significant market penetration.
I hope there is a firewire version, to make you happy. But neither would I bet any money on it happening.
@JoOngle:
Yikes, I was thinking the same thing...Rummaging through old HDDs and reclaiming old forgotten "stuff". But then I read the Brando description and it is only for SATA HDD!
What a bummer, I guess the forgotten treasure will have to wait.
@doofusgumby: I don't think the question here is the superiority of Firewire as a data-transfer medium, yes it's faster.
Mac's have had Firewire ports since they came out (wasn't it intially a mac standard?), not sure why you would bother pointing this out as any market penetration due to the inclusion on Apple products is long since accounted for.
BTW, I again refer to the Camcorderinfo website, Sony's latest HDD camcorder (HDR-SR12) does not include a firewire port! Not to mention Sony PC's are garbage.
Get a clue before you start calling people names.
@doofusgumby: Isn't firewire an Apple property? Could explain the popularity on Macs.
If it is so ubiquitous, what happened to the firewire iPod?
What's in the 3rd USB port in the photo with the red light? it's pissing me off that i can't tell what it is.0000000000
@contempt: It's a tiny bluetooth adapter. I think Cirago makes 'em. Cool, but pricey.
Is there anything more useless then a USB hard drive?
Firewire please...I'm behind the times
@doofusgumby: yeah Linux is the new desktop standard
next year.
@Munch420s:
Ain't that the truth!!
Which is w