The Legend lives on...
Written: Jun 15 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very fast, cheap, and useful
Cons: Annoying spin-up, use isn't widespread
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| Seanster's Full Review: Castlewood ORB (ORB21130) Internal ORB Drive |
Since I had bought my computer two years ago, I found out that some of my components were substandard. After replacing everything, I decided to tackle one of the biggest problems that had plagued me for about a year: Insufficient hard drive space. I basically had two options: I could replace the hard drive, or I could add a new one. If I replaced it, I would lose the information I had on it. If I got a new one, I would be out of IDE slots on my computer. I decided to go for a third option: A removable storage drive.
I had done research about various removable cartridge drives. Basically, most of them were slow, overpriced, and unstable. Then I read an article about Castlewood Systems' Orb drive. It had 2.2 GB of space, a 12.2 MB/s transfer rate, and was priced for half the price of a normal 1 GB drive. I decided to go ahead and purchase and IDE model.
Installing the Orb drive took three days; however, this was due to the fact the my computer's motherboard had no documentation and would constantly "slip" out of position. When I screwed in in really tightly, the motherboard stopped slipping and the Orb drive worked.
The 12.2 MB/s transfer rate is an overstatement, but the Orb drive is quite fast anyway. In fact, two Orb cartridges and an Orb drive give me a better method of storage than my hard drive! The Orb constantly outperforms my hard drive in benchmarks and applications. The cartridges hold about 2 GB of information without compression, but this is still quite hefty when compared to a pithy Zip drive. The Orb drive is very modest in price when compared to any other cartridge drive of the same storage capacity. I use the Orb drive for multimedia and Internet use, and I can safely say that I am very pleased.
There are three problems with this piece of hardware. First, it takes a noticeable amount of time to start up. This spin-up can be very annoying at times. Second, it occasionally reverts to the E: drive on my computer instead of the D: drive. This causes various link problems in Windows. Finally, the use of Orb media is not widespread, like a Zip drive. It would be difficult to exchange data with people using Orb cartridges.
All in all, this is an excellent product. It's fast, cheap, and extremely useful. When Castlewood calls it "The Legendary Orb Drive", they aren't kidding. It truly lives up to its name.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Seanster
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Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 2 members
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