theuerkorn's Full Review: Hitachi Microdrive 3K6 4 GB CF+ Hard Drive
Multiple GByte of portable storage are becoming normal these days -- not just since the introduction of the 4 Gbyte iPod Nano. Digital cameras generate bigger files and grow more more hungry with every evolutionary step. Flash memory cards with 4 GByte are nothing new anymore, but they're still pricey nevertheless.
IN A NUTSHELL
The 4 GByte microdrive by Hitachi is a great offering for budget-minded users that put quantity over speed. In my Canon EOS 20D, that translates into roughly 450 pictures in the RAW (depending on picture content and size of embedded JPEG) and more than 1000 pics in the highest quality JPEG setting (8 MPx). When used in mp3 players, roughly 1000 songs can be stored. (The same as Apple's iPod Nano which uses flash memory). In fact, it's basically the same hard drive as can be found in Palm's LifeDrive (without the CF interface).
This generation microdrives has been recently discontinued and replaced by slightly faster 6 GByte and 8 GByte models. (A claimed 30% increase in speed.) Buy it for capacity if your pockets are like mine -- not deep enough for today's high performance flash cards. Lackluster write performance puts the microdrive on par with entry level flash cards. Read performance is about average.
Increased power consumption and reduced robustness and temperature range may be factors to consider before jumping on this bargain. Robustness concerns are real, but should not be taken to the extreme. Just don't do anything you wouldn't do to your camera or mp3 player either.
Under "normal use" the microdrive feels very similar to any flash drive, as most users typically don't shoot long series of successive pictures or abuse on their memory either. Transfer back to the computer may be a little slow, but overall liveable.
DETAILS
Compatibility: It's a CompactFlash Type-II device and as such limited to devices that support the slightly taller shape compared to the popular Type-I, which is usually used by the majority of flash memory cards. Otherwise the microdrive is transparent in use and mimics the same protocol as a flash drive would do. Hence it's just universal. However, it would not be a bad idea to check if your device is officially compatible with microdrives -- just to be sure. (Typically called "CF+" which adds a few commands to deal with the harddrive specifics.) Make sure that your device supports FAT32, since FAT16 can only handle up to 2.14 GByte.
Rating: ****-
Performance: It's essentially a 3,600 rpm hard drive, and therefor has to cope with the same mechanism as its bigger brothers. Namely that would be spin-up time and reduced data transfer for the "inner" sectors of the drive. The first is barely noticeable in my EOS 20D since the camera buffers at least 6 pictures (RAW) -- and I am not much of an action photographer anyway. I benchmarked the microdrive by copying an even mix of large files (8 MByte) and smaller ones (10 kByte) onto and from the drive. Writing 400 MByte took 3 minutes and 25 seconds, not a stellar performance by any standard. It translates into roughly 2 MByte/sec (or 12x)! Reading is a bit more aspired with roughly 1 minute and 17 seconds, which is basically 5.25 MByte/sec (or 35x). That's a far cry from today's high speed flash like SanDisk's Extreme III. However, that one costs still $400 in a comparable size, and most readers can't use all the speed anyway.
The Hitachi microdrive sports 128 kByte of cache to reduce drive access and increase read speed for cached files. That's showing the "age" of the drive, as Seagate recently started offering a competitive product with 2 MByte of cache, wich is more suitable for today's multimedia applications (but won't help hi-res digital cameras either).
Rating: **---
Robustness: When not in use (park position), the microdrive is rated at 2000 G max. impact (single shock, 1 ms). That's on par with the rating for most flash drives but in reality, the latter distances itself from the microdrive once we're talking vibration (repetitive impact). Due to the lack of moving parts, flash memory typically retains the dream number of 2000 G, but the microdrive drops all the way to 3 G.
Once in use (powered up), the microdrive drops "significantly" to 200 G sustainable impact (single shock). While this sounds dramatic, the device it's used in may not be able to stand even the 200 and it might be a moot point under normal use. More important is vibration for which the "resistance" drops to 0.67 G below 500 Hz (think mountain bikes). Now, that's a number to consider. So keep in mind it's a miniature hard drive and use it with caution. A word to the wise, don't squeeze it or write on it with a ball point. Always store it in the included container, and stay away from strong magnets.
Another factor to consider is the rated operating temperature range of only 0° C to 70° C (that's on par with SanDisk's Ultra II, but the Extreme III reaches -25° C to 85° C). In other words, don't use the microdrive when it's getting cold, and that may be a major disadvantage to high-performance flash drives.
Rating: **---
Power Consumption: It's a hard drive, and though it's spinning "only" at 3600 rpm, it still consumes considerably more power than comparable flash drive. In my application, I noticed that my battery in the Canon EOS 20D runs empty about 30% quicker -- pretty much the same effect as the Image Stabilization in my lens (versus a standard lens). That means, however, that the battery runs out of juice way before the 4 GByte are filled up. Make sure to pack extra batteries -- especially for cameras when using IS, flash and the display frequently.
For tech buffs, the microdrive draws about 760 mW when writing and 42 mW in standby. In comparison, CompactFlash like SanDisk's Extreme III would use 200 mW during writing and 2.5 mW in standby. Of course the true effect on battery life depends on how those numbers fare relative to the total consumption of the respective device.
Rating: ***--
Cost: At currently $130.- for 4 GByte of storage, the microdrive is significantly cheaper than any flash drive currently available in this size. This is the main reason to get the microdrive, as it makes for great extra storage when all your high-speed flash cards are full and no opportunity to download the pictures is in sight. Cost of ownership, however, might take a nasty turn due to microdrive's inherent design and vulnerability of the moving components to excessive shock. Further, the possible need for extra batteries may offset the savings in the microdrive enough to swing your vote towards flash -- even when on a budget. CompactFlash is typically rated at more than 1,000,000 hours before failure (MTBF), the microdrive is hard to compare with the given "of less than 1 error (non-recoverable) per 10 TerraBytes transferred" or "300,000 load/unload cycles". This is due to the mechanical nature of the microdrive. In any case, the Flash is likely to last much longer, but in 5 years you may not be able to use it anymore anyway as 4GB may be "way too small". ;-)
Rating: ****-
Competition:Seagate recently joint the 1" disk drive market and currently puts a lot of pressure on market leader Hitachi. In fact, the same 4 GByte can be had from Seagate for under $100 these days (after rebate). For an even bigger drive for the buck, check out Seagate's newly released 8 GByte microdrive. If purchased by 01/23/2006, Seagate even gives you $40 back and brings cost down to $156 (as seen on Amazon.com). While there is no information on actual speed, features are compelling: larger cache (2 MB), lower price. (I found one review comparing the two main competitors and the Seagate 5 GByte drive outperformed the 4 GByte Hitachi by about 20% to 30% even for larger files that exceeded the built-in cache.)
Hitachi 4 GB CompactFlash+ Type II Microdrive General Features: 4 GB capacity Type II CompactFlash+ interface NOTE: Only True IDE mode enabled. CF mod...More at Amazon Marketplace
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