If you always end up needing one more external storage drive after another and you always promise your wife that it will be your last one, either because you didn't know it wasn't water resistant, or because you don't like keeping movies on Blu-rays, here is an extra option for you. One more versatile, which combines portability with the speed of SSDs.

The eSATA USB SSDs that Active Media Products has recently announced are also capable of connecting you to the PC either via the traditional USB 2.0 port, present on this gadget in the mini form factor, or via a much faster and more reliable eSATA port. This two-way connection can be useful when lending the external drive to that special friend who “accidentally” broke your USB connector. This from the “always good to have a spare” category.

Other than that, the obvious comfort provided by the eSATA connectivity should be appreciated by anyone who is currently looking for a new external storage solution. That is, if you are looking for speed. If you are looking to transfer some files on your father's antique computer, you'll appreciate the USB port, of course.

There are two models of SSD drives made available by Active Media Products, the P16G-ESATA and the P32G-ESATA, pretty much self-explanatory. No matter what size of drive you need, they will both run happily at 100 MB/sec if reading and 55 MB/sec if writing data.

Being portable devices, you must also know their dimensions: 3.1 x 11. x 0.4 inches and the fact that they will support all types of operating systems, starting with Windows 98. The P16G-ESATA costs $69.95 and the P32G-ESATA retails for $109.95.


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