Portability is crucial these days. From the evolution of the laptop to the appearance of netbooks, there are more and more people who are in need of portable computing solutions. This is OK for most persons who never really need more than Internet facilities or word processors, but the fact is there are some which are in need of a little extra. Be it processing power, extra portability or more storage, the truth is that sometimes, the standard is just not good enough.

And for people who (for example) need a laptop with let's say 500GB of storage space but no other fancy gimmick, what's there to do? Buy a top of the line $2,000 notebook just because those are the only ones which come with the required storage?

WiebeTECH have come up with a small and portable HDD enclosure designed to fit 2.5-inch SATA drives. It goes by the name of ToughTech MINI and it comes with two choices. You can opt for the Firewire 400 or the Firewire 800 design.

The FS mini comes with dual Firewire 400 ports and an USB2.0/eSATA combo port. The XE is just like the FS but the Firewire is boosted up to the 800 specifications. By use of the Oxford 924 chipset, the enclosures provide high transfer speeds and work exactly as fast as an internal SATA hard drive.

Even better, since most laptops come with 5400RPM HDDs, users can fit a 7200RPM drive into the MINI and enjoy even higher data transfer rates. And although tiny, the enclosure takes care of it's babies by providing anti-shock strips which protect the drive and reduce vibrations. Of course Pug&Play is also on the table for Windows 2000 and up or Mac OS 9.1 or later.

Every ToughTech MINI purchased with a pre-installed and formatted drive will include a free leather drive case for stylish transport and will sell for 80 – 325 US dollars (the FX versions) and 120 – 365 US dollars (the XE models).

We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .