HDD by stefan @ 2011-11-07
The PX-PH500U3 USB 3.0 HDD from Plextor comes with a lightweight casing and sports a professional, clean design. The performance is good for a 500GB 5400RPM drive and for added value we get three separate applications already preloaded on the HDD; the applications are full versions, with the serial numbers supplied in the box.
At first I would like to thank Plextor for offering a sample of their PX-PH500U3 USB 3.0 Portable Hard Disk Drive for testing and reviewing.
"The History Of PLEXTOR
The history of Plextor goes back almost 100 years. Shinano Kenshi Corporation was founded in 1918 to manufacture Spun Silk Yarn, which at the time was one of the most "High-Tech" industries in the world. The silk required a very delicate and precise production process. The right to wear silk was reserved for the highest government officials and dignitaries only, and therefore the quality standards were extremely high. In these circumstances, Shinano Kenshi developed their own business philosophy: “Never Compromise, Always Think Quality”, because only providing the best quality could satisfy their exceptional customers.
As the years passed, Shinano Kenshi embarked on other industrial markets that would grow more progressively, while maintaining its proud history in the Silk Industry.
In the 1960s, Shinano Kenshi decided to diversify its business to electric motors, a fast growing market at the time. Despite changing its core business, the company kept its business philosophy, “Never Compromise, Always Think Quality”. These ventures insights led to the successful expansion into technology-driven, knowledge-intensive fields, such as Electrical Division, Electronic Equipment Division and Printing Equipment Division.
In the 1980’s, Shinano Kenshi expanded their sub-contracting position by recognizing the evolution of the digital age with the advancement of compact discs replacing the older generation of analog tapes. The company began to manufacture their own compact disc players for the audio industry, and developed a separate brand for the department. The Electronic Equipment Division introduced its first CD-ROM optical disk drive under the TEXEL brand name in 1989. Faced with the prospects of a healthy and ever-increasing demand for its products, Shinano Kenshi identified the importance of this segment, with the Professional and IT markets demanding performance-oriented products. The company naturally transitioned into the optical disc drive industry. Through every generation of optical disk drives, Plextor has continually sought ways in which its CD-ROM's, CD-RW's and DVD+R/RW's could stimulate market demand by offering higher speed and higher reliability devices, while winning numerous awards worldwide.
While maintaining and strengthening its core competences, Shinano Kenshi continued its global expansion by establishing subsidiary companies and promoting its products on a worldwide basis. In 1982 Shinano Kenshi began to expand overseas. The United States was the first country where the company started overseas operation. PLEXTOR US was officially founded in 1990 and three years later a European branch (PLEXTOR EU) was opened.
The subsidiaries are chartered with the continual growth of Resellers and OEM's in their respective territories, who have come to rely upon Shinano Kenshi for performance, quality oriented and technically superior optical peripheral products. In 1994, Shinano Kenshi announced their new brand name PLEXTOR for their digital technology products, including optical disc drives.
Plextor CD-R/RW drives were introduced in 1998 with technologies developed by the corporation in support of the market growing demand for CD-ROM's. DVD+R/RW were added to the Plextor product line in 2003. High performance drives enable our users to write and re-write data on a stable platform that has evolved throughout the years. Plextor has also invested heavily on the certification of media to give our users a wide range of compatibility between the various manufacturers.
Plextor's CD-R, CD-RW and DVD+R/RW optical disk drives have been tested worldwide and evaluated as the "Professional Choice" to satisfy even the most discerning customers. Plextor products have been adopted by financial institutions and government agencies, which require highly reliable data storage technology. Recording studios have come to regard the Plextor products as the "drive of choice," which they can rely upon for the accurate extraction and creation of Digital Audio.
The business philosophy “Never Compromise, Always think Quality” generated from tailoring luxury silk for the highest dignitaries did not fade over time but became the company’s core value. Also in the optical storage business, Plextor provided the best quality products to high-end customers and professional users in a heavy duty environment, instead of general users. In order to satisfy these professional users and to meet their strict specifications, PLEXTOR always invested many resources in R&D and product testing before any product was released to the market. In line with its high quality standards, Plextor always offered excellent warranty conditions.
In the 21st century PLEXTOR successfully entered new markets with external Hard Disks, Multi Media Players, Network Attached Storage, and more to come…..
The origin of the name PLEXTOR
The PLEXTOR brand name was created in United Stated in 1993, and comes from two parts: PLEX and TOR.
“PLEX” originated from the suffix of “multiplex”. Here, “multiplex” means relating to a system of transmitting several messages or signals simultaneously on the same circuit or channel, just as making silk which is being composed of many materials and needed a precise and delicate process.
“TOR” originated from motor, which is the first product with Shinano Kenshi’s core technologies in electric industry.
The Vision of PLEXTOR
Plextor aims to deliver high performance, quality oriented and technically superior products.
The Core Values of PLEXTOR
Confidence – Plextor takes pride in its products. We have high standards and our goal is to deliver the highest quality products to each market segment that we are serving.
Quality – Plextor stands behind every product. All our products go through stringent quality checks and intensive testing procedures before they are released to the market.
Innovation – Plextor invests in R&D and develops patented technologies to enhance product performance, functionality, and robustness.
Service – Plextor ‘optimal’ customer care support ensures 100% customer satisfaction
The DNA of PLEXTOR
The following characteristics describe the identity of the PLEXTOR brand:
Reliable, Relentless, Professional, Diligent, Pioneering, Excellent"
Professional Build Quality
Elegant aircraft-grade aluminum casing, with classic beveled edges and sleek modern design
Advanced, high-precision 2.5 inch hard drive mechanism with integrated error correction
Achieves fast data transfer rates using high-speed USB 3.0 connection and optimized interface
Includes powerful commercial utilities for information backup and the securing of private data
SuperSpeed USB 3.0
Utilizes the latest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface for exceptionally fast transfer speeds and outstanding drive performance
Fully compatible with USB ports found on older systems, operating at the maximum transfer speed allowed by the USB port to which it is connected
USB 3.0 cable included for fast and dependable transfers
Designed for portability
Highly compact design, less than 13 cm long and under 8 cm wide. Only 1.5 cm thick at its widest point
Requires only the USB cable for power, no additional power adapters need be carried
Stylish leatherette case provides additional protection during transportation
Total drive weight under 162 grams
Supported by Plextor 2-Year Fast Warranty Service
Comprehensive 2-year warranty in the EU, Norway and Switzerland including courier pickup and return (other countries 1-year carry-in)
Plextor Fast Warranty Service ensures prompt professional results in the unlikely event that the service is needed
Product quality assured and fully supported by Plextor’s market leading warranty service.
Full software package
Complete package of commercial software enables the best use of the drive
Backup and restore valuable data using FNet PCClone EX
Maximize read and write speeds with the TurboHDD utility
Ensure that private and business information is kept safe on a secure partition via FNET SecureDrive EX2 (AES encryption to US Government standards)
The USB 3.0 portable HDD from Plextor comes packed inside a small-sized cardboard box, with the photo of the enclosure on top, along with the total capacity of the drive inside:
A small description can be found on the bottom side of the box:
After opening the sealed box, we can see that the contents are fully wrapped in protective foam:
In the center we can find the main product, wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag:
Besides the HDD, inside the box we can find a small Installation manual, a carry pouch and the data transfer cable:
The Installation paper instructs us on the modes that we can use to connect the drive to our computer:
The carry pouch holds the Plextor logo on one of the sides and comes with a soft material inside, to avoid scratches to the finish:
The enclosure has an elegant brushed aluminum finish on both sides; the top one comes with the embossed Plextor logo:
For avoiding unauthorized access inside the casing, we can find a small sticker on one of the sides:
The enclosure also comes with a sticker which holds the product serial number, manufacturing date and the product code name:
In the back, we can find a DC-IN port (in case the drive needs extra power to function), along with the USB 3.0 port:
When the drive is powered on and connected to an USB 3.0 port, a blue activity LED lights up and blinks when data is transferred to the drive or from the drive:
The testbench was composed from the following hardware:
CPU: Intel I7 Retail @ stock
Motherboard: Foxconn BloodRage with G42 BIOS
RAM: 3x2GB Patriot PVT36G1600LLK 1600MHz
Video: Sparkle GTX 470 with stock and OMNI A.L.C.
Power Supply: Nexus RX-8500 850W modular
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11
Case: Thermaltake Armor+ LCS, stock cooling
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Expansion: ASUS U3S6
After plugging in the drive in a spare USB 3.0 port, we can find out that the product comes with some preloaded software kits:
The HDD comes formatted NTFS and here is the total reported free space:
Inside the enclosure, we can find a Toshiba MK5059GSXP 2.5'' 5400RPM HDD with 8MB cache:
After executing the Autorun function from the drive, we can see the included software functions, so we can decide which ones we need to install (speed up, backup or drive encryption):
The TurboHDD USB application looks the same to the one we have seen on some previous reviews of motherboards or USB flash drives, and, of course, it comes with the same installer:
To be able to activate the application, we need to use the serial found inside the box:
After the application will be started, it will ask us to remove and plug the disk again:
The main interface allows us to switch between Normal and Turbo transfer modes:
Another application that is included is named PCClone EX Lite and helps us make backups of the important data:
The PCClone EX Lite application interface is split into multiple tabs; inside the Quick Launch menu we can initiate the automatic backup function, only by clicking the button:
The next menu lets us specify which drives and folders to include for backup to the external USB device:
The File Manager is a Windows Explorer clone so we can move data from one place to another:
In the last tab we can access the advanced settings of the application:
The Plextor drive is also supplied with the SecureDriveEX application, which allows us to password protect the data found on the disk.
The 500GB USB 3.0 HDD from Plextor offers decent performances for storing backups, but we can also use the product for transferring data from one computer to another. The TurboHDD USB application from Fnet did not seem to bring a lot of extra performance to the drive after the “Turbo” mode was activated; however, two more applications are offered on the disk to add product value: PCClone EX Lite for backups and SecureDrive EX2 for data encryption.
Plextor are also known from the past for manufacturing high quality products (mostly optical drives), and this portable USB 3.0 HDD is no different: the chassis has a clean, professional design and the drive inside was chosen in such a way so it does not get too hot during prolonged use. A small carry pouch is also offered, to protect the casing from scratches during transport.
The product itself is also light by having a total weight of 162 grams. Regarding warranty, Plextor offers 2 years collect and return in EU, Norway and Switzerland, other countries carrying only 1 year of warranty.
The Plextor PX-PH500U3 USB 3.0 HDD can be found in online stores for about 60 Euros, a price that puts it near the other offerings on the market.
Plextor has also made available a model which also has the eSATA interface available, with the code name PX-PH500U2.
I would like to thank again to Plextor for making this review possible!