Buffalo Intros New High-Capacity USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drives

Buffalo Technology rolled out two new high-capacity desktop hard drives, HD-LXU3 and HD-LXVU3. The former comes in 1 TB and 2 TB capacities, while the latter in 3 TB. The drives use Buffalo's workhorse chassis that makes up most of its desktop hard drives, measuring 39 x 123 x 189 mm. Both drives use USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface to connect to the host over a bandwidth of 5 Gb/s, they do, however, rely on DC power adaptors.


The bundled ecoManager software parks and spins down the drive when it's idling, reducing power consumption by 70 percent. Backup and encryption software is bundled, too. In USB 3.0 mode, the 5 Gb/s bandwidth can't bottleneck the drive, but when connected to USB 2.0, the bundled Turbo PC EX can help make the most out of the available 480 Mb/s interface bandwidth. The drives are fitted with noise-dampening materials that reduce noise and vibration. A tiny fan ventilates the unit, which can be secured using the Kensington lock slot. The 1 TB and 2 TB HD-LXU3 are priced at around $175 and $230, respectively. The 3 TB HD-LXVU3 goes for around $320 in Japan.