New drive enclosures

FireWire Depot this afternoon announced three new products: the . The Newnex FireNEX800-SX optical repeater utilizes an IEEE1394 PHY and optical transceiver to send IEEE1394 signals across a single mode optical fiber cable up to 10,000 meters in length. The Newnex FireNEX800-SX can also be used as a standard IEEE1394b repeater, extending a signal an additional 4.5 meters. The device costs $2000.

The FireXpress 350 Single Combo enclosure ($120) is equipped with 2 x FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394B) and 1 x USB2.0 connectors. The enclosure allows users to create a storage system from any standard 3.5-inch drive. It features a sleek all-aluminum design that matches Apple's Power Mac G5. The device utilizes heat convection to maximize heat dispersion and keep the hard drive at a cool constant operating temperature.

The FireXpress 350 Dual Combo enclosure ($150) can house two high capacity 3.5" IDE hard drives and has FireWire800 RAID 0 (disk striping) support. This enclosure allows users to have two external hard drives, without two separate enclosures that can clutter up desktop space or having to swap hard drives back and forth with one enclosure. The RAID 0 support gives users the option of having two separate drives or join the two hard drives into one single huge drive at their disposal. The device features an design similar to that of the single-drive version, and also offers all the same features.
The new FireXpress enclosures will be available at the end of May.

by MacNN Staff