Trans International on Tuesday announced an expansion to its miniXpress line of external hard drives with the introduction of three new 500GB external FireWire devices. The miniXpress 825, 825s and 425s are fully hot swappable, bus-powered drives -- made of durable Aluminium to provide rugged yet stylish protection (as well as optimal heat dissipation). All three models sport customizable 2.5-inch, 5,400 rpm SATA drives and an array of I/O options including eSATA, USB 2.0, FireWire 800 and FireWire 400 ports. The 825s and 425s models also include an innovative 2-in-1 connector that combines the eSATA/USB ports to a single connector.

The new drives sport data transfer rates of up to 150MB/sec courtesy of Oxford 924DSB and Oxford 934DSA chipsets, anti-shock mechanisms, energy-saving drive 'spin down' functions and backup/utility software.

The 500GB miniXpress 425s (no FireWire 800 support) is $290, while the FireWire 800-based miniXpress 825 and 825s models are $316.