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Iomega introduces new Peerless drive system

updated 05:19 pm EST, Fri January 5, 2001


Iomega's new Peerless drive system, debuting this month at CES and MacWorld Expo, are new PDA-sized drives that utilize a $250 base station that is "slightly" larger than the disk itself (a slim, vertical enclosure about four inches across and five inches tall). The "disks" are available in 5GB ($130), 10GB ($160) and 20GB ($200) capacities and are fully sealed, offer transfer rates of up to 15 MB/sec with the FireWire interface, and include chip-based identifier technology data security. FireWire and USB 1.1 interface modules are expected to be available in mid-2001 in the US and in the third quarter in Europe and Asia/Pacific. USB 2.0 and SCSI versions due "as follow-on products."


by MacNN Staff

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  1. 0

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    01/05, 06:57pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Why??

    It's s*** looking, but how is it any better than the considerably cheaper option of getting a portable FireWire drive like the pocket-sized ones from VST? I've had one for over a year and love it.

  1. 0

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    01/05, 07:40pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Looks cool

    But when are these bozos going to realize not to price the media so high?
    For 160 bucks one can get a nice 45GB and up hard drive.

    Its not like their Jaz drive was some sort of raving success.

  1. 0

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    01/06, 04:11pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    very cool, inexpensive

    I can't beleive these comments saying this drive is too expensive. Yes, the 5GB cartridge not the best (in terms of $/MB), but the 20GB one compares favorably with even Orb disks. That's $10/GB! If there's a better removable magnetic media, I'd like to know about it. And you can't compare these with regular hard-drives because they're _removable_.

    What's more, these seem to be FireWire-native. At least judging by the absence of mention of an ATA version... ?

    Discounting the availability of an internal ATA model, if you think these are impractical, you're judging all removable hard drives dead.

  1. 0

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    01/06, 08:46pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Just buy some hard drives

    A 45 gig 7200 rpm IBM hard drive that has a transfer rate of about 37megs/s is cheaper than the 10 gig model, not to mention the price of the enclosure.

    A IDE drive can be a portable drive. In order to make it into a portable drive you need a computer with a 5.25 inch half height bay (not a cube) and an IDE removable drive sled assembly which costs around 40 bucks.

    What this thing seems to do is put one of the IDE drive sleds in a firewire compatible case. If you have the skill and don't mind the sort of home built look you can do the same thing for much cheaper, but if you want something really slick, and don't mind paying the premium, and the fact that you can't stack more of your junk on top of it, then Iomega seems to have done a good job.

    -Michael McMillan
    http://www.theyeti.com

  1. 0

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    01/07, 10:35pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    native firewire?

    To the one commenting on 'native firewire'...who cares?? This is only capable of transferring at 15MB/sec, far below the 50MB/sec Apples current implementation of firewire is capable of. It is near or below what the majority of ATA-bridged firewire harddrives are capable of. The simple fact that there is no internal ATA version of this drive is due to the fact it is too bulky to fit in a standard 5.25" bay. The user who commented on the removable ATA assembly for 5.25" bays is absolutely right - the assembly is extremely easy, fast (full speed of the ATA bus) and usually hot-swap capable. Buy 3 $100 30GB hard drives and the $40 assembly and get more functionality and get 18x the storage capacity and transfer at 2-3x the speed of this 'sleek' POS. There is always a market for such products, and to be completely honest I'm sure these "disks" in the Iomega system are more durable than your standard $100 30GB hard drive...lending to their above-average cost...but at more than 3x the cost, is it worth it for most people?

  1. 0

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    01/08, 08:30am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Excellent - but pricey

    No doubt, the Peerless is an excellent idea! I want one NOW! But @ $249 for the bare drive, hundreds more for media, and possibly optional Firewire connection (like Zip250), this baby is going to cost almost as much as a new iMac! It's going to take a while for the prices to come down to something the average consumer will pay. But Pros that really need it for their work are probably going to buy them up as fast as Iomega can build them!

  1. 0

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    01/08, 11:36am | report spam | Reply | delete

    you need wireless for???

    i hope your all remembering that before you store your first bit of data on one of those disks its gonna cost you 250 bucks for the drive... then you can buy a disk... i hate to feel like i'm repeating things but *cough*ripoff*cough* sorry... i'd rather stick with floppies to tell ya the truth... for the common consumer which this device seems to be aimed at by looking at their page i don't think its sensible... i don't know of anyone that stores their favorite tv show episodes on their computer... its much more effective to keep it on vhs and learn how to program your record on your vcr... iomega is goin down the hole faster than i thought if this is all they can come up with...

  1. 0

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    01/08, 11:58am | report spam | Reply | delete

    IDE removable drive sled

    Can someone please tell me specifically the brand and place to buy one of these?

  1. 0

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    01/08, 07:30pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    IDE Drive Sled??

    I think the whole point of this thing is to make it easier to carry around large amounts of data. A drive sled is no good unless the computer you are moving the data to also has one. The portable firewire is probably a better solution at present, but I think the plan would be for them to become a ubiquitous as Zip drives, so most people would have one and so when you have to take something somewhere, you only take the disk and not the base station. If people do start picking them up en masse, then they could be a pretty viable option.

  1. 0

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    01/08, 11:18pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    alternatives to Peerless

    BUSLINK makes some very nice, relatively-reasonably-priced FireWire drives (20GB for $200 or less, 40GB for $300 or less) in really slick metal cases - and the cheaper ones marketed as "PC-only" work just fine with Macs, assuming you have the necessary drivers.

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