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 Verbatim is considered as one of the best manufacturers of optical medias in the world (CD/DVD/Blue ray) and lately they expanded their successes on some other fields. The full name of device that we tested in this occasion is Verbatim 3.5” External Hard Drive eSATA & USB Combo Drive 500GB, its name speaks for itself.
Verbatim doesn’t produce hard discs, they are focused on chassis and bundle. Instead of manufacturing hard disks on their own, they use models of well-known manufacturers, in this case Samsung. Inside of this HDD is actually Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD502IJ. Verbatim underlines in specifications that this is the HDD series with 8 or more MB cache memory, which only confirms the fact that Verbatim uses HDDs from different manufactures.
Model (47525) that we got in our test labs has at its disposal 16MB of cache memory. It could happen that you get even slower external HDD for the same invested money, so if you want to get maximum for your money, you should try to get exact info about HDD that is included in package. Those differences in 8MB of cache memory, more or less, hardly can be "felt" in real work conditions if the device is connected with computer through USB 2.0 port, which is the first interface that this Verbatim has at its disposal. Performances are on expected flow rate values for USB 2.0 standard. The second interface, more and more popular, is eSATA standard that enables maximum flow rate, which actually means that performances of built-in HDD won’t be decreased. When device is connected through this type of connection, nor your computer nor yourself will see any difference in performances between classic internal SATA HDD and Verbatim’s external drive. Test results, presented in table on second page, actually can confirm this claim - performances of this HDD are in level with performances of fastest 7200 rpm HDDs on the market.
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Case of this external HDD is made from quality plastics with neutral design that should fit into any interior. Dimensions of the case are 202 x 114 x 40mm while the weight is a bit less than 1kg. On front panel of chassis is placed indicator that lights green. On back side is input for power adaptor that comes in package. AC adaptor has small dimensions and it’s possible to change its plug depending on sockets that you have. Switch for turning on, as also eSATA and USB 2.0 connectors are, also located on back side of the case. During work, 3.5” HDD didn’t warm up too much thanks to ribbed plastic openings on bottom side. On HDD was already preinstalled Nero BackItUp 2 Essentials software, for your backups. This is one very thoughtful and praiseworthy detail, that Verbatim think of. The very good impression was spoiled a bit by length of USB cable from only 60cm and rigidness of eSATA cable, which length also could be longer (65cm).
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