Buffalo DriveStation HD-HXU3 USB 3.0 Review

We looked at our first USB 3.0 hard drive in the form of a portable 2.5″ Buffalo MiniStation Lite. Thanks again to Buffalo, today we're looking at a 3.5″ hard drive based dekstop version of their DriveStation. Packaged in a nice little red box the DriveStation HD-HXU3 USB 3.0 comes with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 cables along with the power adaptor.

The DriveStation we received had a capacity of 1.0TB, however, 1.5TB and 2.0TB versions are also available. It comes pre-formatted with FAT32 meaning it would allow direct read and write access to a Windows or Mac based platform. However, once you plug in the device, the auto start program kicks in and asks you if you to format the drive into NTFS while .dmg files suggest that you will be able to do the same on a Mac and HFS.

The DriveStation HD-HXU3 USB 3.0 itself is a sleek looking hard drive- not much bigger than your standard internal 3.5″ drive. On top you have an LED while the backside has the USB and power connections. You can keep the drive horizontally or vertically- I prefer the latter as that saves some space. The chassis has active cooling but the fan is extremely quiet and I did not hear it at all during testing. There are vents towards the bottom of the chassis to let the hot air out... tbreak