The initiation of the quad - port driveway represents the a la mode trend in the evolution of the external heavy driving . In addition to the three standard character of ports found on current Macs — USB 2.0 , FireWire 400 , and FireWire 800 — these movement give you an eSATA interface , a connexion that ’s a tad faster than the FireWire 800 ports you ’re already using . To realize those faster speed , though , you ’ll need to buy an expansion bill . ProMax charge up a exchange premium for the new engineering science in its FireMax 500 GB Quad crusade , and that gamy price is one of several reasons why you ’ll find good values elsewhere .
The FireMax Quad is one of the smaller 3.5 - inch background drives we ’ve looked at recently . We reviewed the 500 GB model ; it also comes in capacities from 160 GB up to 750 gigabyte . The tight convulsion of the FireMax ’s enclosure around the voiceless drive mechanism leaves little room for mistake during assemblage ; the back panel of the unit we reexamine was slightly misalign with the miniature USB embrasure .
While this defect was only decorative — it did n’t hinder me from plugging in a USB cable — it concentre my attention on other primed - and - finish issues . For example , the FireWire 800 connecter lack a tactile clack sound when I plugged in a cablegram . Though this , again , has no bearing on operation , it ’s another missed detail . To the drive shaper ’s credit , the FireMax does manage to squeeze in an antitheft slot among the four ports on the back control board . However , the on / off switch is place near the center of the back panel , close to the cable television , rather than toward the edge and out of harm ’s style .
To set up the drive , simply plug in the more or less bulky 13 - snow leopard AC exponent adapter and unite the whole to your Mac via one of the four types of ports . The driving supply two FireWire 800 connecter , which you’re able to daisy - range of mountains to other FireWire twist if you care . Although the unit of measurement includes a tiny built - in fan , the campaign ’s process was very muted . The FireMax was relatively speedy , but did n’t endure out among the movement we ’ve lately reviewed . It does n’t come pack with any software or other extras , so speediness is its main virtue .
timed trials
Scale = Minutes : Seconds
How We try : We run all tests with the drive connected to a dual-2.5GHz Power Mac G5 with Mac OS X 10.4.8 installed and 1 GB of RAM . We tested the drive using FireWire 800 and eSATA . We copy a brochure hold 1 GB of data from our Mac ’s tough thrust to the outside concentrated drive to quiz the drive ’s write focal ratio . We then duplicated that file on the extraneous ride to screen both scan and write speeds . We also used the private road as a slit disc when tend our low - memory Adobe Photoshop CS trial . This trial is a set of four chore performed on a 150 MB file , with Photoshop ’s memory set to 25 percent.—Macworld research laboratory examination by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
specifications
Macworld’s buying advice
Although it ’s modest and quiet , and it turns in a decent performance , the FireMax 500 GB Quad ’s high price and lack of extras — such as bundled computer software — makes it hard to recommend wholeheartedly . You may want to look elsewhere for your storage demand ; for instance , the LaCie 500 GB d2 Quadra ( ) is a good option .
[ Jeffy K. Milstead is a Macworld Lab alumna and a writer living in San Francisco . ]
