on hardware: why cheaper isn’t always better
Monday, 7 September 2009 5:54 am by noelposted in tech | tags: hardware, usb drive
i purchased a 2.5″ usb 2.0 sata drive enclosure a couple of months back. it was cool and smooth to the touch. it was thin. it was sleek black. and, mostly, it was cheap at php 250.00 (about us$ 5.00). i plugged in a new 120 gig sata drive. and watched as i transfer data at a blazingly disappointing rate of 1000 kb/sec (give or take a few bits). that’s less than 1 megabits per second. the usb 2.0 specs say it should go up to 480 megabits per second. this thing is even slower than usb 1.0.
okay. it may be a fluke. i connected the drive to a computer running windows. same thing. 1000 kb/sec. okay. scratch that idea. maybe there’s something wrong with the hard disk. i replaced the hard drive with one that i know is working properly. same thing on both ubuntu and windows. 1000 kb/sec.
this sucks. big time. and the stupid thing carries a warranty shorter than the lifespan of a common house fly.
the lesson of the story: when it concerns computer hardware, cheaper is not always better.
and if you are truly and madly decided on getting something cheap, do yourself a favor and have it tested first, if that is at all possible. if not, then you either move on or be prepared to use a lemon.



