2. LaCie Mobile Hard Drive 100 GB - Design By F.A. Porsche

The LaCie drive leaves quite an impression, both in its technical specifications, and in terms of style. The manufacturer's message is "Design by F.A. Porsche" - these initials stand for Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, who is the son of Ferry Porsche, who in turn is the guy behind Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche, known for crème de la crème sports cars. Ferdinand Alexander is the CEO of Porsche Design GmbH, a company that caters to commissioned design works such as the LaCie hard drive.

We received a 100 GB version of the Mobile Hard Drive. It looks quite robust and the weight of about 7 oz is reasonable. There is a power jack at the interface side of the drive, but it can also be powered by the Firewire bus or USB 2.0. A dedicated power supply is only required in some USB 1.1 scenarios.

Inside the unit we found a Fujitsu hard drive, the MHU2100AT. With a spindle speed of 4,200 RPM, it is not one of the faster models. But given that its performance will be limited by the interface bandwidth of Firewire or USB 2.0 anyway, it is fast enough.