Rocstor ROCPRO 900e Desktop Portable External Hard Drive

Portable Storage With Connectivity

If you are long time readers you know that we always advocate more storage, fast storage, and redundancy of storage. We have covered a LOT of external and internal drives of varying capacity, speeds, and interfaces over the years. The need for storage hasn’t decreased. Instead it has bloomed as we predicted and started to migrate to online sources. For those not quite comfortable with storing their data online where hackers and other companies alike can access your personal files there remains one solution. Get your own drives for your data. This means some form of storage you can take with you.

Rocstor makes solutions that address exactly this kind of need. We have here today the Rocstor ROCPRO 900e Desktop Portable External Hard Drive.  As you might expect this drive provides additional storage to a desktop or laptop and is portable (more on that later). What’s different you ask. Well the ROCPRO 900e comes with just about every type of connectivity you would want. This makes the drive ultra useful and versatile. I cannot stress enough the usefulness of multiple connectivity interfaces. The ROCPRO 900e comes with USB 2.0/3.0, FIREWIRE, and eSATA connectors and Rocstor has included the cables for each of these connections in the box.

Connectivity Options

As we mentioned above the Rocstor ROCPRO 900e comes with multiple connection options.

The chart above demonstrates the connections available and their associated transfer speeds supported below.

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 Specifications and What is Included in the Box

Technical Specifications

I’m not particularly a big fan of specification tables as I think of them as space filler by review sites that can’t come up with real content. In this case though it is important only in that we are using it to point out a few facts you will want to consider. First the drive is marketed as “Portable”, it says so on the box and in the product name. Realize however, that the drive is 3.4 lbs and requires a power cable from a standard PSU (Power Supply Unit) to operate. That’s a lot to lug around for a portable drive. There are similar capacity units in 2.5 form factors that weigh far less. In fairness though the competition lacks the variety of interfaces found on the ROCPRO 900e.  Second the ROCPRO 900e is available up to 4TB which is a LOT of storage to make available for a single drive solution. Lastly the ROCPRO 900e supports just about every OS you will run into including the new Windows 8. Funny enough the ROCPRO 900e does not show support for Linux, sorry Penguin users are possibly out of luck here. Anyone running Linux with a 900e we welcome your feedback on if this drive works for you.

Design

The ROCPRO is designed with an all aluminum enclosure and heat vents running along the sides. While this design should work fine for dissipation of heat it should be noted that no active movement of air is provided and the design is passive. I.E. There is no fan in this enclosure. We had no issues with the ROCPRO 900e getting hot or even warm during extended use. The indicator light at the front flashes green (Would really have preferred blue but this is personal preference) during HD activity.

Under the Hood

When we popped the top off the ROCPRO 900e we found a Seagate 1.0 TB drive. Rocstor products are available online in refurbished condition as well. This means that you may get a storage device with a refurbished hard drive or other components in it.  While this may save you some cash we cannot recommend refurbished hard drives for any serious storage needs.

We like that Rocstor uses Seagate drives for reliable storage and while our device came with a Certified Re-manufactured HDD, all products purchased from Rocstor as new will come with a new hard drive. This has been confirmed by Rocstor’s PR rep.

Special Features:

• Desktop and/or Portable external storage drive
• Aluminum casing
• Built-in Power Supply
• Carrying Case included
• Incorporates SATA Hard Drive
• USB 3.0 (2.0), 2x FireWire 800 and eSATA connections
• Speeds up to 5,000 Megabytes per second
• Enhanced with shock-Absorbents mechanism
• Compatible with both Windows® and Macintosh® environments
• Power: Auto-Switchable 240VA/100VA International use
• Direct (AC) plug into electricity (no bulky adaptor required)
• Includes all necessary cables

Specifications:
Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 3TB and 4TB
Rotational Speed: up to7200 rpm
Interface: Supper Speed USB 3.0 (2.0 Compatible,) FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 compatible via a standard FW800 to FW400 (9pin to 6pin) cable or adaptor Optional) and eSATA
Transfer Rates: USB 3.0 up to 5,000Mbit/s, (USB 2.0 up to 480Mbit/s,) and FireWire 800 up to 800Mbit/s (FireWire 400 up to 400Mbit/s) and eSATA up to 3,000 Mbits/s
Dimension: ~8.7×5.8×1.6 inches or ~22×14.7×4.1 cm
Weight:  ~ 3.1 Lbs (1.45 Kg) (with hard drive installed)
Color: Silver, Black, and Hot Red

System Requirements:
Mac or PC computers USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 or FireWire 800 or FireWire400 or eSATA port(s)
Apple: PowerPC or Intel processor
PC: 266MHz or faster Intel or equivalent processor
Recommended Memory: 1GB RAM

Operating System requirements:
Apple: Mac OS 9, X, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion
PC: Microsoft®, Windows®, 2000, Me, XP, Vista, Windows 7

Power Requirements: Built-in Power Supply (International 220-110V) (No adaptors required)
Direct connection to electricity via a standard (computer) power cable

Usability

In use we found the ROCPRO 900e to be flawless. We tested all four connectivity options and while USB 3.0 was the fastest it was nice to be able to connect to eSATA or Firewire when USB 3.0 was not available.  This really came in handy allowing us to connect to the fastest interface available to us at the time. The included stand allows you to mount the ROCPRO 900e on its side for stability and a smaller footprint. As for the marketing claim of desktop and mobile for its target audience we find this a hard swallow. While the ROCPRO 900e is a portable hard drive and could be used with mobile devices, the weight, size, and power cord would make it much more difficult for mobile users than smaller devices. Indeed Rocstor offers smaller devices that would be a much better fit for mobile users. A full listing of their products can be seen here.

The ROCPRO 900e does come with a carry bag which will fit not only the drive itself but also the power cord and all of your cables. This makes the unit easier for traveling with but due to its weight we wouldn’t suggest trying to carry this around as your permanent mobile storage solution. The ROCPRO900E finds its best match on your desktop in a business or home setting.

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Testing:

As we mentioned above, we tested the ROCPRO 900e using all four interfaces. The results were as follows:

USB 3.0	USB 2.0	eSATA	Firewire 800

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As you can see USB 3.0 remains the fastest in terms of specifications. With eSATA, Firewire 800, and USB 2.0 trailing in that order. In real life use eSATA edges out the lead by a fraction. The CPU utilization as you can see is highest with USB, a factor many consumers don’t take into consideration. Compare eSATA and USB to see the difference. We do find it interesting that HD Tune believes that using this drive with USB 3.0 actually makes your CPU faster by 1%.  Obviously this is a problem with the program but other than that USB 3.0 still wins out in terms of widest flexibility and ease of use. If you co0mpare the benchmark numbers for eSATA and USB 3.0 you will see just how close they are. We believe this may be reaching the limitations of the drive and not the interface.

NOTE: We were unable to find an adequate testing program for the ROCPRO 900e to use with Firewire. Those programs we tested had issues with the latest OS and did not report the speed correctly. We will update this review when we are able to find an appropriate program.

Who This Drive is Right For?

Are you a power user who hates to wait for their data top copy or to read from a drive? Are you a consumer who intends to use this with a single computer but you want the ability to take it with you if the need arises? Want to be able to transfer data between computers in a mixed MAC/PC environment at the fastest possible rate? If you are then this might be the right device for you.

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Who This Drive is Wrong For?

If you are looking for cheap storage where speed and multiple connections are not important then this device is wrong for you. If you need a light portable device where storage capacity is not important then the ROCPRO 900e is not the right drive for you.  We suggest getting a WD Passport or small USB thumb drive as they are small, have a single interface, and are relatively cheap.

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 Conclusion

Overall we like the Rocstor ROCPRO 900e. Its multiple connection options give you the flexibility to use the fastest available connection in any situation. The enclosure keeps your drive cool and it comes with everything you need to be on the go even if it does tip the scales a bit. As you saw from our testing the ROCPRO is easily able to meet your needs in both storage capacity and speed and the lack of an external power brick that most of the full size externals come with will save you space and floor clutter.

We would like to see a Rocstor device with this much connectivity in a 2.5 form factor that is bus powered in the future. The ROCPRO 900e is currently the only device that Rocstor makes that has this level of connectivity. The ROCPRO 900e 1TB model can be found online ranging from $170 to $199 which is a bit pricy for a 1TB drive until you factor in its connectivity options and the accessories it comes with. As a one stop shop solution the ROCPRO 900e has it all, carry bag, cables, excellent construction, performance, and options. Considering it as an overall solution package the ROCPRO 900e is an excellent value and receives our TechwareLabs Silver Award.

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