X drive PRO VERSUS Compact Drive. Which to buy ?


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marcwang

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Jan 9, 2003
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Going on a trip soon... so.... thinking of buying either one of these.

Xdrive PRO or Compact Drive.

I'm quite new to such equipment, so I need some advice.
My priorities are
1) Cost
2) Reliability

Speed is less of an issue.

Which do u recommend ?
 

marcwang said:
Going on a trip soon... so.... thinking of buying either one of these.

Xdrive PRO or Compact Drive.

I'm quite new to such equipment, so I need some advice.
My priorities are
1) Cost
2) Reliability

Speed is less of an issue.

Which do u recommend ?

Believe me, SPEED is a very very important issue :)

Heard a lot good words about Compact Driver PD7X, speed, reliability and etc. X-Drive is painfully slow if I'm right, and there is no point to pay extra money for its MP3 feature if you'd never use it (I assume so).

If I were you, I'd go with Compact Driver PD7X. But I myself got a no-brand Chinese made casing (S$110) plus a 40GB HD which was left over from previous collection ;)
 

the thing I like about the X drive is that it comes with an adaptor, so I can use it without battery power in the hotel room. I heard that battery power is unstable... may cause failure
 

marcwang said:
the thing I like about the X drive is that it comes with an adaptor, so I can use it without battery power in the hotel room. I heard that battery power is unstable... may cause failure

Compactdrive PD7X also comes with an adaptor.... :D
 

I'm using the PD6X. Brought it to my Korea trip(8 days), took abt 500 RAW, not a single file corrupted. During that trip, I used 2x 256Mb CF cards, roughly abt 30 pic per card before it became full. Hence, had around 17 uploads. No problem.
Believe me, Speed is very important. Faster upload also means uses lesser 'juice' from the batt. Long lasting power!
Gd abt using regular AA batt is that U can easily find a replacement, & as time goes by, more powerful AA batt are avail, making the Drive to last even longer! eg Sanyo new 2500mA.
 

have used a pd7x (which I currently own) and a x drive pro before. Both are reliable, but the pd7x beats the x drive pro in terms of speed, and I like the fact that it can use aa batteries. So compact drive is my recommendation
 

X drive Pro II... i m using that since my trip to beijing...

the site is www.vosonic.com
and the model is VP3310 at this site http://www.vosonic.com/index.php?php_mode=spec&php_itemid=22

till now no problem... u can get it from top universal at sim lim square level 4... www.topuni.com.sg

btw quite a number of clubsnappers including me bought the X drive pro I or II at Sim Lim level 4 Top Universal.

the price i paid for the X drive pro II is $330... after some bargaining... the device plus a 40GB Samsung harddisk . u can also choose the type of HDD u want ranging from capacity to different companies example hitachi, samsung n others...

well hope my information can help... the following thread is also about portable drive...

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=99717&page=1&pp=20
 

In terms of price, (from the site I bought mine from), the PD7X is cheaper than the Xdrive pro.

In terms of reliability, I haven't read any bad reliability comments about the x-drive, but I've read some about the PD7X.
but from personal experience, I've only tried the PD7X, it's worked fine, only that my battery voltage seems to go up and down a lot, and once it goes below a certain voltage, it shows an error; but once you put different batteries in, it's fine ;)
 

I haven't had a problem with X-Drive Pro either. It's solid rock. From what I know it's cheaper than Compact Drive. A 40GB Compact Drive will cost about $400, while X-Drive Pro II costs $330. The price may already change now..

Good thing about X-Drive Pro II is that it can take any hard disk, not sure abt Compact Drive.
 

i read about PD7X also... not bad too...

for X drive Pro, it works well n has no problem yet... speed wise is quite fast about 1 sec per pic for a 3 megapixel pic... transfering from sd card or cf to the X drive.

for transferring to pc, it uses USB 2.0 n the speed is also fast... but your motherboard's USB port must also be USB 2.0 also...

the X drive pro can also be used as a mp3 player... like i pod like that... n also as a external device...

the battery life also quite good... last me about 4-5 512 MB SD cards transfer with some battery life left... about 2-3 hours battery life...

can also get a external charger using 8 AA battery from EastGear for $15...
 

erm...does these drives support OS X for mac users? Any mac users out there who are using these can verify this? Thanks!
 

How long is the battery life for the X Drive PRO? Thinking of using it for MP3 playback.
 

Hyperion188 said:
How long is the battery life for the X Drive PRO? Thinking of using it for MP3 playback.

For MP3 playback, the X-Drive battery only last for 1 hour, so you may have thousands of songs in them, but only enough battery to finish 1 CD worth of songs.
The MP3 function is also very basic, just playback, no fancy features like playlist, equalizer, wma support. So don't expect an ipod.

We are the distributor of both the X-Drive & CompactDrive, so we are well aware of both product features. The CompactDrive was specifically brought in to replace the X-Drive & Nixvue portable storage device (PSD), so most users prefer a faster & longer battery life PSD, the fact that it uses standard easy replaceable AA batteries in also an advantage. Since the launch of the CompactDrive in June 2004, the CompactDrive is now Singapore's best selling PSD.

Main advantage of CompactDrive over the X-Drive
1) Transfer speed (4~5MB/s)
2) Battery life (transfer 35GB of photos on a single charge)
3) Aluminium Casing with dust covers
4) Uses standard AA size battery (buy spare batteries anytime or use alkalines during emergencies)
5) Slightly smaller than X-Drive
6) More reliable (although sales of PD7X have surpassed the X-Drive, the return rate is much lesser than X-Drive)

Disadvantage of X-Drive
1) Slow Transfer speed (0.8MB/s)
2) Short Battery life (transfer 2 GB of photos on a single charge)
3) Plastic Casing with exposed card slots (users have reported cracked casing due to heat)
4) Built-in Propietary battery (difficult to replace and recharge via AC when unit runs out of battery)
5) Bulky
6) Some corruption problems, reasons unknown.

In a recent review by HWM (August 2004),

Fast and Furious - Blazing fast and tremendous battery life; leaving other similar products in their wake


In our tests, we are delighted to find that its transfer speed and battery life beats the immensely successful X-Drives hands-down...it took us only 4 mins 45 sec to complete copying about 1GB worth of files as opposed to 20 mins and 52 sec we got from our X-Drive...even after repeating the process about 8 times, the battery indicator was still at 2 out of 3 bars!

If you are looking for a fast portable media reader/storage device with neck-breaking transfer speed and incredible battery life...the CompactDrive is hard to beat


You can read the full review here:
http://www.eastgear.com/catalog/images/PD6A-HWZ-AUG04.pdf
 

EastGear :kok:

Quit tempting me :bsmilie:
 

Eastgear..your web page has expired and con not log in.. Can check it out?
 

Eastgear site is up and running liao!
 

I used to have X-Drive, and now own Compact Drive. Tell u frankly, Compact Drive is much better than the X-Drive. It transfers files much faster, battery life is very long. So far, I have nothing but praises for Compact Drive

and btw, X-Drive is nowhere in the same league as Compact Drive.
 

tokunaga said:
erm...does these drives support OS X for mac users? Any mac users out there who are using these can verify this? Thanks!

can..... as long as it is updated to the latest firmware.... and formatted using their utility... ;)
 

Chlee said:
can..... as long as it is updated to the latest firmware.... and formatted using their utility... ;)

Thanks, Chlee!

BTW, I've made up my mind and will be getting a Compact Drive rather than to bring my PB along my trips. Don't want to risk the safety of my PB.....
 

tokunaga said:
Thanks, Chlee!

BTW, I've made up my mind and will be getting a Compact Drive rather than to bring my PB along my trips. Don't want to risk the safety of my PB.....

Hi Tokunaga,

No problem... just sharing what I know... I don't own a Mac... it's my friend who is using 1 and tested.... :D

However, get to know the device when you get it... how it performs with your rechargables... so that you will not be caught off guard when you need it most..... :)
 

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