[Eug]

I haven't had much luck with Firewire enclosures lately, but this one's a winner.

I just bought a Sarotech Cutie, for $105 CAD (US$70) from Primelite (Toronto).
Barefeats.com has previously reviewed it, here.



It's a very simple (but effective) design. It has a hollow aluminum shell, and a circuit board inside on which the drive sits. The circuit board slides in along metal grooves in the aluminum shell. The front and back ends are plastic and are held on with tiny screws.



Flip the circuit board over and you'll see it uses the Oxford 911 chipset.



This thing is TINY, barely bigger than the 2.5" drive itself. In fact, the design only houses 9.5 mm drives. 12.5 mm drives will not fit. My version came with two 6-pin ports for daisychaining and a power supply port (not needed). You can get a USB 2.0 only version, or else a USB 2/Firewire combo. The latter has one USB 2 port, one 4-pin port, and one 6-pin port.



My Toshiba 60 GB MK6021GAS 9.5 mm 4200 rpm drive is powered up fine by Firewire power. I dunno if my drive would work off USB power in the USB 2 version, but I know that other low power drives do tested in other enclosures. (5400 rpm drives tend to be problematic however.)

For those who might need it (not us recent Mac users), the Firewire version still comes with an auxillary cord that draws additional power from any USB port if needed. It takes the place of an AC adapter. A nice touch is the fact that the cord has both a female and a male USB end, so you don't actually lose a port when using this cable.

The carrying case is very nice and has a pouch which holds the Cutie perfectly. It has room for one Firewire cable, and it also has a side pocket.

The box holds the Firewire enclosure, carrying case, 6-pin to 6-pin cable, 6-pin to 4-pin cable, USB power cable, instructions, screws, and a miniCD driver disc. (Drivers were not needed for OS X.2 or Windows XP.)

I got over 20 MB/s for sequential reads and writes in Xbench with the Toshiba drive. Not bad for a 127 x 76 x 15.5 mm (5 x 3 x 0.6 in) drive that sits in a wallet.

One thing a few have worried about is the fact that it doesn't have bumpers like the Lacie PocketDrive. However, I don't think that's an issue. The Sarotech has the nice (padded) carrying case to protect it, and you can plug everything in with the drive still in the pouch. The drive power and activity LEDs are still visible too (at the bottom right corner of the picture).

If I were to buy another 2.5" enclosure, it'd definitely be the Cutie.

[Emotionally Fragile Luke]

I like the bag.

[Emotionally Fragile Luke]

Originally posted by Eug:
If I were to buy another 2.5" enclosure, it'd definitely be the Cutie.

Ok hold your horses there bud. You last 2 firewire drives blew up within 2 weeks. This Cutie is what, 24 hours old?

You might want to see if it lasts a month before you give it such a rave review

[icruise]

The last one blew up too?

Actually when I saw this thread I thought Eug had beat me to the punch again. I'm going to Akihabara tomorrow to get (among other things) a Cutie firewire drive, but I'm getting the new version:



One of my friends actually has the older version that you have Eug and he is pretty happy with it.

[xtal]

Great detailed review! I may consider one of these...

[Eug]

Originally posted by Emotionally Fragile Luke:
Ok hold your horses there bud. You last 2 firewire drives blew up within 2 weeks. This Cutie is what, 24 hours old?

You might want to see if it lasts a month before you give it such a rave review

Actually, one blew up (bad capacitor) in the first 1/2 hour, and one just didn't work properly - it didn't seem like it was getting power to the drive. So for the last couple of weeks I've be using the drive in a humungous 5.25" case.

It does seem like this new one is nicely designed. Fits together well. The first one was also a nice design functionally (although not as nice aesthetically) - plastic but very solid. The second one was also plastic, but it didn't seem the pieces fit together as well.

Originally posted by Icruise:
Actually when I saw this thread I thought Eug had beat me to the punch again. I'm going to Akihabara tomorrow to get (among other things) a Cutie firewire drive, but I'm getting the new version:



One of my friends actually has the older version that you have Eug and he is pretty happy with it.

OK, I want that! Sexy drive. The new one looks like it might be a better match for the new AluBook. I wonder when Primelite will get it in. They are one of the few places (the only place?) in Canada that carry this thing.

[Hozie]

You want sexy? I'll give you secksi! Check out the drives at www.googiedrives.com... Verrry nice from a design point of view. Does anyone know if their 'Organic' series of enclosure are shipping?

[Eug]

Originally posted by Hozie:
You want sexy? I'll give you secksi! Check out the drives at www.googiedrives.com... Verrry nice from a design point of view. Does anyone know if their 'Organic' series of enclosure are shipping?

They have cool looking enclosures, but they're all 3.5" desktop drives. I'm using a 2.5" laptop drive.

[icruise]

I'll write up a little review of the new cutie if I am successful in getting one.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Icruise:
I'll write up a little review of the new cutie if I am successful in getting one.

The guy at the store says he's seen them and they look nice, but they are a little more expensive and the guts are pretty much the same. However, if it were only say 10% more expensive and looks anything as good as the one in the picture I probably would have bought it.

From the picture it looks like the enclosure has probably more pieces. ie. Instead of a hollow aluminum shell, it seems to have two aluminum half shells. But the design of each is more stylish, and the small futuristic font is nicer.

I'm looking forward to your review.

EDIT:

Here is the URL for the new CutieDX.

[Wet Jimmy]

Just to allay any concerns, I've been using a Cutie with an IBM 20GB GNX drive (5200rpm) for quite a few months now, and I've had no problems whatsoever - so I can definitely reccommend a drive upgrade.

[Eug]

This gives an idea of the size. The PDA on the left is the Palm m125.




Also, I had some time to run some benches on a cleaned up drive.

HFS+ with Xbench 1.0:

Code:
TOSHIBA MK6021GAS
Disk Test	52.51	
Sequential	55.00	
	Uncached Write	56.60	24.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
	Uncached Write	58.73	23.89 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Uncached Read	49.28	 7.76 MB/sec [4K blocks]
	Uncached Read	56.38	24.32 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random		50.23	
	Uncached Write	42.89	 0.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]
	Uncached Write	49.79	11.42 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Uncached Read	52.65	 0.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]
	Uncached Read	58.03	11.37 MB/sec [256K blocks]

FAT with SiSoft Sandra 2003:



Both the OS X and Win XP benches put the sequential reads and writes at about 24 MB/s. It's interesting to note that the buffered read in Sandra is 34 MB/s, which is about what one would expect for Oxford 911.

[Eug]

Icruise's Cutie DX review.

[Eug]

Still running strong. I have now built a PC for work with MacDrive 5 on it so I'll be using the Cutie strictly with HFS+ for file transfers/backups between home/work.

I also have an NT box without MacDrive 5 so I wouldn't be able to use the drive with it, but it's moot. NT doesn't support Firewire anyway.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Benchmarks on a portable laptop hard drive? You guys are weird

[JB72]

I have a Cutie and I really like it. Good product.

I wonder if anyone here has tried the LACie Data Bank? It certainly has a unique look.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by JB72:

I wonder if anyone here has tried the LACie Data Bank? It certainly has a unique look.

Ya, it was designed by Porche.

[Eug]

Originally posted by JB72:
I have a Cutie and I really like it. Good product.

I wonder if anyone here has tried the LACie Data Bank? It certainly has a unique look.

I've already seen one just like it in the local PC store. USB 2. Not sure if it was a knockoff but I think so.

Benchmarks on a portable laptop hard drive? You guys are weird

Well, some people asked in another thread. Also, it's good to know that if I ever needed it, it could be used for DV capture. Not bad for a 4200 rpm drive. I guess Apple wasn't lying.

[olli2]

I have the Sarotech Cutie! combo version (USB 2.0 5 pin, Firewire 4 pin / 6 pin), with a 40 GB IBM Travelstar inside.

I use a 6 pin-6pin cable to connect the drive and don't have any luck to have the drive appear on my desktop (iBook 600 May 2002). I have also tried Disk Utility, but no success.

The green light is on, and when plugging in the cable, the red led lights up 2-3 times. The hard disk is powered and spinning. There are no jumpers on the hard disk, because without jumpers it is in Master mode.

I have tried the Cutie enclosure with the same hard disk, same firewire cable on my Desktop PC, and it works without problems.
I have tried the hard disk with a USB 1.1 enclosure on my iBook, and with that enclosure, it works. So the problem must be with the Cutie-Mac combination.

Any idea why it does not work?

[Eug]

Originally posted by olli2:
I have the Sarotech Cutie! combo version (USB 2.0 5 pin, Firewire 4 pin / 6 pin), with a 40 GB IBM Travelstar inside.

I use a 6 pin-6pin cable to connect the drive and don't have any luck to have the drive appear on my desktop (iBook 600 May 2002). I have also tried Disk Utility, but no success.

The green light is on, and when plugging in the cable, the red led lights up 2-3 times. The hard disk is powered and spinning. There are no jumpers on the hard disk, because without jumpers it is in Master mode.

I have tried the Cutie enclosure with the same hard disk, same firewire cable on my Desktop PC, and it works without problems.
I have tried the hard disk with a USB 1.1 enclosure on my iBook, and with that enclosure, it works. So the problem must be with the Cutie-Mac combination.

Any idea why it does not work?

I find that sometimes if it's formatted on a PC, the Mac won't see it at all. Dunno why. Other times it will see it fine, but obviously if it's not FAT32 or HFS+ it will say it's not initialized.

How have you formatted it?

I was using FAT32 with both the PC and Mac a while back but I found Mac support for FAT32 was a bit flaky. Macs don't support NTFS at all either.

So finally I formatted it HFS+ and bought MacDrive 5 for the PC. Now works great with both.

[olli2]

Originally posted by Eug:
I find that sometimes if it's formatted on a PC, the Mac won't see it at all. Dunno why. Other times it will see it fine, but obviously if it's not FAT32 or HFS+ it will say it's not initialized.

How have you formatted it?

I was using FAT32 with both the PC and Mac a while back but I found Mac support for FAT32 was a bit flaky. Macs don't support NTFS at all either.

So finally I formatted it HFS+ and bought MacDrive 5 for the PC. Now works great with both.

It does not even show up on the firewire bus (Apple\About this mac\More info...)

[romeosc]

OWC Mercury Express 2.5" Portable USB v1.1 Enclosure. New, Open Box, 1yr OWC Warranty. (OWCME910USBOB) more info... $25.00

[Eug]

Originally posted by romeosc:
OWC Mercury Express 2.5" Portable USB v1.1 Enclosure. New, Open Box, 1yr OWC Warranty. (OWCME910USBOB) more info... $25.00

USB 1.1 only?