Western Digital Passport -250GB

External Hard disks are gaining popularity all over the world and many have started preferring them over pen drives to gain huge amount of portable storage space.The Western Digital Passport series of its external range of portable hard disks live up to that reputation and beyond.

Here are the specs:

• Serial Bus Transfer Rate (USB 2.0) : 480 Mbits/s (Max)
• Capacity: 250GB
• Dimensions: 129.78 X 79.78 X 15 mm
• Weight : 104 gms

The 250GB Passport Hard Disks just weighs a measly 104 gms and also has small dimensions making it a perfect pocket drive. It is a 2.5″ Hard disks and hence does not require any external power supply and is a bus-powered drive.This drive is known to have problems with older laptops like Apple G4 due to their limited bus-power but that is not the case with new laptops.

The packaging bundle is not anything to boast about as it does not even bundle a manual nor a carry case which are absolute necessities. But you can find the software manual on the hard disk.The outer surface is shiny glossy black but develops fingerprints and scratches easily.

Setting up the drive is a piece of cake as it is a plug-n-play drive and gets detected by Windows,OS X,Linux as it comes pre-formatted in FAT32 partition which is recognized by all the above mentioned operating systems.The formatted capacity of the drive is 232 GB.

Coming to the performance aspect of the drive.It is one of the fastest drives available in the USB 2.0 External hard disks category.It manages an impressive 20MB/s with FAT32 formatted and 22MB/s with NTFS formatted.The read speed is around 22MB/s. It may not be comparable to some of the external Firewire/eSATA hard disks available in the market but it does not need an AC adapter either!

Pros:

• Light Weight
• Small Dimensions
• USB Powered
• Fast Performance

Cons:

• Surface prone to fingerprints
• Surface gets scratched easily
• No manual bundled
• No carry case
• Pricey compared to 3.5″ external drives

Final Thoughts

I would recommend this drive to anyone looking for high storage on the move. Its price is 200$ which is not much as cost/per GB comes out pretty low. All in all it is a perfect pocket drive and a must buy!

Altec Lansing VS4121

Altec Lansing is known for their outstanding computer speakers. Many years ago they released one of the first subwoofer based speaker systems for the PC, and they haven’t looked back since. Altec has always mixed a great amount of style with the functionality of their speakers, and sometimes this fusion brought impressive results. The Altec Lansing VS4121 proves to the world why Altec Lansing is one of the best computer speaker manufactures in the world.

The Altec Lansing VS4121 definitely aren’t the prettiest set of speakers out there but they perform better than any other PC speakers in its price range. They feature impressive bass, crisp high-end, built-in controls with bass and treble, headphone jacks, and shielded satellites

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the VS4121:
Street Price: $79.99 - $99.99
Sound Pressure Level (SPL): 97 dB
Total Continuous Power:

• Front Speakers: 6 Watts/channel @ 4 ohms
• Subwoofer: 19 Watts @ 4 ohms

System Response: 25 Hz – 15 kHz (-10dB)
Dimensions:

• Satellites: 4″ (W) x 4.7″ (D) x 9.2″ (H)
• Subwoofer: 8″ (W) x 9.9″ (D) x 13.6″ (H)

Things I like
I honestly don’t know where to begin with the list of things I like. The AL VS4121 are probably the best set of speakers I have ever bought. The bass produces such a shake that it feels like it could bring down my house. The satellites reproduce highs with thrilling clarity and fill the room with their down-firing mid drivers. Because the satellites are shielded it means that you can keep them close to your monitor without worrying about any damage coming from the strong magnets inside the speakers. The second thing I really like is the speakers low profile. The subwoofer barely takes up room underneath my desk and the satellites just sit on top looking rather nice. This set of speakers is everything that I need and I really can’t say anything bad about them.

Things I don’t like
I can’t say anything bad about these speakers. They are by far the best deal you can get for your money and they sound amazing.

Pros:

• Excellent sound quality
• Low profile
• Cheap (less than $100)
• The bass shakes the room

Cons:

• Not the prettiest looking speaker set out there

Final Thoughts
The Altec Lansing VS4121 are the best computer speaker set I have ever bought. The sound that comes out of it is absolutely amazing, it’s crisp and loud and can shake the room with its bass. These speakers outperform a few sets that are over $200 and they cost less that $100. I would recommend buying them even if you already have a set of speakers.