Introduction
A 2.5-inch external hard disk can provide that extra storage you need when you're on-the-go. Adata is one of the players in this market, so we tested two of their USB 3.0 DashDrive models with 500 GB of storage, the HD710 and HE720.
About ADATA
ADATA Technology, the world’s 2nd largest vendor of DRAM Modules, 3rd largest of USB Flash Drives, and a Top 20 global brand in Taiwan, provides complete memory solutions, including DRAM Modules, USB Flash Drives, memory cards, solid state drives and portable hard drives. ADATA products are internationally recognized by Germany’s If Design Award, red dot Award, CES Best of Innovations Award, Japan’s Good Design Award, Best Choice of Computex Award, and Taiwan Excellence Gold Award. The company’s slogan of Love, Life, Dreams, embodies the ADATA brand and the role of innovative memory products in the human pursuit of universally cherished ideas. For more information, please visit www.adata-group.com.
About Product
ADATA DashDrive Durable HD710
The HD710 is a robust storage device constructed of unique rubber material, designed especially for outdoor users. This HDD gets different from other External HDD due to Military-grade shockproof and waterproof construction .
General Specification:-
Device Interface: USB 3.0
Weight: 220g
Dimensions: 132 x 99 x 21.5mm (5.2 x 3.9 x 0.85in)
Available colors: Black / Blue / Yellow
A closer look:-
HD710
The drive is carefully mounted in a rubber and plastic shell with a carbon fiber effect on each side of the drive; this gives it a very likeable look whilst also giving it a robust feel.
The back is identical to the front of the drive with the exception of the labels, this symmetrical design enables the drive to absorb impact evenly.
The front of the box maintains a minimalist design offering pleasing aesthetics and the basic product information, such as capacity and interface speeds whilst the rear of the box provides more detailed information in a variety of languages.
The contents included in the box (along with the drive) are; An ADATA product catalogue showcasing the versatility of the company and the products they offer, a quick start installation booklet and the USB & Power cable combo.
A close up of the silicone push flap that protects the super speed USB3 port from moisture.
ADATA DashDrive Elite HE720
Sporting a brushed stainless steel surface, and with a record-breaking slim profile of only 8.9mm thickness, the brushed metal case with protective layer provides 9H scratch resistance the DashDrive Elite HE720 also features “One touch backup†function which automatically backs up and synchronizes data with one easy touch.
General Specification:-
Device Interface: USB 3.0
Weight: 165g
Available Color: Titanium
Dimensions 117x 79 x 8.9mm (4.6 x 3.1 x 0.4in)
Closer Look
HE720
All white, the packaging DashDrive is a little bland.
Here we go, the USB 3.0 DashDrive Elite HE720, the 500 GB model.
The design of the unit is slim -- 8.9mm thickness my man, that isn't a lot for a portable HDD storage unit, you can slip it into your jacket easily.
To the right is the USB 3.0 connector (btw you can use this device on USB 2.0 as well). To the left you can see a backup button. The DashDrive Elite HE720 features “One touch backup†function which automatically backs up and synchronizes data with one easy touch. The HE720 is equipped with a bright blue LED indicator which shines through the transmission process to indicate power and data transfer status.
On the other hand, it only weighs 165 grams, fast and has an instant back-up button next to the USB port. The One Touch Backup software is a nice addition as well. After you've installed it, it is very easy to make backups.
Test setup:-
• AMD BULLDOZER FX 8120 @4. 5Ghz
• ASROCK 990FX EXTREME 4
• KINGSTON 8GB 1600 CL10
• CORSAIR FORCE 3 60GB SSD
• ZALMAN HD7870 TURBO
• COOLER MASTER TPC-812
• SEASONIC PLATINUM 1000W
HDTune
I deleted the Partition in both portable HDD’s prior to performing any of the testing with HDTune.
Testing with HDTune’s Read performance; Sony HD-E1 1TB HDD trails the Seagate 1TB Back Up plus followed by Adata HE720 then Adata HD710 portable HDD.
Testing with HDTune’s Write performance; Sony HD-E1 1TB HDD leads the race followed by Adata HE720 then Adata HD710 portable HDD.
ATTO Results
Next ATTO's Disk Benchmark v2. 41 was run on the three drives. It was configured in a fairly standard manner, with the Transfer Size set to 0.5 to 8192.0KB, Overlapped I/O, a Total Length of 256MB, and a Queue Depth at 10. Units of measure are MB/s, and higher values are better.
Crystal Disk Mark
This benchmark provides results to detail the read and write performance of the drive in question. Units of measure are MB/s, and higher values are always better. First up are the sequential read results.
Tera Copy
One of the most common operations performed on a PC is moving/copying files. Using a free application called allows us to objectively measure the time of transfer files across our computer storage devices.
I am going to start off with the actual average transfer rates of TeraCopy, now unlike what we have seen with the previous synthetic benchmarks where the Sony HD-E1 1TB portable HDD had the best performance, this time in our real world test of moving over 20.25GBs of MP3 music files the Seagate 1TB Back Up plus and Adata HD710 portable HDD was able to outperform the Sony HD-E1 and Adata HE720.
This is how long it took me to transfer my entire collection of 20.25GBs of Mp3s from my computer for each of the Portable HDDs. The ADATA HD710 portable HDD has been able to transfer my 20.25GBs of MP3 music files in just 373 seconds with the amazing speed of 56mb/Sec beating other three drives with a huge margin whereas ADATA HE720 takes 720 seconds with 28mb/Sec approx double the time compared to other drives.
Summary
The ADATA DashDrive Durable HD710 is aimed at the enthusiast audience who are frequently on the move, perhaps traveling from work to home with important data on a daily basis. It also is suited to the user base who want the reassurance of protection during ‘less than ideal’ traveling conditions While DashDrive Elite HE720 is a good-looking device, Stainless steel has a classic good appearance in spite of its tendency to attract fingerprints.
That same stainless steel construction adds to the feeling of solidity when handling the device, and in general the DashDrive Elite HE720 feels very well constructed.
Both the hard drives comes with usb3. 0 interface where Adata HD710 performs very well and HE720 performs average.
The Good
Good performance(HD710), Attractive and sturdy stainless steel design(HE720)
Waterproof(HD710),Ultra-slim 8.9mm profile(HE720)
Shockproof(HD710)
The Bad
Short size USB cable(HD710,HE720)
Specially Thanks to ADATA For providing this review Sample.
