| SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB 1.8" SlimEx Platinum |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Storage | |
| Written by Olin Coles | |
| Saturday, 04 August 2007 | |
SOYO SlimEx PlatinumDo you remember SOYO? It has been almost ten years now since I built my very first computer system from parts ordered over the web. Back then, it was all about searching Price Watch for deals, and the AMD K6-II CPU. I clearly remember learning how difficult it was assigning IRQ addresses for dial-up modems, and how troublesome it was to load the drivers for Windows 98. In those days it was very common to find SOYO brand motherboards for sale almost everywhere you shopped, and most times those motherboards fetched a premium for the high-end accessories they featured. Those were the good old days, and that was the old SOYO. These days SOYO is best known for consumer electronics, communication equipment, and several computer peripheral devices. SOYO hasn't produced a motherboard is several years, with the last being targeted for the Intel Socket-478 P4 based i875P chipset. Benchmark Reviews has decided it was time for the public to get reacquainted with SOYO, and so we begin by offering our review of the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive. Ultra-slim, lightweight aluminum casing provides maximum durability and heat dissipation, while USB 2.0 offers throughput speed. The SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive offers a high capacity storage solution within a conveniently sized enclosure. Not much bigger than most cellular phones, and only 2-3 times as wide as a flash-memory drive, the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB could make a lot of sense for anyone needing to store up to 20GB of data. 
Bringing electronic files when you are on the road or transferring from PC to PC has never been easier! Introducing the new SlimEx Platinum, now you can save and zip your large files in 1/5 of the time! Up to 20GB* of storage capacity available, SlimEx Platinum offers you the convenience and the flexibility that you will not find elsewhere! It's protected with the magnesium alloy casing for the rugged users. Whether it is a business presentation, your favorite MP3 songs or your most memorable photos, share your favorite movies, store your important files in a SlimEx drive and be mobile! Compared to traditional CD-R or Zip drives, it can get the job done faster! About the company: SOYO Group, Inc.The SOYO brand name is synonymous with quality, performance and value. Established in 1999 with headquarters in Ontario, California, SOYO Group, Inc. (OTCBB: SOYO) is a leading global provider of computer motherboards, computer peripheral devices, consumer electronics, networking, portable storage and broadband telecommunications products and services that meet the needs of all markets - from the end-user to the enterprise. 
Best known as a manufacturer of designer motherboards, SOYO's line of high-performance DRAGONsingle-processor boards support both the Intel and AMD platforms. Recognizing demand for cost-effective, reliable and high-quality peripherals that provide universally compatible solutions, SOYO has expanded its line of products and services to meet the needs of the consumer, SOHO, SMB, enterprise and gaming markets. Over the years, SOYO has established strategic relationships with major global manufacturers, and through our extensive sales channels, we deliver a wide range of cutting-edge, cost-effective products. With sales offices in California and Sao Palo, Brazil, SOYO sells its products through an extensive network of authorized distributors, resellers, system integrators, VARs, retailers, mail-order catalogs and e-tailers. Features & SpecificationsAt first, I thought the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB was going to be just another external USB-based hard drive, since there are so many of these on the market. But then something occurred to me: the entire SlimEx drive was smaller than the notebook hard drives I had laying around the shop, which sets it apart. Based on the super-small 1.8" hard drives which are just emerging into commercial use, the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum is the perfect solution for storage situations where a flash drive just doesn't offer the capacity. Features:
Technical Specs
In the image above you can see how my Motorola M3 cellular phone is nearly the same size as the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive. If the phone can fit in even the smallest pocket, then the SlimEx will certainly have the same benefit. Package Contents:
*1MB= 1 million bytes, 1GB= 1 billion bytes: actual formatted capacity is less. Closer Look: ExteriorThere is no space wasted inside the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive. Think of it as a tiny 1.8" hard drive with a thin aluminum case molded around it, and you will have just revealed the engineering behind the FM-SY-SLIM20GB.
SOYO mounts the aluminum enclosure directly to the 1.8" 20GB hard drive. The small set screws you see in the images are securing the chassis in an otherwise unblemished enclosure. The small USB "b" connection and activity LED are exposed from the side of the enclosure. Even with the IDE to USB interface, the SlimEx remains extremely compact.
Just in case you don't particularly care to transport the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB SlimEx buck-naked in a free pocket, there is a faux-leather (who knows, it might be Pleather brand) carry-case for the 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive and the accompanying retractable USB cable.
The SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive kit comes with everything you see here, but I honestly use nothing more than just the drive itself since I already have a USB cable attached to my computer for charging my cell phone and attaching my Palm Zire.
So far, so good. I like that the SOYO SlimEx Platinum is so small I can tote it around in a pocket, even the small pocket on a pair of painters pants (which is also perfect for a cell phone). But I digress, because fashion is fine for a pair of sunglasses, but when it comes to hard drives and storage only the function counts. Hands-on testing up ahead! Installation & TestingThe SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive was recognized the moment it was first plugged into Windows XP. It appears as thought the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB is really a Toshiba MK2003GAL with a pretty coat of aluminum poured over it. You may recognize the Toshiba MK2003GAL from its other use: the Apple iPod.
SOYO Offers a large selection of USB attached storage devices, and many of them receive the "Cigar" model name. Somehow the FM-SY-SLIM20GB received the same formatting at the factory. The first thing I did was reformat this drive under the NTFS file system, and give it a new name. It's not that SOYO's choice was completely wrong, but I not to think of smoking when it comes to my hard drive.
Now comes the moment of truth. You can be pretty, but you had better be pretty fast. SOYO's SlimEx Platinum External Hard Drive utilizes an Ultra-DMA interfaces with 16.6MB/sec buffer to host throughput, SOYO doesn't claim that the SlimEx is lightning fast, since the hard drive to USB interface is what it is, but we will see if the FM-SY-SLIM20GB is better or worse than the specs they offer.
After determining that each of the three consecutive HD Tach RW benchmarks were nearly identical, we determined that the image below would be a fair interpretation of the performance. The FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive certainly matched the performance SOYO claimed. But is that going to be enough?
In comparison to USB flash drives, the SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB performed significantly slower. Every single USB-based flash memory drive recorded with HD Tach RW maintained a 8.0ms random access time, 58.4Mb average read, and 123.8 average burst. Compare this to 18.3ms random access time, 15.0Mb average read, and 35.1 MBps average burst speed, and it would seem evident that once flash drives can reach 20GB capacity there will be no real advantage to having micro-sized hard drives. Final ThoughtsSometimes it's difficult to praise a product in a review article without someone claiming that I am advertising for the company. So I will have to play Devil's advocate and give my positive remarks with a dark shadow of negative afterthoughts. This way, nobody can claim I am siding with the manufacturer. So here it goes, my bi-partisan opinion of the of SOYO FM-SY-SLIM20GB 20GB SlimEx Platinum External USB 1.8" Hard Drive. Conclusion
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