[CES 2013] We can’t say that USB HDD enclosures are an area of constant innovation, that’s why this new BuffaloLink DriveStation DDR caught our attention. While most disks come with 32MB or 64MB of cache memory, the BuffaloLink DriveStation DDR adds 1024MB (1GB) of DDR3 RAM memory on top of the internal HDD cache.
The idea is that mechanical hard disk drives (HDD) can’t achieve their optimal write or read performance because the head has to physically move from one area of the disk platter to the next. This induces a tremendous amount of latency, which decrease the overall performance as measured in megabits/second (Mbps).
With additional cache memory, the system should be able to buffer enough data to perform continuous writes, which are less prone to HDD head motion. That reduces latency (seek time) and therefore increase throughput and overall performance. We haven’t been able to benchmark one yet, but in theory this should just work and buffalo claims performance increase varying from 2.8X to 3.5X. The Enclosure is set to cost $119 (1TB), $149 (2TB) or $189 (3TB).