Home > Consumer Reviews > Cavalry Storage CAXM Series 500 GB USB / eSATA External Hard Drive CAXM37500 - Includes eSATA Kit

I've been using this for a few months and I'm probably going to get another one soon. I've checked out other drives with esata, and they were more expensive and/or didn't have the esata accessories. Also, some of the esata drives didn't have USB 2.0 and just had esata. I don't use USB to connect to the drive but if I need to I'd like the option. Not all motherboards have the hookup. The esata bridge goes directly to one of your slots on the motherboard.

PROS
Definite pros are the speed, size, and cost. Also, consider that you don't have to buy any additional cards to use esata. My machine doesn't have any firewire ports and the cards cost roughly third the cost of this drive. I've read the drive gets hot, but mine is really cool. Maybe this is because I have mine sitting vertically. Also, it's really quiet even with the fan. Esata is roughly 300% faster than USB 2.0, firewire.

CONS
It was slightly tricky to install with Vista. I turned mine off serveral times before I saw the drive.

I reformatted the drive to one FAT32 partition and I couldn't do it from Vista, I had to use a machine with XP. But this is not the drives fault.

The light is really bright. I cover the light up and never really touch the button. My drive is always on.

The esata bridge takes up a PCI slot, sort of as stated before it goes directly to the motherboard not into the PCI slot. There is only one esata port. If I buy a second one I would either use another PCI. However, I bought a bridge that has two esata ports with two cables that plugs to each of my free motherboard sata ports for less than 10 dollars.

I think the MyBooks look better, LOL.

All in all this is a smart buy. The pros definitely outway the minor cons.

This drive works great and is a bit slimmer than most models I have seen. The Sata capability really makes a huge difference in speed if your computer has a free external Sata port. If not, the drive comes with an adapter to turn an internal Sata port into an external with a faceplate that attaches in an empty PCI opening.

Very fast and very functional!

...Well, I can't really attest to how well-known this company may be, seeing as how they claim to be well known in business-tech circles, but that makes no difference-this is one pretty powerful external! I was pretty skeptical at first, preferring to put my money on a more popular name brand, but I'm SO HAPPY that I didn't-I've got an Iomega, Western Digital and a Seagate, and this baby keeps up with them in performance & then some! You can switch the internal fan on & off (keep it on, though, it gets pretty hot without it), and it's got a great slim, unobtrusive profile, placed horizontally or vertically. It's a great financial save, too!

When this drive is used with the included e-SATA connection it is fast, very fast. (Did not test USB port but USB 2 speed is nothing close to e-SATA speeds) Between my internal SATA disk and this external e-SATA disk I see r/w access up to 50MBps, which is amazing. It takes just a couple of seconds to move a 1GB movie file from the internal drive to the external drive. Drive so far has been reliable

After searching for an external drive all over the web, I purchased this one, and am very pleased with it.. Many externals near this price do not have a fan, the storage capacity, or SATA connection.. The drive is very fast, and small enough to fit in my laptop case..