Not sure if this will interest you, Bing Lee in Alexandria had the Buffalo Drive Station on sale (on Saturday). Maybe even cheaper if you ask?
USB 3
Pic of the 2TB
Buffalo 3TB USB 3 HDD - Bing Lee - $149 / 2TB USB 3 $99
310
Related Stores
closed Comments
Are Buffalo better than Seagate? I will simply say no, regardless of the drive inside, easier to stick with a mainstream brand that makes its own drives.
can i order online??
buffalo? no thanks
What's wrong with Buffalo? They make some decent stuff, including NAS/routers etc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Technology
enclosure is Buffalo branded but the HDD will be the usual Seagate or WD…
Actually I have 2 portable HDD drives from Buffalo and they are working very well.
One of them are used for 5-6 years, still working strong!
Buffalo are good. Know a number of people with them and they treat them like trash and they're going strong.
any one used them in home servers? that's all i use large capacity drives for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Technology
Buffalo drives are everywhere in Japan. Plus, they're Made in Japan too. At least the one I have is.
These are made in China…
Not sure what drives are in them, but if they only come with a 1yr warranty, they are the 5400RPM drives (if they have a 2yr warranty they are most likley 7200RPM drives).
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
Linguists are LOL'ing! :)
Apparently Buffalo is "No 1 Sales in Japan" as it says on the box.
is this the cheapest USB3 3TB external drive we can get at the moment (regardless the speed of HDD inside)?
Good to see prices coming back toward $40/TB level.
Deal not online ???
Bing Lee online lists the 2Tb @ $99, but i did not find the 3Tb.
I have no hesitation buying Buffalo branded devices as others have mentioned. What I would like to know is what kind of internal drives are in these units. If I can find the model no. then it shouldn't be too difficult to lookup
+1 im looking for hdds for my nas
I just bought the 3TB from Bing Lee today thanks to the OP.
Date of Manufacture as written on the box: 2012 05 10
CrystalDiskInfo reports that the disk is ST3000DM001-9YN166 3000.5GB
Firmware: CC82
Rotation Rate: 7200 RPMMine bought in August 2012, manufactured in May 2012 in China
Drive inside is a Seagate ST3000DM001-9YN166
Rotation rate: 7200rpmExactly the same drive that Cheaparse got…
Just ordered 2 over the phone, they aren't advertised on their website
Are cases easy to open without breaking them?
No. Lots of breaking involved is my impression.
My drive is a WD.
I eventually got it open. There's one screw you can undo and then using a screwdriver you can lever open the plastic spine of the case. A reasonable amount of force is needed but I didn't break anything and the drive then is very easy to get out and unscrew (and remove the Buffalo warranty sticker).
Reassembling would be fiddly but not too difficult I suspect, especially if you took a pic or two of how it's supposed to go together.
Drive is a WD WD30EZRX. 7200rpm, and minimum of $175 on staticice.
I bought one too. CrystalDiskInfo also reports it as ST3000DM001-9YN166 3000.5GB. I am just wondering whether Buffalo firmware actually telling the CDI of the info regardless of the drive inside. Would you be able to plug your Buffalo box in and check to see if the CDI read your drive correctly as a WD?
buffalo hard drive raffle by the sounds of it.
does removing a hard drive from the enclosure void the hard drive warranty?
Just got a 3TB from Carlingford (Sydney) for $149. They are not ticketed as specials, I had to ask. I showed the OPs uploaded picture on my phone and they checked and said "no problem"
As I was paying another salesperson mentioned they were very popular this week due to the special.
Strange special that isn't advertised anywhere LOL
Mini Review - Buffalo HD-LBU3 USB3.0 3TB DriveStation
Purchased from Bing Lee Carlingford $149 28 June 2012.
The HDD inside is Western Digital WD30EZRX. This is Caviar Green, Sata 6Gb/s 5400rpm 64MB cache. Supplied formatted NTFS - 2.72TB Free
Serial WCAWZ114163 is marked "No Limited Warranty-C40" when you check it at the WD site - so this is not warranted if you crack it open to use the bare drive. Buffalo Warranty is 3 years, which is better than the warranty on a bare WD Green drive (2 years)
User "B3" on OzBargain.com.au says "I eventually got it open. There's one screw you can undo and then using a screwdriver you can lever open the plastic spine of the case. A reasonable amount of force is needed but I didn't break anything and the drive then is very easy to get out and unscrew (and remove the Buffalo warranty sticker)"
Body is about 190 x 125 x 37. There is no power switch and the drive didn't spin down. Maybe it does eventually (my Verbatim definitely does). The USB3.0 lead is 1m long.
Uses a separate remote plug pack supplied with Euro and AU plugs (that slide on). Plugpack sits vertical only in AU socket and hangs "down". Width of "wings" 55mm, plugpack itself is 49 wide, 75 high, 48 deep. Thin power cable about 1.5m long.
Like other buffalo products I own, this one also has a place in the rear of the case for a small 30mm fan. But cracking the case to install one would void the warranty.
SPEED TESTS - For thios quick test I am using a $10 (Meritline cheapo) RENESAS-NEC 2 port USB3.0 PCI-e card, firmware flashed to v4.0.15 and driver 2.1.36 (June2012) on Vista32.
Crystal Disk Mark v3.0.1 Sequential = 108.5 MB/sec Read, 88.2 MB/sec Write
HD Speed v1.7.1.90 = 94.4 MB/sec Read
Atto v2.46 = about 109 MB/sec Read, 92 MB/sec Write (above 64k filesizes)
So, it's not too bad at all, really! For comparison, I'm getting about the same speeds from a Seagate 500GB 7200.12 in a SATA 3.0 (LucidPoint chipset) dock. My fastest 7200rpm HDD on SATA 2 is only pulling about 10% faster that what I'm getting from the $10 USB 3.0 card.
Thanks OP. I just got a 3TB from BL in Rhodes yesterday, they are locked behind a glass display shelf. Still has RRP of $289 on it. I told the sales guy it's $149 at Alexandria and he said no prob. Manuf date on mine is 2012.05.10. Mine spun down after <5 mins when connected to iMac. Not the quietest of external HDD I've used, but you can stand in horizontally or vertically which is a plus. It's cheap at $149.
I can't find any warranty info on the package though? The warranty info sheet inside the package says 1/2/3 years depending on product, which is useless. The US site says 1 year for this model.
Back of the box. Bottom right. It says 3 Year Warranty.
Thanks ajamedor, must've been blind XD.
Seems that there are various models out there, what's inside maybe depends on manufacture date. The date is on a small sticker on the top of the box. Mine is 2011.08.18 and the HDD inside is a Western Digital WD30EZRX.
Note the post above by "cheaparse" (25/06/2012 - 23:41) - they got a 2012 dated drive and it was a Seagate 7200rpm inside.
The fact of whether it's a 5400rpm or 7200rpm drive inside is pretty much irrelevant if you're just using it as an external, since both are capable of saturating the USB3.0 interface. It really only matters if you want to pull it apart to get the HDD for use in a NAS or whatever… and sometimes a WD Green is actually a better thing for less power and cooling than a 7200rpm Seagate.
Hi, can someone please post a receipt of the 3TB buffalo drive for me. I rang Bing Lee Alexandria and was told they are $179 now? Thanks.
Went yesterday to Bankstown Bing Lee, the sale was only until the 30th June. Price back to $179. I squeezed him down to $169 but decided to leave it. The package price says $269 so shows you the profit margins for those people who buy without negotiating.
3TB deal is back again at $149. I saw this in the latest Bing Lee catalogue ending July 25th 2012.
can't find this - do you have a link please
Has anyone received there's yet?
I placed a order of 4 and only received 1 box with 2 inside… do we get them in two separate deliveries etc?
Got one at Carlingford, NSW for $149 today - Sunday 12 August 2012.
Marked at $248.99
Salesman Jorg was happy to sell for the old $149 price.
I am happy with the unit but would have liked both the USB 3.0 and power cables to be a metre longer.
Managed to get the guy down to $140 last Friday at the Chatswood store… there were only 2 left after the one I got. Hopefully not long before we are back to the good old $40/tb days.
Are these better than the Seagate expansion?