Digital Home Thoughts: Western Digital Passport vs. Buffalo Ministation: Fight!

On the left, with the glossy black finish and blue LED, we have the Western Digital Passport 120 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive.

Product Category: Portable Hard Drive
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Where to Buy: Amazon.com [Affiliate]
Price: $124.33 USD (320 GB model, the 120 GB model reviewed here is no longer available)
Specifications: USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive

And on the right, with the flat black finish and orange and green LED, we have the Buffalo 320GB Ministation Turbo USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive

Product Category: Portable Hard Drive
Manufacturer: Buffalo
Where to Buy: Amazon.com [Affiliate]
Price: $149.99 USD (320 GB model)
Specifications: USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive

Summary:
Since I picked up an , Asus Eee PC, I've been looking for a megadose of portable storage. Sure 8 GB SD cards are nice, but I was looking for a bigger fix. When I travel, I'd like to be able to bring a ton of movies so I don't have to decide beforehand exactly what I want to watch. So I picked up a Western Digital Passport and a Buffalo Ministation Turbo to let them duke it out for your entertainment. So who reigned victorious? Keep reading for my full review.

Size


Figure 1: Bottom to top – Buffalo Ministation, Western Digital Passport, and Microsoft Zune 30 (for size comparison purposes).

Both drives are roughly the same length and width at approximately 5 inches long and 3.2 inches wide. However, the Buffalo drive is noticeably thicker at .8 inches versus .6 inches for the Western Digital drive. However, to its credit, the Buffalo drive has built-in shock resistance, which is probably what makes up the additional thickness.


Figure 2: On the left, the smaller Western Digital Passport. On the right, the larger Buffalo Ministation with integrated cable management.

The Buffalo drive also has cable management built in so the the USB cable wraps around the drive and snaps into place. As a result, I ended up putting the Western digital drive in a small case to both protect it and keep the cable from getting lost, making the final package larger for the Western Digital drive. Therefore round one is a win for the Buffalo.