Iomega UltraMax Pro 1.5TB

Stunning Apple-style looks, but what about the performance?

The Time Machine feature in Leopard, the latest version of OS X, was an early Christmas present for third-party storage manufacturers. Finally, here is a way of getting incremental back-up to the masses without the headache of dubious software and painful head-scratching.

Iomega has jumped on this bandwagon with its latest line, all of which are shaped around Apple’s desktop machines and come pre-formatted with the HFS+ file system rather than the Windows-based FAT32.

The UltraMax Pro tops the specification list, combining eSATA 3Gbit/s and USB 2.0 interfaces with RAID array features and a whopping 1.5TB of drive space, all wrapped up in a smart chassis that looks like the Mac Pro’s squatter sibling.

Looks aside, the two 750GB Seagate Raptor drives that make up the unit’s business end are premium choices, spinning at a nippy 7,200rpm. The drives themselves are hot-swappable SATA II, and enable you to configure the unit as RAID 0 and 1 striping.

In practice, set-up is straightforward, while the USB 2.0 connection is solid and reliable, like the unit itself. It spins quietly, and although powered separately it runs surprisingly cool.

The downsides come with the UltraMax’s performance, though. For starters, eSATA requires a separate card, and USB 2.0, while dependable, isn’t anywhere near as fast as competitor models.