
External storage solutions come in all shapes and sizes. In addition to this, as most of you know, these solutions are also purpose built to suit whether you want an extremely quick or highly durable solution.
The solution we have in the lab today comes from Buffalo in the form of the MiniStation Extreme. The MiniStation is available in both 500GB and 1TB capacities and features military class shock protection due to its internal design. Optionally, you can also setup 256Bit AES encryption via included software.
Compatibility of the MiniStation Extreme extends from modern Windows operating systems to OS X 10.5+
MSRP for the 1TB MiniStation Extreme is set at $99.99 with a three-year warranty.

Scope of delivery for the MiniStation leaves us with reading materials, a USB 3.0 extension cable, and the drive itself.

The drive houses a special USB 3.0 cable that tucks into the enclosure. In addition to this, we have a small plastic enclosure with rubberized sides to give the drive added durability.

Software included with the HD-PZU3 includes Secure Lock Manager for encryption and TurboPCex, which speeds up transfers to the device.

During setup, the software will ask if you want to enable encryption on your device.

Above, we have our read performance. As you can see, the MiniStation Extreme did quite well, coming in at 114.2 MB/s.

Write performance came in at 113 MB/s, keeping the drive towards the top of our charts.

Finally, we have our Price/Performance chart. The Buffalo MiniStation came in at 73 percent, putting it in the top 5 for all 2.5-inch external drives.
The Buffalo MiniStation Extreme is certainly a drive worth considering if you are in the market for an external storage solution. The drive carries a tremendous amount of durability with its build materials and has been tested to comply with military standards. In fact, as you might have noticed, this is the first external drive I wasn't able to get internal pictures of. Not because I couldn't get the unit open, but because to do so would result in the enclosure being left worthless; that's how well the unit is built.
Performance of the unit was pretty good and indicative of the internal parts used in this case being a standard 2.5-inch hard drive. The Buffalo MiniStation did come out being a top five drive in all of our testing, and the charts above reflect this as well.
Value added features for this unit include the software encryption capabilities and the TurboPCex software, if you should choose to install it.
MSRP of the Buffalo MiniStation Extreme 1TB is set at $99.99 with a three-year warranty. Current market pricing can be found below.
PRICING: You can find the Buffalo MiniStation Extreme 1TB for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.
United States: The Buffalo MiniStation Extreme 1TB (Black) retails for $99.99 at Amazon.
Canada: The Buffalo MiniStation Extreme 1TB (Silver) retails for CDN$158.34 at Amazon Canada.
