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The Lego Brick Hard Drive

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-christmas-is-coming-up dept.

Billosaur writes "With Lego being in the news after completion of their lawsuit against Mega Bloks, I found this interesting little tidbit on Boing Boing, about a company that makes stackable Lego Brick-shaped Hard Drives. With Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface, it offers the fast data transfer rates required for substantial jobs like downloading digital photos, saving MP3s or transferring home videos from a camcorder. Available desktop models are: 160GB (white), 250GB (red), 300GB (blue) and 500GB (red). But can you build a Star Destroyer out of them?"

38 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Not lego sized, just lego shaped by dada21 · · Score: 5, Informative

    These hard drives are LEGO shaped but not LEGO sized. It mimics the look and feel of a LEGO brick but it really isn't compatible (unless the bottom has much smaller divisions).

    Stackable hard drives is a fine idea but I'd like to take one apart to see how ventilation is. I've had a much higher failure rate in external drives than internal drives (almost 3:1) over the past 6 years. I still wonder if it is heat or just bad power supplies in these things.

    I'm more of a monotoned desktop kind of guy -- if I'm OCD about anything at all, it is definitely crazy colors all over the place. I think on my desktop (where I could have up to 5 different sized external drives depending on projects in action), these drives could end up looking like a bad website from the early days: color hell.

    I think the pricing is decent though, and would love a breakdown of what "Power Supply Kit" means and how hardy these things are.

    1. Re:Not lego sized, just lego shaped by Andrewkov · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Internal drives tend to not be thrown in backpacks and generally abused, though.

    2. Re:Not lego sized, just lego shaped by SysSupport · · Score: 3, Funny
      Note to self:

      Do not use Lego shaped drive to host web site.

    3. Re:Not lego sized, just lego shaped by b1t+r0t · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Stackable hard drives is a fine idea but I'd like to take one apart to see how ventilation is. I've had a much higher failure rate in external drives than internal drives (almost 3:1) over the past 6 years. I still wonder if it is heat or just bad power supplies in these things.

      Sometimes it's the drive itself. Sometimes it's the fan, a friend of mine had two of a specific model where the fan went bad, then I checked one of mine and its fan was dead too. Sometimes it's the power supply; I think that's the real reason they're all using external power bricks these days, more so than the safety issue of having semi-exposed AC wiring with a built-in power supply. And sometimes it could be the controller card; I have one with a dead Firewire port, good thing they come in pairs.

      All that being said, I wouldn't want one of these without a Firewire port. It's kind of sad that a long-time seller of external drives for the Macintosh now sells a model of external case with only USB support.

      --

      --
      "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
      "Open source is evil." - Microsoft
    4. Re:Not lego sized, just lego shaped by InvalidError · · Score: 4, Informative

      If my experience with external enclosures is any indication, I would bet on the power supplies.

      Most cheap/small PSUs use flyback topology and decoupling capacitors that have AC ripple ratings well below what they should be. Ordinary 1000-2200uF capacitors have AC ripple ratings under 1A and a service life of 2000-5000h at that rating. On 2-3A 5-12V rails with flyback PSU, this 1A(rms) rating is easily exceeded. This is why I have made it a standard practice to replace bulk decoupling capacitors in my storage boxes and PC PSUs by 2700uF caps rated for 7000+h at 3.6A ripple supplemented with surface-mounted 10uF MLCC caps to relieve the electrolytic caps from harmonics in the 100kHz-10MHz range wherever possible.

      When output capacitors age in a flyback PSU, their impedance increase and the capacitors becomes unable to absorb high-frequency energy. This causes spikes in the output voltage and if the PSU does not have a proper shunt regulator or over-voltage crowbar circuitry, those spikes can definitely kill electronics - I have seen/measured microsecond-scale spikes go as high as 15V on a 5V rail and 20V on a 12V rail.

    5. Re:Not lego sized, just lego shaped by kzinti · · Score: 2, Interesting

      But modern hard drives have non-operating shock ratings in the hundreds of G's. If hard drives were so fragile that they couldn't be toted around in a backpack, then laptops would be useless.

      Ventilation and cooling is what bothers me with these drives. I had a 500GB Lacie drive in which BOTH drives failed within days of each other. I never carried the drive arround except packed in its original cushioned box. I suspect that heat killed those drives. When I replaced the unit with a 1TB model, I was sure never to operate it any longer than necessary - which means just long enough to make a backup. The newer disk also has a fan in it, small but enough to move some cool air through the enclosure. So far the new disk has held up well.

    6. Re:Not lego sized, just lego shaped by karnal · · Score: 4, Funny

      Was it just me, or did anyone else read that first paragraph of the parent-to-this comment and think "But does it make your computer sound any warmer?" :)

      --
      Karnal
  2. This would be better... by mattyohe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if the surface of the enclosure was made from actual lego rivets so that you could build on top of it.

    --
    - what is the definition of simultanagnosia?! I've been meaning to look it up!
    1. Re:This would be better... by Liquorman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Or if it was made from Eggo rather than Lego... mmmm, delicious data...

    2. Re:This would be better... by Kelson · · Score: 3, Funny

      Or if it was made from Eggo

      No, thanks, I'd rather not toast my data...

  3. Lego Hard Drive Sex by staticsage · · Score: 4, Funny

    While we're linking boingboing... Why not stack the hard drives and have some crazy lego sex:
    http://www.boingboing.net/2002/11/13/lego_sex.html

  4. Destroyer, yes! by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 4, Funny
    But can you build a Star Destroyer out of them?

    Maybe I can't build a Star Destroyer out of them, but I could certainly build a big enough block of P2P storage to destroy the Enemies of the Empire -- the **AA's.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  5. I developed a hard-drive-shaped Lego brick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    But it was a total failure. I totally underestimated the entrenchment of the IDE bus standard in the Lego world. My hard-drive-shaped Lego brick only supported SATA.

  6. In unrelated news... by __aaxwdb6741 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google has just built a LEGO castle.

    1. Re:In unrelated news... by patio11 · · Score: 3, Funny

      And on the seventh day, He rested.

      --
      Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
    2. Re:In unrelated news... by SillySnake · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It reminds me of some early google hardware.. Some of their equipment was housed in lego cases at Stanford.

      Here's the link to the slashdot story: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/ 03/1354222&tid=137
      which links to the internet archive.. Though the pictures don't seem to work any more.

    3. Re:In unrelated news... by PalmKiller · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think you are taking about the orginal storage tower?

      http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures /display/0-4-Google.htm

  7. Why build a Star Destroyer when there's Slashdot by gasmonso · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why build one when you have Slashdot at your disposal. Just aim it at any site, and KABLAM, they're gone. Nice job taking out lacie. Slashdot strikes once again and shows no mercy (queue evil empire music).

    gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/
  8. 10 PB Star Destroyer at 1/100 scale? by nathan+s · · Score: 2, Funny

    That would be pretty funny. Or a full house built with these things...suddenly you measure your rooms in tera- or petabytes instead of square feet. Think of all the pr0n in the walls...

    --
    picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
  9. Bah! by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Funny
    You young 'uns and your fancy-schmancy "lego shaped hard drives". Back in my day, we had none of these uppity "LaCie hard drives" in rainbow colors to lighten up our day.

    We used to lug our trusty, stacks of punch cards on our backs each time we wanted to transfer data. Nothing builds character (and balls) like having to restack a pile of 1K+ punch cards that have fallen over on a Friday evening.

    No sirree, we didn't play these childish games in the computer room in my day, and that's how we liked it.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
    1. Re:Bah! by AntiDragon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Punch cards? Punch cards?!? Young 'un, you don't know how lucky you were! In my day we had to memorise the blinking lights and then toggle the sequence back in after driving for 8 hours to reach the other computer! If we wanted fancy colours we had to wear coloured lenses while looking at the lights.

      Of course, the epilepsy didn't help much...

      --
      "...So I hung back and lurked. For 18 months. Can't beat a good old-fashioned lurking."
    2. Re:Bah! by ch-chuck · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's odd, because punch cards predate the use of toggle in software and binary address/data lights.

      --
      try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  10. gives new meaning to the term... by tomcres · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...my server's a total brick

  11. It's Lego, not Legos! by muftak · · Score: 3, Funny

    I used to like Legos, but now I only like sheeps.

  12. more duplo than lego by BushCheney08 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It should be noted that these drives are more Duplo than Lego.

    (Yes, I am aware that Duplo is in fact a line of Legos).

    --
    Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
    1. Re:more duplo than lego by ddusza · · Score: 3, Funny
      Do you think they communicate with the host in Half-Duplo or Full-Duplo?

      Lost the sig in the bankruptcy.

      --
      Don't fear the penguins
  13. Optical interconnects and stackables by G4from128k · · Score: 4, Interesting
    If high speed optical interconnects become common, they could make brick-based PCs with stackable components. Unlike current stackable HDs, the HD brick would need no cables or external power brick as top and bottom surface of each brick would carry power and data.

    Different Lego-like knoblets on top and bottom of each brick would correspond to different interconnect functions (one or more knoblets each for +5 VDC, +3.3 VDC, Optical-PCI, Optical-ATA, etc.). Aligned vent holes throughout the stack would allow the base PSU brick to pull cooling air from the other bricks. Adding a new video card or HD would be as simple as snapping the card to the top of the PC.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
    1. Re:Optical interconnects and stackables by TexNex · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If I rememer correctly IBM was working on something to this effect a while back. It was more of a SAN platform than anything but, the concept was to have a snap together modular system so that to add another HD to the SAN all you had to do was plop in the brick and the array would take care of the rest. Since they were enclosed it was decided to go with a water cooling method so I don't know how they worked that one out. The info came from a Technology Review or Wired article.

  14. The Evolution of Leggo by Ted+Holmes · · Score: 3, Funny
    I hope Leggo's vision is to eventually embedded each brick with intelligence. They'll have an awesome product which would allow users an object-oriented way to assemble cool stuff at home. An example would be Leggo-style self replicating cubes.

    It would compliment the emerging desktop fabricators quite nicely.

    Imagine the new "Do It Yourself opportunities.

    --

    Thoughts on the Emergence of Computing Intelligence

  15. I can't RTFA but by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can't RTFA because it's slashdotted but I've been a fan of LACIE hard drives for a while. My currebt 80Gb drive is supposed to be Porshe designed. That's as maybe, I just know that I get a very good bytes/bucks ratio and pretty fair performance.

    --
    init 11 - for when you need that edge.
  16. USB 2 for substantial jobs? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 3, Informative

    With Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface, it offers the fast data transfer rates required for substantial jobs

    Someone's an idiot. If you have a 'substantial' job for an external HD, you'd best be using at _least_ IEEE1394a (or better yet, b). External SATA would be quite lovely.

  17. FA Porsche (not Porsche) vs Lego... by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 4, Informative

    I too have a beautiful LaCie 80GB Mobile Hard Drive, with USB/Firewire support, but it's worth noting that the drive (and other drives in LaCie's product range) are actually designed by FA Porsche, which is not directly related to Porsche the car manufacturer.

    If I recall correctly, the Porsche responsible for setting up FA Porsche is a blood relation to the Porsche that set up the car company but that's the extent of the connection. I'm sure someone will correctly if I'm wrong.

    Anyhow, the FA Porsche-designed drives stack nicely and neatly too, plus they have the added advantage of not making you look ridiculous if you have to take one to a client's site.

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  18. Nice ad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Am I the only one to find that this submission reads exactly like an avert?

    With Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface, it offers the fast data transfer rates required for substantial jobs like downloading digital photos, saving MP3s or transferring home videos from a camcorder.
    I mean, come on!
  19. Another slashdotting by steveo777 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I actually feel sorry for Lacie. In this case, somebody might have been watching the network activity and thinking, "Hey, things are looking up!"
    Just then the server starts shaking.
    The coffee pot mysterously drains into nowhere.
    Smoke rises from the PSU's, the redundent power supplies buzz and spurt, with every attempt at survival.
    The netadmin's smile turns to a look of horror, "No, this can't be. NOOOOOOOO!!! DAMN YOU SLASHDOT!"

    --
    This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
  20. Re:Slashdotted. by s4ck · · Score: 2, Insightful

    is it just me or isn't it normal to expect a hardware manufacturer like lacie to be a bit more resilient then that?

  21. Ok, who else was misled by the title? by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I thought there was a fully functional hard drive made of LEGO! Instead it's just a hard drive that looks like a LEGO piece. What a bummer.

  22. Why stop at the hard drive by Chris6502 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This guy built his whole machine from lego: http://home.hawaii.rr.com/chowfamily/lego/

    --
    UNIX: 'cuz you can tattoo it on your knuckles!
  23. Re:Just imagine... by berbo · · Score: 2, Funny
    Just imagine a Beowulf cluster with these things!

    ...built in the shape of Beowulf!