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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?"

14 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 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.

    2. 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. 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

  3. 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."
  4. 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.

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

    Google has just built a LEGO castle.

  6. 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/
  7. 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
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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
  11. 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!
  12. 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...