Sony SDX-400C/R AIT-1

Monday, November 10, 2003

This is the smaller cousin of the Sony AIT-2 drive and uses 35 GB AIT-1 drives. This is also an internal model that fits into the 5.25” CD-ROM bay. The transfer rates are 14.6 GB/hour, making the entire tape process take about 2:30 hrs. The drive also lies in the low end segment and competes with the HP DAT 72 and Tandberg DLT VS80. As far as transfer rates are concerned it is better than both the HP and Tandberg and that too by a wide margin. In all our tests, it exceeded the rated transfer rates and even managed to achieve a small 2% compression ratio. But in features, the drive doesn’t have much to offer.

The price of the drive is much lower than the Tandberg DLT and HP DAT, but the per GB cost of the tape is the highest. At Rs 96.86/GB, it is almost 2.5 times expensive than the HP DAT. Thus in a long run, going for this drive may not be a wise decision if your backup needs grow significantly with time. Otherwise if your needs are limited, then there should not be any problem with the drive as it has good transfer rates. 

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