The Apricorn Aegis NetDock is a very interesting alternative, especially for netbook owners.
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A DVD burner, a hard drive and a 4-port USB hub are combined in one device.
This combination seems to have been made for netbook owners.
You have to do without a DVD drive and live with a small number of USB ports.
The DVD burner used here can, for example, fill DVDs with data at 4x or CD at 24 times the speed.
Optionally, a 500 GB hard disk can be inserted into the housing.
The 5400 rpm with 8 MB cache correspond to the standard of today's 2,5 inch hard drives, you don't usually need much more.
Of the 4 available USB ports, 2 are permanently energized to e.g. Charge cell phones.
Without a hard drive, the Apricon Aegis NetDock costs just 65 euros.
If you also want the 500 GB hard drive, you only have to put a mere 140 euros on the table.
Unfortunately, Apricorn only ships to the USA and Canada at the moment.
But you can already pre-order the offer.
(v.p.)