F.A. Porsche is the first born son of the founder of the sports car company of the same name, and designer of the first Porsche 911. With such a noted history then, it's a wonder that his design is really nothing more than a dull silver box. Minimalist aspirations, perhaps?

Design/Features
As noted, LaCie's latest is simply a silver box, with a single yellow drive access light at the front. On the side is the LaCie logo and the huge "Design by F.A. Porsche" motto emblazoned on the side. The rear features a power socket (with a USB connector at the other end, for machines that don't supply enough power to the drive), USB2.0 and Firewire 400 connectors, although the drive should power itself just fine off a single USB2.0 or Firewire port. All required cables are included, as well as a nice black felt carry pouch.

LaCie has also gone one step further, including a basic "one-click backup software" solution. Very basic though -- it's just an interface for copying from one place to another, offering no scheduling options whatsoever. While it is exceedingly simple, LaCie does something that most don't, and has a version of its software for Mac as well.

Performance
For sustained speeds the LaCie blazed over both USB2.0 and Firewire, only the larger capacity Western Digital drive trumping it -- although no doubt the 250GB version of the LaCie would also provide similar class performance here. As an added bonus the product is actually price competitive, something that is not LaCie's usual beat, let alone with a world class designer touted on the box.

The LaCie Mobile Hard Drive is available in 120GB, 160GB and 250GB configurations.