I want to publish a review of Zalman ZM-VE400

Question

Iron

I got my hands on a new box from Zalman. Since I own an “older” model (ZM-VE200), at the same time I tested how far they stepped in terms of functionality and performance in 2 years.
Now I'm finishing with the pictures, the text itself is already ready.
Touched, in principle, all the points that the user may encounter. If anyone has questions, you can ask. If I have not considered it, I will definitely include it in the review.

Answer 1

The main question is “Is it worth changing VE200 to VE400?”.
One huge minus for me is that the new model does not have write protection.

Answer 2

I have been using this for 2 months now.
Cons:
Encryption is of course cool!!! But, the encryption key has to be entered at each reboot, and entering it faster than the start from the disk starts is not realistic, you have to fumble with switching to the BIOS and exiting it.
Although there is encryption, it is limited to 8 digits, for a total of 99999999 combinations. Maybe I'm wrong, but they can be sorted out programmatically.
When DUAL MODE is enabled, booting from CD is not always activated.
The touchpad is like that of Chinese phones - not very responsive and the arrows next to the numbers intuitively make you press them when navigating the menu, although in fact you need to press the nearest numbers next to the arrows. Periodically, you have to poke 2-3 times into the button to work.
The connection of the cable with the box, it seems to me, is too weak, after 100 times of juggling, I'm afraid it will loosen and will not hold.
Pros:
Encryption is.
USB 3.0, if you use an SSD, it works really fast.
Compact, mobile, lightweight.

Answer 3

How closely did you work with him in emulation mode? My admins are complaining that it crashes when used in CD mode (for 200).

Answer 4

The main question is “Is it worth changing VE200 to VE400?”.
One huge minus for me is that the new model does not have write protection.

I will answer in order.
The new model has write protection, just the VE200 model, in which the on / off was done by a small jumper recessed into the case to protect against accidental shift, but you had to look for pins or toothpicks to perform this action. In the new one, all there is is a touch screen and all modes are done through the menu. At the moment, I consider this a minus and in the review I wrote why. If the firmware adds a little functionality, the problem will disappear and in this respect the VE400 will look more advantageous.
With regards to whether or not to switch - it already depends on how much encryption you need (if necessary, the question of choice disappears by itself) and whether you have a working VE200 or you are just thinking about buying and don’t know where to stop.
If VE200 works and suits you, then I don’t see the point, even taking into account the fact that VE400 supports USB3.0, unlike USB2.0 in VE200.
But if the previous one broke down (for example, the wheel button stopped responding in my copy) or did not have such a device and are just looking closely, then ... I will answer with the result from the review, especially since I answer this question there.

At the time of writing the review - February 23-27 - the price tag for the ZM-VE400 stopped at 2200-2400 rubles. For comparison, sellers are now asking for 1,600 rubles for the ZM-VE200 model, and 2,000 rubles for the VE300. Does the monetary premium justify the improvements we have considered? I think yes. Let's compare the steps.
The VE300 model brought support for the modern (it will be funny to read this in the year 2020) USB3.0 standard. Of course, the speed has increased not by 10-12 times, as manufacturers like to bravado in their brochures, but only by 6 times, but in any case, this is a sufficient jump in interface performance, which made it possible to surpass the speed of hard drives on magnetic platters (with a good 1.5-fold margin, which will be enough for 3-5 years, if during this time they are not replaced by more solid-state options). The rejection of eSATA can not be considered a minus, because, as testing has shown, the transfer speed is comparable, and USB has higher convenience. Of course, USB3.0 is not enough for SSD drives, but I will tell you - modern SSDs also lack SATAIII.
The VE400 model retained the interface, but changed the design (here it’s already an amateur - I trust steel cases more, but I don’t remember iron sensors, and replacing it with plastic may have kept the price tag at the old level), added 256-bit AES encryption and expanded menu options.

Answer 5

How closely did you work with him in emulation mode? My admins are complaining that it crashes when used in CD mode (for 200).

I didn't quite understand the question.
"Sypet" by itself what does it mean? If the fact that “the disk fell down”, “bad blocks appeared” - then no, there was no such thing. Bought the box 2 years ago. Then (it lay in a box for some time) after half a year - I bought a 1TB Samsung screw for it (it also participated in testing) at 5400rpm.
I have about 15-20 images, mixed both CD and DVD. No subfolders. There were no "falls". The disk is still alive. In addition to “for emulation”, I also store distributions, and also carry films, music, etc. to work. That is, the device is used quite often. Plus, he often gave it to people, so I won’t say that I kept it carefully and blew dust particles away. Almost daily use. Now it is used simply as an external box (due to the inoperability of the wheel, it does not work otherwise).
I will say one "but". When the disk is in operation, I never move it, rotate it, or unfold it. Because I understand that plates rotating at a speed of 90 revolutions per second have inertia (remember the gyroscope) and you can simply scratch the surface with heads.
So with regards to the disk answered. If there was something else, please specify.

Answer 6

I need a review, I'm just looking. I choose between VE-300 and this. I would like to know if there are changes in the basic functionality, tk. special additional features (to me) are not needed, and the number of potential failure points increases.
Separately, I would like to see the results of speed measurements with encryption turned on and a subjective assessment of its heating at the same time.

Answer 7

Need, interesting

Answer 8

I saw that people spits on bad cables complete with a box and on power problems. Those. some large HDDs in this box won't start and some laptops don't have enough power for any drives.
And about encryption, of course, I would like details.

Answer 9

It is also interesting how much hardware encryption slows down the copy speed.
In general, it is not clear whether they also apply to the _ISO folder, where are the images? Images can't be mounted without unlocking the drive?

Answer 10

It is also very interesting with which terabyte disks it is friendly or not friendly. What do you have, for example?

Answer 11

Is there for him to take SATA III hard drives?

Answer 12

Is VE - 400 better than VE - 300 ?
what ?