There’s certainly no shortage of choices for external direct attached storage (DAS) for consumers but all generally have a couple of things in common as they only offer USB or FireWire interfaces or, in the case of products such as Maxtor’s OneTouch III, a combination of both. The diminutive N2050 from Thecus stands out from the crowd as it augments its pair of USB 2.0 interfaces with an eSATA (external SATA) port making it one of the first to market with this connection option. Even better is the fact that the N2050 is shipped in kit form and comes with a PCI eSATA controller card and one metre cable.