External cases and regular hard disks (sold separately) are a quite popular alternative to the expensive external hard drives available in the market today. But the idea of selling external cases with a built in memory card reader is a new proposition.

Meant for the digital photographer among other users who need portable storage on the go StorXtreme devices are basically empty shells with memory card readers built in. We featured one such model the SX-25D a week ago.

Also making its debut at CES 2006 is its smaller sibling the StorXtreme SX-18D. The only difference between the two models is the supported hard disk drive. The later supports 1.8-inch drives. The SX-18D also runs on regular AA batteries. It also supports CF, MicroDrives, SD/MMC, and Memory Stick Pro/Duo. It is a bit more expensive retailing for about $100.