High-quality SATA > USB 3.0 (UASP) 2.5" HDD enclosure?

Hello.

I'm looking for an external enclosure (or two or three if they're really good!) to fit some 2.5-inch 7200 RPM hard disk drives I have lying around. Would like USB 3.0 with USB Attached SCSI protocol for decent speed now and in the future, in a solid metal enclosure with good passive cooling. Bus-powered. Preferably no power/activity lights or very dim lights.

Is the ASMedia ASM1053E chipset the one to go for? It may not matter for a hard disk, but I might end up putting an SSD in one of these at some point.

Any suggestions? It's hard to find the good stuff out there.

Thanks!

 

I just purchased a Minipro eSata / USB3 with exactly that - the ASM1053E. http://oyendigital.com/tech/benchmark/u32m-ssd-retina-usb3.jpg
MiniPro Portable Hard Drive Series by Oyen Digital

Unfortunately, I'm still on a Sandy bridge mobo so I don't have Superspeed (or even PCIe3 lol), so my speeds with both esata and usb3 are closer to 200/200 sequential or lower, with a Samsung 840 EVO 500gb. I'd be better off connecting it internally if I didn't intend on using it for file transfers.

I've yet to test it on a Superspeed port but I expect(hope) it will perform as desired with an actual SS port & UASP.

 

Those look great, shin1424. Thanks for mentioning them. I think the USB-only model would work for me.

Now to find them for sale in Europe…

 

I'm getting ~200 on pretty much anything I use. As I speculated in another thread I think that these things are all SATAII > USB3.0 interfaces.

 

Yes, these drives and/or controllers are the weak link. The 3.0 port is capable of twice that speeds.

 

Apparently this is supposed to get closer to SATAIII speeds.
NewerTech U3S3HD Voyager S3 'SuperSpeed' USB 3.0... in stock at OWC

Here's a UK source for the OP: http://www.mac-upgrade.co.uk/products/newertech-voyager-s3-hard-drive-2-5-or-3-5-dock-nwtu3s3hd

 

Don't think/read anything that go above 2xx on usb 3.0 without the uasp thingy.

What carry uasp except those asus motherboard?

 

Quick update. On shin1424's recommendation, I ordered four Oyen Digital MiniPro USB 3.0 enclosures from a Dutch outfit called Reposit. Had to use Google Translate to figure out the website, but they shipped quickly and I got my enclosures.

The MiniPro is pretty good. Construction is solid, albeit surprisingly bulky (it accepts drives up to 15 mm thick, and the enclosure is a full inch high). The PCB inside has a high-quality, well-finished appearance. The cables are pleasingly short but far too stiff. In combination with the USB 3.0 Micro-B connector (a terribly designed standard) on the drive side, this means you have to use some care to avoid connection problems. I place everything on the desk in a non-stressed position, twist the cable into alignment with the ports, plug in, and don't touch nuthin' until I've ejected the drive.

Installation is a doddle but there are eight screws to deal with: four short screws and four long ones of the same pitch and diameter. On one of the enclosures I accidentally swapped the two types of screws, which shorted out the USB cable causing an over-current warning (and disfunction) until I figured out what I'd done wrong. Entirely my fault, but easy to do since the screws fit each other's holes.

The blue LED power/activity light is far too bright, but this seems to be a universal problem with drive enclosures.

Packaging and instructions are well done and clearly designed by native English speakers, which is unusual.

I'm getting the full transfer speeds I'd expect from my Scorpio Black and Travelstar 7K750 & 7K1000 drives (up to around 130–140 MB/s sustained).

 

Any USB3 enclosure would do that. The real test will be with an SSD. Good luck!

 

Yeah, they should. Just confirming the MiniPro/ASMedia ASM1053E does, for anyone interested.

I don't have an SSD lying around to test, not being rich enough to have such things just lying around. If I get one sometime I'll report back.

If anyone knows of a very flexible USB 3.0 Standard-A to Micro-B cable about a foot long, I might even just buy a couple and get this out of the way. I use these drives a lot for work, so the stiff MiniPro cables are hassle.

 

Not just an SSD, but a SATA 6 SSD just to confirm its capacity once and for all; and to eliminate any further confusion as to how close current ports can come to its maximum theoretical limit.

 

Also the Asus board thing for USB3 performance. I'll eventually get around to trying the Voyager on both the Z87 and an iCrap.

 

Here are my results using a Samsung 840 EVO 500gb in the Minipro. I just got a new XPS 15 with superspeed ports and I believe UASP is working as well. The onboard msata SSD is on the left for comparison.


As you would expect, this performs terrifically on an external. SSD to SSD, I see file transfers regularly hitting 250-300 mbps, which means this is effectively the fastest external drive I've ever used.

 

So haswell have it naturally? I read windows 8 is required though.?

 

Only the theoretical (and many times more expensive) Thunderbolt would be faster. But I have yet to see any of it virtues ever put to practical uses. If only the test had identical drives. In any event, very impressive results nonetheless.