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Drive Enclosures and External Drives
This contains reviews of the various enclosures and external drives i have bought and used so far.
2.5" Enclosures & Externals
This includes all three versions, the TIP-230U2/SU/U3. The U2 is USB2.0, the SU is e-SATA + USB2.0 and the U3 is a USB3.0 enclosure. I have also included a review of a Vantec USB2.0 enclosure.
All of those enclosures are made of aluminum and will fit 9.5mm thick drives, a thicker drive will not fit so beware of that if you are considering one of those. The build quality is okay, but nothing to write home about. Some enclosures have the plastic ends that fit better with the aluminum body while others don't fit as well. This isn't something you will see unless you go for a close inspection, but it might bother some. Temperature wise, i haven't seen any of my drives shoot past 45C and that includes me abusing a 7200RPM drive just for the purpose of testing. I wouldn't worry about making lengthy backup with one of those enclosures. One thing i really like about those enclosures is that they are as thin as an enclosure can be making the drive very easy to place in your laptop bag, As a result the enclosure is slightly loner than most others i have seen like the Vantec Nextar.
There isn't much to say about the U2 as it's a pretty standard USB2.0 enclosure and has a green accent. It gets the job done and isn't too expensive. The SU is has e-SATA, but not power e-SATA which means that you will have to rely on the included USB2.0 cable to power the drive and has an orange accent. The e-SATA transfer speeds are definitely there, but the use of two cables is rather ungainly. Finally the U3 also reaches the USB3.0 speeds it should reach without problems and has a red accent. All USB cables have double plugs in case one port isn't enough to power the drive, i never experienced this when plugging directly into any computer. The SU also comes with an e-SATA cable so you won't need to look for one. Mukii bundles software that supposedly boosts transfer speeds and allows you to make backups as well. Since i'm not a fan of software that supposedly offers better performance and i already have a backup solution, i have not tried it.
The Vantex NexStar USB2.0 on the other hand is a bit thicker, but shorter than the Mukiis. Temps and speeds are on par with the TIP-230U2. The enclosure comes with a pleather bag and a screwdriver though at a price point slightly lower than the Mukii usually go for so the Vantec is definitely a better bang for the buck enclosure.
Here are some pictures of what the enclosures look like:
3.5" Enclosures and Externals
AZiO E377S31: This a USB3.0 aluminum enclosure, it has a fan (that you can turn off) to cool the drive and it is tool-less to boot. I do not know if they make those anymore though. Overall, the enclosure feels pretty sturdy aside from the latch that holds the drive tray inside the enclosure, it feel slightly weak, but so far it never malfunctioned or broke after a good 6 months of use. Also, as a result of the tool-less mechanisms, the enclosure is slightly bigger than what you could expect. The drive is pretty easy to mount inside the enclosure, it literally takes less than 5 minutes and requires no tools of course. I use this enclosure for backups and even during long backup sessions, the drive never reached critical temperatures with or without the fan.
Here are some benchmarks and temps with and without the fan after one run of Crystal Disk Mark:
Lacie d2 Quadra: This is a drive Lacie no longer makes, it has been replaced by a USB3.0 version, but aside form the upgraded USB standard, they are nearly identical in every aspect. Let me start off with the bad: this drive is expensive, i paid nearly 200$ CAD for the 1TB version back in 2010, read before the floods in Thailand. I wouldn't have bought this drive if it wasn't for the fact that i needed an external fast and it was the only model available with e-SATA at my university's computer store. Now on with the good: you do get what you pay for, this drive was made primarily with macs in mind due to the firewire 800 interface, but all other connectivity options work equally well under Windows or OS X. This drive has a nice aluminum body and sports USB, e-SATA, IEEE-1394 and firewire 800, the chassis is very sturdy and while the enclosure is fanless, the drive stays cool even under prolonged use. All cables are included with the drive which makes swallowing the price pill easier, but it remains an expensive product for what it is. The drive initially had a Hitachi Deskstar in it, but i knocked it over and killed the drive. Thankfully, while not an easy process, you can replace the drive in the Lacie enclosure, it just takes a screwdriver and some patience as you will need to remove a good amount of screws. Still, should you want a larger capacity drive, you can upgrade the drive which isn't too bad.
And some images of the drive tray
Benchmarks of the enclosure on various interfaces:
Some more photos of the d2 Quadra and the Azio enclosure:IEEE 1394
e-SATA, note that the slow sequentials are due to the JMicron controller rather than the drive, i could redo the benchmark on a Marvell controller if needed.
Now, that is what i call connectivity options.
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That 3.5" Lacie enclosure reminds me of HAL
tijo's Enclosures and External Drives Review
Discussion in 'Accessories' started by tijo, May 14, 2012.
