The SATA Dock v4 is the SATA version of the Combo Dock v4 and it works pretty much the same apart from its ability to run non-SATA devices. However, there is no combo adapter set available for the SATA version.

SATA Dock v4 comes with an external power supply, but it can also be used with a Molex power cable. It supports either USB 2.0 or Firewire 800. The contents of the SATA Dock v4 box is much like what we found inside the Combo Dock v4, with the power supply, a power cord, a USB 2.0 cable, a Firewire 800 cable and the protective metal cover for the hard drive. The device also has LEDs that indicate power, USB and Firewire connections, as well as HDD activity.

As expected, the SATA Dock v4 offers more bandwidth than the Combo Dock v4 with its UltraATA interface. The SATA Dock v4 is somewhat slower than the Combo Dock v4 when using USB 2.0 with a data transfer rate of 30.2 MB/s vs. 31.9 MB/s. With Firewire 800, the SATA version clearly outperforms the UltraATA Combo Dock v4, with a data transfer rate of 79.5 MB/s, compared to 64.8 MB/s.