At first glance one would say that it looks like a quality product. Lets take a closer look and see.

The case is aluminum with reinforced plastic end caps with rubber feet. The circuit board and wiring is tight. The hard drive bolts to a slide out plastic tray which is very durable. The tray also houses the 8cm brushless fan which is really nice. The power connector on the back of the enclosure feels very secure when connected. The USB type B connector is a tight fit too. I have found this to be a problem on some other enclosures in the past. Even the rocker type power switch on the enclosure is solid.

Assemply is quick and painless...

-Slide out the hard drive tray.
-Loosen the adjustable Molex connector.
-Slide the hard drive into both Molex and IDE connectors.
-Tighten the Molex connection on the tray.
-Bolt down the hard drive with the four screws.
-Slide the hard drive tray back into the enclosure.
-Secure the hard drive tray to the enclosure with the two back screws.
-Plug in the power and USB cables.
-Flip the switch on the enclosure and your ready to go!

The internal fan is so quiet you can't hear it unless the room is dead silent. The fan draws air from the side vents and blows air out the back. Sitting next to my laptop you can't help but wonder if the fan is running it's so quiet I've been running the enclosure for about a month straight 24/7 and haven't had any problems. The only thing I noticed was the enclosure gets a little warm if it's sitting flat. To keep the enclosure cooler I set it on it's side. However, I was curious to see how much warmer the inside of the enclosure gets compared to room temperatures. The specifications of the enclosure state that the operating temps of the unit is between 5-40 degrees celsius. I've got a multimeter which comes equipped with a temperature probe so I took some readings. One reading I took in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

Morning reading: With a room temperature of 23 degrees celsius the inside temperature of the enclosure was 36 degrees celsius.

Afternoon reading: With a room temperature of 27 degrees celsius the inside temperature of the enclosure was 35 degrees celsius.

Inside enclosure temps stay around 35 degrees celsius with the Seagate Barracuda 500 GiB hard drive I'm running. The Seagates maximum operating temp is 60 degrees celsius so I'm in the clear.

Conclusion:

I think the USB type B connector is way too short. So short in fact that I cannot have my laptop sitting on the table and have the enclosure sitting on the floor. I prefer my enclosure on the floor to save on valuable table space. I had an extra cable sitting around which was longer so I used that one instead. The power connector on the other hand is plenty long enough. Inside enclosure temperature increases around 10 degrees celsius. I would have perfered the enclosure temps to be closer to room temps. Even with these two issues I highly recommend the enclosure. It will keep your data safe and cool.

Rate: 4/5





















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