What would be more interesting is an enclosure that includes a 1000 or even just 100Mbit LAN, in addition to USB (and possibly eSATA). It'd be invaluable being able to hook to older computers at faster than (theoretic) 12Mbit and to be accessible to multiple computers on the network.
On the chart you show that esata is not daisy chain'able (which is true.) However, I thought I remembered seeing something about esata now having some sort of multi-port capability, similar to daisy chaining, that is supported by the latest round of Intel chipsets...
There are a ton of these eSata enclosures out there, and all seem to advertise to do the same thing. They probably all do, for the most part at least. I purchased this model from Beyond Micro:
The main reasons I chose this over other competitors was the following:
1. On/Off power switch on the front (although, admittedly, kinda useless--not to mention risky--if you're using it as you're system drive, hehe..."Ooops, there goes Windows!")
2. The AC adapter's power plugin is one of those rounded inner/outer types that makes connecting to the enclosure a snap! I always hate trying to allign those S-Video-type power plug-ins to their mates (like on this Icy Dock model).
3. Built-in fan. Some HDs get quite hot, and it's nice to have a fan to keep 'em cool. Also, it appears the top of the Beyond Micro drive has an aluminum cover, which better conducts the heat.
Some bad things about it tho, is installation was kind of unnecesarily complicated. It comes with screws that you need to ensure you utilize, otherwise the cooling effects are minimized, and the noise becomes more apparent.
I'm not trying to "comment" crap here, but just sharing my experience with this particular product type.
*Note - One other thing to think about--that applies to all these eSata enclosures--is the PCI bracket. I bought this drive for use in a Baby-atx Low Profile case (one of those computers that can sit under your monitor...like the good ol' PC days). Unfortunately, none of these enclosures come with a Low-profile bracket. I had to purchase this special one from Addonics for $7 + $7 shipping:
$14 dollars for a stupid little metal bracket is a bit absurd, but I had no other choice (if I wanted to keep the setup pretty). So, unless you have an onboard eSata connection and you're using a low profile computer, you're kinda stuck having to purchase this extra peripheral.
How would performance have been differant had a Western Digital Raptor been used instead of a 7200 RPM Samsung over USB? Could you post some benchmarks?
I wouldn't expect the Raptor to come out significantly better, to be honest. The transfer rate of either drive saturates the bus, though I'd imagine the Raptor would improve things slightly in heavy small file access times (certain games, etc). As I mentioned, though, it likely wouldn't be much - looking at the Load Level Time benchmark in the 2nd last page would be a best case scenario, IMO.
Gary's a pretty busy man these days, so I'm not sure I'd count on the benchmarks for the Raptor in the USB this time around. Sorry. :)
Good to find a review of this unit. Now that I started searching around, I see that there are a number of other reviews on it, but I don't check those sites as often as Anandtech.
I first saw something similar at a local B&M. It seems to be sold under a few brand names, like Cremax and SohoTank. What sets it apart from others is a hot swappable, removable tray. While you could buy a 250-300GB HDD for the base unit, each additional HDD tray would only set you back $20 or so. If you use external drives for backups, this seems like a better solution than getting individual enclosures for every drive. Advantage : less clutter. Disadvantage : cannot use more than one unit at a time (unless you get more base units, of course).
I really like the idea of an external enclosure with a hot swap tray, but would prefer one that is dampened (less noise / vibration, important when the drive is closer to you) and has active cooling (i.e. a fan). And icing on the cake would be to have USB and firewire ports on it as well. Best bet right now seems be to build one using a mini ITX enclosure. Not having an extra power brick (and an on/off switch that cuts power to the power supply, not just the enclosure) will also be nice.
The short summary about eSATA (how AHCI is necessary for hot swap, etc.) is also useful - something I've been wondering about for a while. Can anyone point to sites with additional info on eSATA, specifically how to add it to an older system without eSATA so that it supports hot swap, any drives that don't play well with hot swap? TIA.
My P965 board has eSATA through one of the JMicron controllers, support for this has been in the Linux kernels since 2.6.18. so eSATA works fine in my system (2.6.20 kernel), though it might depend more on support for the controller chip than eSATA in general.
You showed that the enclosure had a much lower Burst speed than when the drive was mounted internally, which you attributed to ICY DOCK's controller only supporting the SATA 150 spec at the moment.
However I just looked at their website for more details, and they specificially mention SATA 300 speed support, and have their own HDTACH results to back it up.
We discovered an issue with the Intel Matrix Storage driver version 7.0.0.1020 and our ICY DOCK review unit that prevented true SATA 3Gb/s operation. An update to version 7.5.0.1017 did not work, even after an uninstall of the 7.0.0.1020 driver. However, after reinstalling Windows XP-SP2 and installing driver 7.5.0.1017, the unit performed as advertised. This was repeatable on our DFI P965 board with the ICH8R.
We are still looking into why this occurred as it was not repeatable on our P35 board with the ICH9R nor the Intel BadAxe 2 board with the ICH7R. We will publish updated HDTach results shortly. There were not any differences in our actual benchmarks other than the normal variance between benchmark runs that is typically +/- .05%.
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sheh - Friday, July 13, 2007 - link
What would be more interesting is an enclosure that includes a 1000 or even just 100Mbit LAN, in addition to USB (and possibly eSATA). It'd be invaluable being able to hook to older computers at faster than (theoretic) 12Mbit and to be accessible to multiple computers on the network.paulwatsonjr - Friday, July 13, 2007 - link
On the chart you show that esata is not daisy chain'able (which is true.) However, I thought I remembered seeing something about esata now having some sort of multi-port capability, similar to daisy chaining, that is supported by the latest round of Intel chipsets...Farfle - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
There are a ton of these eSata enclosures out there, and all seem to advertise to do the same thing. They probably all do, for the most part at least. I purchased this model from Beyond Micro:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
The main reasons I chose this over other competitors was the following:
1. On/Off power switch on the front (although, admittedly, kinda useless--not to mention risky--if you're using it as you're system drive, hehe..."Ooops, there goes Windows!")
2. The AC adapter's power plugin is one of those rounded inner/outer types that makes connecting to the enclosure a snap! I always hate trying to allign those S-Video-type power plug-ins to their mates (like on this Icy Dock model).
3. Built-in fan. Some HDs get quite hot, and it's nice to have a fan to keep 'em cool. Also, it appears the top of the Beyond Micro drive has an aluminum cover, which better conducts the heat.
Some bad things about it tho, is installation was kind of unnecesarily complicated. It comes with screws that you need to ensure you utilize, otherwise the cooling effects are minimized, and the noise becomes more apparent.
I'm not trying to "comment" crap here, but just sharing my experience with this particular product type.
*Note - One other thing to think about--that applies to all these eSata enclosures--is the PCI bracket. I bought this drive for use in a Baby-atx Low Profile case (one of those computers that can sit under your monitor...like the good ol' PC days). Unfortunately, none of these enclosures come with a Low-profile bracket. I had to purchase this special one from Addonics for $7 + $7 shipping:
http://www.addonics.com/shopaddonics/default.asp?i...">http://www.addonics.com/shopaddonics/default.asp?i...
$14 dollars for a stupid little metal bracket is a bit absurd, but I had no other choice (if I wanted to keep the setup pretty). So, unless you have an onboard eSata connection and you're using a low profile computer, you're kinda stuck having to purchase this extra peripheral.
Googer - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
How would performance have been differant had a Western Digital Raptor been used instead of a 7200 RPM Samsung over USB? Could you post some benchmarks?Dave Robinet - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
I wouldn't expect the Raptor to come out significantly better, to be honest. The transfer rate of either drive saturates the bus, though I'd imagine the Raptor would improve things slightly in heavy small file access times (certain games, etc). As I mentioned, though, it likely wouldn't be much - looking at the Load Level Time benchmark in the 2nd last page would be a best case scenario, IMO.Gary's a pretty busy man these days, so I'm not sure I'd count on the benchmarks for the Raptor in the USB this time around. Sorry. :)
lennylim - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
Good to find a review of this unit. Now that I started searching around, I see that there are a number of other reviews on it, but I don't check those sites as often as Anandtech.I first saw something similar at a local B&M. It seems to be sold under a few brand names, like Cremax and SohoTank. What sets it apart from others is a hot swappable, removable tray. While you could buy a 250-300GB HDD for the base unit, each additional HDD tray would only set you back $20 or so. If you use external drives for backups, this seems like a better solution than getting individual enclosures for every drive. Advantage : less clutter. Disadvantage : cannot use more than one unit at a time (unless you get more base units, of course).
I really like the idea of an external enclosure with a hot swap tray, but would prefer one that is dampened (less noise / vibration, important when the drive is closer to you) and has active cooling (i.e. a fan). And icing on the cake would be to have USB and firewire ports on it as well. Best bet right now seems be to build one using a mini ITX enclosure. Not having an extra power brick (and an on/off switch that cuts power to the power supply, not just the enclosure) will also be nice.
The short summary about eSATA (how AHCI is necessary for hot swap, etc.) is also useful - something I've been wondering about for a while. Can anyone point to sites with additional info on eSATA, specifically how to add it to an older system without eSATA so that it supports hot swap, any drives that don't play well with hot swap? TIA.
Dave Robinet - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
Thanks for the comments.The simplest way to add eSATA to existing systems is with the use of a controller card (as people often do with SCSI). Which OS are you using?
lennylim - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
Mainly XP (Pro and Home) and Linux, though support for Linux now mainly falls under the "nice to have".strikeback03 - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
My P965 board has eSATA through one of the JMicron controllers, support for this has been in the Linux kernels since 2.6.18. so eSATA works fine in my system (2.6.20 kernel), though it might depend more on support for the controller chip than eSATA in general.ninjit - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
Quick question about burst speed.You showed that the enclosure had a much lower Burst speed than when the drive was mounted internally, which you attributed to ICY DOCK's controller only supporting the SATA 150 spec at the moment.
However I just looked at their website for more details, and they specificially mention SATA 300 speed support, and have their own HDTACH results to back it up.
http://www.icydock.com/MB559US-1S_SPEED_TEST.pdf">http://www.icydock.com/MB559US-1S_SPEED_TEST.pdf
Could it be a setting or cable issue that caused your tests to drop down to 150?
Gary Key - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
We discovered an issue with the Intel Matrix Storage driver version 7.0.0.1020 and our ICY DOCK review unit that prevented true SATA 3Gb/s operation. An update to version 7.5.0.1017 did not work, even after an uninstall of the 7.0.0.1020 driver. However, after reinstalling Windows XP-SP2 and installing driver 7.5.0.1017, the unit performed as advertised. This was repeatable on our DFI P965 board with the ICH8R.We are still looking into why this occurred as it was not repeatable on our P35 board with the ICH9R nor the Intel BadAxe 2 board with the ICH7R. We will publish updated HDTach results shortly. There were not any differences in our actual benchmarks other than the normal variance between benchmark runs that is typically +/- .05%.
Stan11003 - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
I think I could buy a 250GB drive for the cost of this enclosure....JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
Which would work great as an internal-only HDD.