Sturdy aluminum case, easy to assemble, but false advertising: no SATA II transfer speeds
Written: Mar 17 '07 (Updated Mar 17 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: Quiet (no fan), attractive, small form factor, easy to assemble, mostly fairly sturdy.
Cons: False advertising: 3.0GB/s SATA II speed unavailable. Partially plastic, proprietary power connector, horrible Vantec website.
The Bottom Line: If you are satisfied with 1.5 GB/s SATA I speeds, and forgive Vantec's false advertising, its benefits outweigh its shortcomings. With a good HD inside you'll likely be happy.
chippringle's Full Review: Vantec NST-360SU-BL Serial ATA, USB 2.0 External D...
The good:
1) This is mostly a very sturdy little case. All the blue areas are aluminum. It feels durable and solid in your hand. The hard drive does not shake inside the enclosure.
2) It wastes no space -- it is smaller than I anticipated. It uses no fan so it can be compact.
3) Without a fan, it is dead quiet.
4) So far heat is no problem without a fan. Heat seems to be effectively transferred to the aluminum chassis where it radiates away.
5) It is a nice shade of blue.
6) It is very easy to assemble.
The bad:
1) You will have more than a hassle getting it to work at SATA II speeds. It won't do it. Vantec advertises 3.0 GB/s SATA II transfer speeds, but it does not deliver. This is false advertising. Your PC will not recognize this drive if you are connecting with eSATA unless you set your HD's jumpers to throttle its transfer rate to 1.5 GB/s SATA I speed. It took me a while to figure this out. Connecting over USB 2.0 works, no matter your jumper settings, but USB 2.0 is slower than SATA I. If you want SATA II speeds, this drive enclosure does not deliver.
2) Additional points off for the Vantec website -- it is no help whatsoever. You cannot even download a user manual from there. Vantec should invest much more attention into this.
3) The silver front and back pieces to this case are plastic, so it is not as sturdy as it could be.
4) It uses a stupid proprietary power connector, so you have to carry the power adapter with you everywhere. If it used a standard connector, I would have liked to have bought a second adapter, so I could shuttle just the hard drive from home to studio. But because the power connector is proprietary, I also have to carry the power adapter wherever I take the drive. Vantec should at least sell the power adapter separately, but they don't.
5) My fifth complaint is a minor one... It doesn't come with a carrying case. I wouldn't mention this except some external hard drives/ hard drive enclosures do come with one, and that is a big help. Until I can find a protective carrying case that fits this, I have to wrap the drive in bubble wrap when I carry it, which is annoying.
OVERALL
I recommend this case. SATA I speeds are still a big improvement over USB 2.0 and Firewire. The only truly major complaint I have is that Vantec says this drive is capable of delivering SATA II 3.0 GB/s transfer speeds, but that's not true. Maybe some day they will release an updated driver that will correct this, but as of the time of the writing of this review (March 17, 2007), no such update exists. Except for this, all the pros outweigh the cons. And as I mentioned already, SATA I is still much faster than USB or Firewire. Combine this with a good hard drive, and you are likely to be happy.
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