FirmTek, a pioneer and leader in storage solutions for Apple Macintosh and PC systems, today announces the miniSwap/U3. An industry first and perfect for 2.5" solid state (SSD) and hard disk drives (HDD), the miniSwap/U3 enclosure provides trayless, hot-swap, USB 3.0 external enclosure support for Mac and PC computers.

Performance up to 440MB/s with a single SSD:

The miniSwap/U3 was created to provide 2.5" storage devices with blazing fast 5 Gbps bandwidth, amazingly simple disk mounting and ultra-quiet operation. The small, yet rugged, miniSwap/U3 can be integrated as a portable on-the-go 2.5" enclosure, or as a space saving high performance trayless 2.5" desktop drive mounting station.

Multiple miniSwap/U3 enclosures can be connected to provide advanced RAID performance, expanded capacity, and simple or complex storage configurations. The unique miniSwap/U3 trayless bay design supports standard 2.5-inch Serial ATA SSD or HDD 9.5 mm height devices along with 7 mm, 12.5 mm and even larger disks up to 14.9 mm.

Do Away with the Tray:

The miniSwap/U3 silver aluminum chassis features an attractive design made from aluminum to keep weight at a minimum while maintaining firm structural rigidity. "Loading a 2.5-inch hard disk or SSD is as easy as inserting a bare drive into the miniSwap/U3 and closing the bay door. That's it! No tray, no screws and no tools required to gain incredible performance," said Chi Kim Stanford, Vice President of Business Development. "The high quality, detailed construction of the miniSwap/U3 allows each 2.5" drive to connect with the FirmTek direct-connect backplane and instantly communicate with the computer. Each miniSwap/U3 bay is tied to the computer with its own dedicated USB 3.0 data cable. This connection method maximizes performance while providing superior compatibility."

Instant Data Access:

The miniSwap/U3 is compatible with virtually every USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port. In addition, the miniSwap/U3 enclosure supports transfer rates of 500 MBytes/sec or 5.0 Gbits/sec. The trayless, direct-connect miniSwap/U3 enclosure is designed to excel with audio/video editing, computer animation, digital photography, portable computing, storage expansion, backup and any application where external, flexible, trayless, hot-swap, high performance data storage is desirable. FirmTek customers who appreciate the power of SSD and the portability and quiet operation of 2.5" storage devices will love the miniSwap/U3.

miniSwap/U3 Key Features and Benefits:

• Attractive, durable, bus-powered, portable trayless enclosure supports 2.5-inch SATA SSD or HDD
• Ultra quiet, fan free, aluminum heat dissipation cooling system
• Easy to set up: No screws, no drive tray required, swap drives in seconds
• Easy to operate: Simply open the door to insert or remove the storage device for virtually unlimited capacity
• Supports 7 mm, 9.5 mm, 12.5 mm and 14.9 mm drive heights
• High performance design - Integrated Direct Connect SATA backplane; no internal cabling
• Ultra high 5 Gbit/s bandwidth design with Power and Activity LED
• Supports SATA 1.5G, 3G or 6G HDD or SSD 2.5-inch form factor with any capacity
• Can be configured as RAID when used with multiple miniSwap/U3 enclosures - Mac OS X
• Aluminum case for maximum durability and heat dissipation
• High performance can handle multiple projects simultaneously
• Perfect for both storage-hungry and speed-sensitive applications
• Cross-platform, PC and Macintosh compatible, operating system independent
• Works with Macintosh or PC with shielded USB 3.0 or 2.0 ports running Mac OS X, Windows or Linux
• Kensington Security Slot

Availability:

The FirmTek miniSwap/U3 will be available soon from FirmTek authorized resellers (Part# MS-U3). Specially priced build-to-order miniSwap/U3 bundles with custom pre-installed SATA hard disks or SSD configurations will also be available. For more information or to purchase FirmTek products please visit FirmTek's website at http://www.firmtek.com.