For those unfamiliar with this type of device, it is a means to make use of that extra hard drive sitting on a shelf and by allowing you to hook it up as an external hard drive. This can be done through several different methods and the new drive will show up as a new drive letter. If you already have data on this spare drive when you hook it up, that data will still be present when you attach it.
While there isn’t anything in the box that you don’t need, there is all cabling necessary to use any of the supported connection methods. This includes USB, eSATA and both varieties of IEEE1394 Firewire. It is not uncommon for some devices to leave out some of the cabling included, so having everything in one convenient package is a nice feature.
The enclosure housing comes in two available colors, silver and black. Unlike many similar products being offered, the stand on this unit is screwed into place from the factory. It also has rubber pads on the base of all four legs to make certain you do not damage the surface it sits on. For those who simply do not want this stand, you can simply remove four small screws and remove it.
The housing is brushed aluminum so will be very lightweight. You will not need to worry about it being too flimsy, however, since the weight of the installed hard drive will keep this unit sitting firmly in place.
The front edge of the housing is ventilated to allow for air to move through the enclosure, but there are no active fans. This is an excellent item for those who are looking for something quiet. The only noise you will hear is when the platters spin up on the drive. Of course, no active cooling means that you may want to use care if using a high-speed hard drive. In out testing I used a 7200RPM drive and had no heat issues at all.
Turning the unit around shows the connection options. As noted earlier, all cabling is included so you will be ready to use your extra storage space regardless of the method you want to make use of to access it. You will also notice there are a pair of Firewire 800 ports so you can daisy chain your devices with no problems.
