Thermaltake Level 10 Miniature (Mini) 3.5inch Storage Enclosure Review

TweakTown's Rating: 88%

The Bottom Line

Thermaltake's Level 10 Miniature (Mini) storage device offers top notch performance for a single disk USB 3.0 enclosure and with its aggressive pricing, may be worth a look.

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From where I'm standing, I'd imagine everyone remembers or has heard of the Level 10. I'm also sure in some capacity you have seen pictures on the internet or if you were lucky enough you may have purchased this chassis. And if you haven't, you probably should open a new tab while you are reading this and Google or Bing some images.

The Level 10 brand from the beginning was all about delivering top of the line solutions for consumers, this all started with aforementioned chassis about six or seven years ago. Now the brand has grown to encompass several chassis, mice and now enclosures and today we get to go hands-on with the Level 10 Miniature (Mini). It is a USB 3.0 enclosure, it supports both 3.5" and 2.5" drives, and they can be either of the hard drive or solid state flavor. Dimension come in at 210 x 68 x 141 with weight at 670g.

Compatibility of the Level 10 Mini includes Windows, OS X, and Linux while the MSRP of the Thermaltake Level 10 Mini comes in at $59.99 with a one-year warranty.

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If you have purchased a product from Thermaltake in the past, you should recognize this packaging as its used on nearly all the accessories. With the Level 10 Mini, we have marketing information on the bottom left with a holographic "Limited Edition" badge to the right.

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The scope of delivery is quite simple but does have a few value added bits including a screwdriver for securing your drive.

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Above, we have our first look at the Level 10 Mini. It carries the same contours on the side as the original chassis with branding across the top.

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Looking from the front down the side of the enclosure, you get that same iconic feel as the Level 10 had without the massive stage presence.

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On the backside, we have a power switch, USB 3.0 port, and power input.

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The drive tray holds the PCB in place and as you can see has holes for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. The controller used in this product is a JMicron device.

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Installing my Intel SSD 730 in the Level 10 mini, I took it for a spin on Anvils Storage Utilities. As you can see, it did quite well allowing 397 MB/s read and 394 MB/s write. Random performance was able to reach nearly 16K IOPS read and 13.5K IOPS write.

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Adding the Level 10 Mini to our charts, it comes in as one of the better enclosures we have tested, just a touch slower than the Kingwin Power Dock and Nexstar USB 3.1 solution.

Over the past few years, I have seen quite a few enclosures. While most do their job, others are put on a higher level because of features or performance, but the Level 10 Mini for me is probably one of the better built single disk solutions I have seen. The aluminum adds to the aesthetics as much as the design along with adding durability to protect the internal drive. And while I would have much rather had a toolless drive bay, Thermaltake was kind enough to toss in a screwdriver so I didn't have to go to the garage.

The performance was quite surprising as I never have a good experience with products using JMicron controllers, but as you seen this time around, things were much different. I was able to reach 397 MB/s read and 394 MB/s write with my Intel 730 while random performance too was solid.

Overall, the Level 10 Mini would be my choice for a single disk enclosure, but aesthetics are subjective, yet it's still worth a close look at any rate.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Memory: Patriot Viper 3 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600 - Buy from Amazon
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Storage: Intel 730 480GB - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 750W - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 - Buy from Amazon