Page 2: Testing, Conclusion
Testing:
Seriously, you push the place where the sticker is located and the enclosure opens for easy drive insertion. When you slide the drive in, the enclosure beings to close and then to push the lever back down to close it. Once the drive is installed, you lock the drive in place by sliding the lock down. This prevents the lever from coming back up. Below is the video supplement.
As far as transfer speed goes, using the normal Maxtor drive I use in all of my external tests, the eSATA speed was about 45MB/s which is pretty good for this drive. Testing was done using Ubuntu 8.04 so the enclosure works in Linux with no problem as it is either USB mass storage or just looks like a normal drive (eSATA). The enclosure provides more than enough speed to handle day to day tasks. eSATA is a great technology over USB for hard drives. With USB2, the transfer speed was hovering around 30MB/s. If I used a faster drive, I could get faster speed with eSATA as well. All in all, the Icy Dock Enclosure works extremely well. I'm very impressed with the design and usability.
Conclusion:
The Icy Dock 3.5" External Screwless Hard Drive Enclosure goes for about $55. Before you jump to the wrong conclusion, let me say that the difference between this enclosure and a cheap $25 one is great. The old saying that you get what you pay for is true. Don't skimp where it matters and this enclosure shows that a small price increase comes with great additional benefits.
Icy Dock really took the time to design a functional and easy to use unit and I'm not easily impressed with a design. The enclosure is a great piece of engineering and design all around. The only minus is the power brick, but that's normally the case with enclosures. Even so, this product is on my recommended list. It fits the intended use so perfectly without hassle. Icy Dock has a winner with this one.
I'd like to thank Jeff from Icy Dock for making this review possible.
Seriously, you push the place where the sticker is located and the enclosure opens for easy drive insertion. When you slide the drive in, the enclosure beings to close and then to push the lever back down to close it. Once the drive is installed, you lock the drive in place by sliding the lock down. This prevents the lever from coming back up. Below is the video supplement.
As far as transfer speed goes, using the normal Maxtor drive I use in all of my external tests, the eSATA speed was about 45MB/s which is pretty good for this drive. Testing was done using Ubuntu 8.04 so the enclosure works in Linux with no problem as it is either USB mass storage or just looks like a normal drive (eSATA). The enclosure provides more than enough speed to handle day to day tasks. eSATA is a great technology over USB for hard drives. With USB2, the transfer speed was hovering around 30MB/s. If I used a faster drive, I could get faster speed with eSATA as well. All in all, the Icy Dock Enclosure works extremely well. I'm very impressed with the design and usability.
Conclusion:
The Icy Dock 3.5" External Screwless Hard Drive Enclosure goes for about $55. Before you jump to the wrong conclusion, let me say that the difference between this enclosure and a cheap $25 one is great. The old saying that you get what you pay for is true. Don't skimp where it matters and this enclosure shows that a small price increase comes with great additional benefits.
Icy Dock really took the time to design a functional and easy to use unit and I'm not easily impressed with a design. The enclosure is a great piece of engineering and design all around. The only minus is the power brick, but that's normally the case with enclosures. Even so, this product is on my recommended list. It fits the intended use so perfectly without hassle. Icy Dock has a winner with this one.
I'd like to thank Jeff from Icy Dock for making this review possible.