X-bit labs

Nine External Enclosures for 2.5” Hard Disk Drives Roundup (page 16)

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 01/31/2006 | 02:18 PM ]

Conclusion

So we have performed a comparative test of nine enclosures for 2.5” hard disk drives and we have again seen that the FireWire interface is preferable to USB 2.0. Despite its lower theoretical bandwidth, FireWire proves its superiority in real applications, making the Sarotech FHD-254UF2 enclosure the winner of our tests. This is a really very interesting and functional product with an option of backing up files with a press of a single button and it is the only one in this review to support two interfaces at once. Unfortunately, its speed proved to be the lowest when it was connected via USB 2.0. So we do recommend you this enclosure, which is cleverly designed and comes with good accessories, only if you will be mostly using its FireWire interface.

As for the other products, six of them had almost the same performance throughout the tests. There is hardly any difference between them in this respect, so you should make your choice basing on other factors like price, exterior design, dimensions, robustness and weight.

Two more models have proved to be somewhat slower than the others. These are Tekram TR-621S and Agestar IUB2A6, and you may want to buy one only if you’ve got some irrational liking for this particular enclosure and you don’t care much about the performance of the resulting external hard disk drive.