X-bit labs

Nine External Enclosures for 2.5” Hard Disk Drives Roundup (page 6)

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

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

STLab 2.5” Hard Drive Enclosure S-132

The HDD enclosure from STLab is made of aluminum, except for the plastic front and rear brackets. The controller logic and an ATA connector are assembled on one of the brackets. The design is very simple: the hard drive is attached to the interface connector and is then inserted into the aluminum casing. The whole arrangement looks solid is it is, but you can reinforce it further by securing the drive with two tiny screws. On the back of the case – where the controller card is located – you will find a mini-USB connector, a LED operation indicator, a power connector and a power type (external/internal) slider switch. We didn’t have to use additional power in our tests.

This HDD enclosure supports the USB 2.0 interface and is ATAPI-5 compatible. Its accessories include an interface USB cable, power USB cable, power PS/2 cable (the Box Contents list doesn’t mention this item, by the way), user manual, two screws and a mini-CD with drivers.

The average retail price of this HDD enclosure is $11.