X-bit labs

Nine External Enclosures for 2.5” Hard Disk Drives Roundup (page 8)

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

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

Thermaltake Muse 2.5” Aluminum USB 2.0 Enclosure A2291

The matte aluminum casing is very robust thanks to the thickness of the metal. The design of this enclosure is very simple. The casing opens up book-like as you press on the latch on a side panel. By the way, the increased security of the enclosed hard drive is achieved not only by means of the thick panels but also with the rubber pads on the inside of the container that prevent excessive vibration and absorb shocks. A mini-USB connector and a power connector are located on the back panel of the case. We needed the additional power tail in our tests since using the interface USB cable alone proved to be insufficient for powering the drive. There is a blue LED indicator of the drive’s operation on the casing.

This enclosure supports the USB 2.0 interface and is ATA-6 compatible. It uses a Cypress AT2+ chip. The dimensions are 130 x 82.4 x 19.8mm; the weight of the enclosure is 155g.

This model comes with a leather transportation pouch, a CD with drivers and a user manual in PDF format, a USB cable (with an additional USB connector on one side for powering the drive), and a printed user manual.

The average retail price of the enclosure is $33.