USB 3.0 - HDD, or what to do with a 2.5-inch hard drive.

It’s not uncommon to have an unused 2.5-inch hard drive lying around. For example, after upgrading to a larger one. You can put the old drive on a shelf, or pop it into an enclosure and get a fast “flash drive” with a pretty decent capacity.
This is a review of an external hard drive enclosure.

As it happens, I also had several 2.5-inch hard drives lying around. USB 2.0 didn’t seem very convenient for large amounts of data, so I decided to see how an enclosure like this would work with USB 3.0.
Of course, there were a few drawbacks, but let’s take it one step at a time.

The enclosure arrived in a neat little box with colorful printing and attractive packaging. No complaints there.


I think I’ll hide the rest of the unboxing under a spoiler.

Specifications:
Hard drive size — 2.5 inches
Maximum hard drive thickness — 9.5 mm (the drive used in the tests was this thick)
Interface speed — up to SATA II, 3 Gbit/s (according to the controller manufacturer)
Maximum drive capacity — 2 TB.
Computer interface — USB 3.0, compatible with USB 2.0
OS support — Win Vista/Win XP /2000/Me/7; Mac OS 9.X / X

Here’s what the whole package looks like.
Enclosure
USB cable
Case (very basic, but soft and quite pleasant to the touch)


The dimensions and weight are shown in the photo. It doesn’t seem very heavy to me, but I don’t have any others to compare it with, so I could be wrong.


The USB cable is soft and thick, about 50 cm long.


The enclosure looks pretty nice. The pattern is actually hard to see; it only shows up in the photo because of the camera flash. Now I’ll be not only serious, but glamorous too :)))


There are no inscriptions or graphics on the back. The texture resembles brushed aluminum, and it’s black with a slight purple tint. It looks nice, but unfortunately the camera doesn’t capture it.
These enclosures are available in four colors:
Piano black (the black one I have)
Snow white
Wine red
Сhocolate brown (the name is misspelled on the box; chocolate brown).


One end has a connector for connecting to a computer and an activity indicator LED (more about that little nuisance later).


The opposite side has a button for opening the enclosure. It’s very stiff and awkward to use. Fortunately, you don’t need it often.


That’s it for the exterior; now let’s move on to the internals.
The whole assembly comes apart into three main pieces: two covers and a frame.
The USB-SATA converter board is mounted on the frame.


I mentioned above that the release button is very stiff. On top of that, the catches themselves aren’t very well made and don’t inspire confidence.
They should be fine for a few openings, but be careful when opening—and especially closing—the enclosure so you don’t break them.
When closing the enclosure, be sure to press the button; the latches won’t snap shut on their own!



For the test, I first wanted to use a 250 GB hard drive and a 30 GB SSD I had lying around.
But the first seemed too slow for testing, and the second was visited by the northern fur-bearing animal and taken off to the eternal hunting grounds :(
So I bought a new 500 GB, 7200 rpm hard drive for the test.
I couldn't find anything faster, and the nearest available SSD is in a work server. I really don't want to pull it out of there.
According to the test results from the NIX store, this hard drive has the following specs:
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 Sequential Read (1024 KB block size) 119.6 MB/s
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 Sequential Write (1024 KB block size) 115.6 MB/s
That's what I'll be comparing it against.


The drive isn't very easy to insert.
There are two ways to install it:
Unscrew the circuit board, connect it to the hard drive, then put everything back in place
Leave the board in place and slide the hard drive in sideways.

I went with the second option. It seemed more convenient, but there's a small molding protrusion on the opposite inner side, which ended up being shaved off by the hard drive casing. Better to cut it off beforehand.


Almost done: the drive is in its proper place. All that's left is to put the top and bottom covers back on.


But then I ran into a little snag. The covers are aluminum, and the hard drive's circuit board sits almost flush against the metal.
Press down in the middle of the case (which happens all the time), and a short circuit is 99.9% guaranteed.
The area around the connectors is especially vulnerable.


I couldn't just put up with that—it would be dangerous, so I had to bring electrical tape into the picture.


The case is assembled and connected. Now we get to witness the genius of Chinese engineering in the form of a super-bright blue LED. If there were a battery inside, I'd guess it could double as a little flashlight, but they didn't include one :(
I'll replace it later with something more subtle and less bright.


Let's move on to testing this enclosure.

A photo of the drive in its original “clothing.” It was a tight fit the first time; it got easier to put on after that, but it still feels snug. Though you can still see the marks from when it was folded in half during shipping :(


So, to sum up:
Pros.
Looks good
Works fast.
The metal case keeps it cool.
Comes with a case and cable.
The included cable is decent quality.

Cons.
You need to insulate the drive's circuit board from the case, or the case from the circuit board. No idea why they didn't include a pad.
A bright blue LED—the Chinese are famous for their ancient traditions.
The latches feel a bit flimsy, but as long as you don't pull on them every day, they'll hold up fine.
Possibly the price, but I won't make a definite call on that; it depends on the person.

In my opinion, it works pretty well. During testing, I hit the hard drive's performance limit, not the enclosure's, so everything is excellent in that respect.
One big fly in the ointment (for the manufacturer, in their bowl of rice) is the lack of insulation between the rear cover and the hard drive's circuit board.

That's all.
The enclosure was provided for testing and review by the chinabuye store.
Hope this was useful and interesting :)

The product was provided for review by the store.