Eagle Tech ET-CS2FSU3-BK 2.5-inch SATA to SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Portable HDD Enclosure (5Gbps) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)PROS: Small, light. Easy to install. Very fast.
CONS: USB cable is thick, bulky and its not Y-cable. There is no carrying pouch.

I decided to get new external HDD recently. I usually buy external enclosure and internal HDD separately and I assemble them.
My previous external HDD has USB 2.0 and eSata ports but I found I use eSata hardly at all. This time I decided to go USB 3.0 route.
Right now there are not many enclosures that have USB 3.0 and my choices were limited.

Whats in box: enclosure, replacement faceplate, plastic bag with 4 screws(inside the enclosure), USB 3.0 type mini-B cable, manual. There is no carrying pouch.

Assembly: It was easy. I put my WD Scorpio 500 GB HDD(9.5 mm) into enclosure, closed it and put 2 screws into their places. The fit was OK, but not perfect, I had to apply some pressure to close it. I don't think one can put 12.5 mm HDD into it. If one day I decide to change faceplate I will have to completely disassemble this thing. PCB is mounted on the faceplate with 2 screws. The are 2 LEDs, Blue- power,Red- activity.

The cable: With my previous enclosures I usually had thin usb cable Y type(with 2 USB connectors to draw power from 2 ports). Sometimes it was a must. This cable has only one connector to connect to PC. It is OK when cable is connected to USB 3.0 port, AFAIK USB 3.0 can provide ~0.9A current). When connected to USB 2.0 port of my desktop it also worked but I afraid on some other PC one USB port will not be enough to power the device. I had such issues before.
There is not many replacement USB 3.0 type mini-B cables out there, I didn't find any, save Y type. Hopefully there will be some soon.

Performance: I tested the assembly using HD Tach. I got 80 MB/s at the beginning of the disk and something like 50 MB/s at the end. I believe its the same performance as if HDD was connected to SATA controller on motherboard. Looks like USB 3.0 is not a bottleneck anymore.
When connected to USB 2.0 the speed wasconstant at ~14 MB/s.

Bottom line: the enclosure is decent but it could be better. Main complain is cable and lack of carrying pouch which would allow to carry HDD and cable together.

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Product Description:
This graffiti drive enclosure blends popular culture, motion and emotion so that you can express your unique sense of style. It includes two different face plates to suit different moods and mindset. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connection offers almost 10x improvements over USB 2.0 in real world data transfer - so you can get more done in less time. Separate yourself from the crowd, with speed and style.

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