iStarUSA v7AGE420-ES 4-Bay Trayless eSATA Box External Hard Drive Enclosure - Black Review

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(More customer reviews)Let me start by saying that as an employee in a computer research organization, I have had the fortune of using good computer hardware and that includes several hard drive enclosures with bays.From my experience, the key parameters with a hard drive enclosure are:chipset, cooling, and ease of HDD installation/removal.If you do not have a quality chipset with kernel module or driver availability, it does not matter how good the enclosure is because you cannot reliability write data to it.Cooling is a subtle issue because an enclosure can have a fan and yet the flow path or resistance can be such that the HDDs become very hot, which limit their lifetime.HDD installation/removal is important because at some point in time you will have to remove that drive and your system's availability may depend on how quickly you can do so.

With those points in mind, I reviewed, compared, and eventually purchased the iStarUSA drive.The unit uses the Silicon Image 2132 chip for SATA port multiplication.Silicon Image is well known and my linux kernel has a pre-built module for the Silicon Image 2132 chip.If you visit the iStarUSA website, you will see that hard drive enclosure are not a diversion for them, it is one of their focuses; being so heavily involved in this area strongly suggests that they can build a high quality unit.I had a good chipset and a dedicated manufacturer so I felt that I was off to a good start.Then it was the question of cooling.I had several enclosures that I discarded because of cooling issues.Most often, it was because the small, unusual sized, sleeve-bearing cooling fan failed or started screeching.This unit has two 60mm fans, which divides the thermal load and uses fans that are easily available via computer case fans.The last issue concerns HDD installation/removal and it is incredibly easy with this unit.There are no rails to be attached to the HDDs nor are there plastic fitting to be pushed into the HDDs' mounting holes like some computer cases.You simply slide the HDD in and close the door.Absolutely incredible.

A little bit about performance.I used hddtemp to measure the temp of two Samsung F3 HD103SJ drives when they were installed in (1) an internal HDD cage with a 120mm high-flow fan, (2) a HDD enclosure without its cover, and (3) the v7AGE420-ES.In the internal HDD cage, the F3's were at 29 C (ambient 25 C) and 31 C in the V7AGE420-ES.I felt that was good cooling by the V7AGE420-ES.Using "hdparm -t" and "seeker" I observed that the F3's access time and data transfer were the same when connected via an internal SATA cable as when installed in the V7AGE420-ES.Thus, performance-wise, I consider the v7AGE420-ES to be excellent.

In summary, this is a great device.It is truly tool-less installation of the HDD.The unit has on-line and access LED for each of the four drives and for the unit as a whole.Very informative.The thumbnail lock HDD doors are a novel idea, but it offers no security for the HDDs ... although in fairness if the HDD doors were locked the bandit would simply take the entire unit.The unit looks to be of very good quality.It powers off immediately and starts just as quickly.The fan noise is not exceedingly loud, but you can definitely tell when the unit is on.When my workstation and its fans comes on, it is louder than the unit.I am very pleased with this unit and wish that I could purchase another one.

A quick note about RAID. This unit's chipset in and of itself does not allow RAID capability.However, the end user needs to understand RAID and how it applies to his/her needs.Unless you are using a high-end hardware card for RAID, your sub-$100 "RAID" controller card is actually a software RAID.In addition, RAID in the BIOS is not optimum because it will be limited by the OS' access to the BIOS ports.For me, I used my kernel's MD module to create a striped RAID that gives me more bandwidth and more processing power than the sub-$100 RAID controller cards.

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Product Description:
v7AGE420-ES is for use with four 3.5" SATA II hard drives. The storage capacity of the hard drive is unlimited. It has screw-less design for easy installation. 2 LEDs for power on, HDD Activity, and Data connection. It has internal power supply.# Features Screwless Design for Fast HDD Mounting and Swapping# Two 60 mm Thermal Controlled Fans for Excellent Heat Dissipation# Internal 120 Watt Power Supply# Power Switch at Front# For Use with All 3.5" SATA I/II HDDSpecification:Model v7AGE420-ESRoHS Compliance Version YesHard Drive Interface SATA I/IIExternal Interface eSATALED Display ?? Power and HDD ActivityMaterial Case: Likeable Soft-coated MetalFront Panel: PlasticPower Supply Internal 120WChipset ?? Silicon Image 3726Color BlackCertifications ?? TUV/GS, CUL, CE, RoHSPower Supply ?? External Power Adapter (AC input: 100-240V~ 0.6A 50/60Hz/ DC output: 12V/2A)O.S. Support Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OSXDimensions (W x H x D) 130 x 200 x 210 mmPackage Information: * eSATA 4-Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure x 1 * eSATA Cable x 1 * Power Cord x 1 * Manual x 1

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