Vantec Nexus
Corsair TWINX4K
Corsair Hydrocool
MSI MEGA 651
MSI FX5900-VTD
RocketRAID 1520
RocketRAID 404
FIC AU13 nF2
LanParty KT400A

Testing

I decided to run some tests with both hard drives and CD Rom drives. All tests were done with the Shuttle XPC, configured as in this review. I decided to break up the testing scenarios, and in stages... usability, performance, reliability.

Installing Windows or use as a primary boot device

Usability - Well, the device was a snap to setup with either hard drives or CD Roms, so this was a success. One idea I had was to run my CD burner off it fulltime. I was due for a reformat, so I wanted to see if it was possible to boot off the CD Rom.

I configured the device(s) in the BIOS, and selected either the USB CD Rom or hard drive to be the primary boot device.

Performance - It actually wasn't so great. The hard drive, with a preconfigured version of Windows, constantly hung during bootup, followed by a reboot. The CD Rom bootup worked better, and allowed me to reinstall Windows, but performance was painfully slow. Given the lack of USB2.0 support in the initial release of Windows XP (hence, no installation USB2.0 support), this is my guess on why it took so long.

Reliability - I've already mentioned the hard drive issues, but the Windows installation, though slow, was problem free.

Windows performance as an external device

Usability - So long as you're using ME/2000/XP, it's really just plug and play. It will be detected as an external storage device, and automatically be assigned a drive letter.

Performance - I tested the performance of the CD Rom drive with Nero's built in benchmarking tool.

ATA Performance (left) and USB Performance (right)

Using both the standard ATA and the USB showed little to no performance differences. I realized that this benchmark probably isn't a useful tool since it's only benchmarking the drive's performance itself, and not the connection. I retested by burning a 645MB CD.

The ATA connection outpaced the USB drive by a little less than half a minute. We then moved to hard drive testing. I ruled out any synthetic tests, since I expected similar results as the CD Rom benchmark. We used a 60GB Maxtor drive, formatted it, and tested on the ATA and USB interface. We proceeded to copy 130 MB of patches and mods I had for Quake 3.

Again, the ATA connection was a little speedier.

Reliability - Neither the hard drive or CD Rom spat any errors during the testing process. The problems arose when we inspected the data after. The CD Rom we burned worked fine, but the hard drive data we transferred via USB was only 75% salvagable. Basically, 3 folders worked fine, but the 4th folder (which happened to be the 2nd one copied) was unreadable. When we read the data transfered via ATA, all the folders were readable.

Final Words

I thought that overall, this device is a pretty good idea. If you already have a fast CD burner, there's no need to buy a USB2.0 one if portability is the goal. The USB2.0 seemed to work pretty fast, though I don't have a true USB2.0 device to measure it against. There is a bit of a speed loss when compared to the ATA interface, but the differences are slight.

The device itself is pretty sharp, and quite solid. I can see where heat may be an issue for 48x burners, as it did get pretty cramped near the back.

I really wanted it to work better with the hard drive though. The idea of lugging around a portable hard drive was something I was hoping to do, as it could potentially save me a fair amount of time when I troubleshoot PCs. Unfortunently, although the device was fast, it just didn't seem reliable enough to warrant a recomendation from us if this is what you plan to do.

Pros: Well built, good performance, looks nice.

Cons: No "off" button, questionable reliability with hard drives.

Bottom Line: This is certainly something I will recommend to people if you want to move a CD drive around, or to add one if you are out of external 5.25" bays, but if external hard drives are your thing, you're best to buy a dedicated USB or FireWire drive.

Thanks to for the review unit. They got a lot of cool stuff there, and we recommend you check them out.

Agree? Disagree? Discuss it in the forums.

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