
The CalDigit S2VR RAID enclosure
If you've ever spent time editing video, you probably know how frustrating it can be to wait helplessly for your computer to catch up with the edits you're making in whatever video editing application you've chosen. Editing streams of video in real time eats up a great deal of storage bandwidth, probably as much as your system will allow. Of course, there are other applications that also hunger for a lot of data transfer, but video editing is probably the most compelling reason to consider striping a couple drives in RAID mode to get some extra speed out of them.
If you're going to set up a RAID array anyway, there are a few reasons to consider an external RAID enclosure; the most obvious is that your hard drive slots may already be full, perhaps with IDE drives. Another good reason is that there's only so much physical space in a PC case, and yours might be getting pretty cramped. Perhaps you're just simply uncomfortable with having to navigate through that jungle of cables in your PC case. Finally, you might just value the idea of having a mobile storage solution for your work.
Regardless of your incentive, external RAID enclosures can be a really good idea. Let's take a look at one from CalDigit.

The CalDigit S2VR RAID enclosure, rear ¾ view.
CalDigit has clearly targeted their S2VR Duo RAID enclosure to the videophiles in the hardware world, although it obviously has other useful applications as well. Their marketing materials claim that the unit is ideal for single- and multiple-stream 10-bit uncompressed SD (standard definition) video editing, and that's its focus. Of course, the extra speed derived from a RAID array will also speed up just about everything else that accesses the hard disks.
The S2VR Duo sports an attractive, simple, and utilitarian design that would seem to fit in with most modern equipment on a desk. With only two cables - one for power and one for data transfer - the unit is relatively clean of clutter compared to some external RAID enclosures (which require a data transfer cable for each of the installed SATA drives). Speaking of drives, removing and re-attaching hard disks is a very simple affair with the S2VR Duo.

The included PCI-express FASTA card.
The S2VR Duo comes with a PCI express FASTA card with four eSATA ports, which is nice. CalDigit uses a cabling design in the S2VR that they call 'Superlane', which allows more than one drive to be connected via a single eSATA cable. This is one of the chief reasons that the S2VR is relatively clutter free.
The back panel of the S2VR Duo
The S2VR Duo is very simple to install and use, requiring almost no software setup at all. The RAID functions are easily implemented, and work just the way they that they should, right out of the box. It is very easy to set up the enclosure’s desired disk configuration. Your mode of choice can be selected with a simple adjustment on the back of the unit.
RAID 0 mode will stripe the drives for increased read/write performance of course, while RAID 1 mode will create redundancy on both drives for data safety and a bit of a read performance boost. Alternatively, the user could select JBOD mode - "Just a Bunch Of Drives" - so that the operating system will simply use both drives separately as one big volume, but where’s the sense in that ?
The S2VR Duo is rather limited since it only allows for two hard disks, but that doesn’t really represent too much of a problem given today’s high capacity
drives. Changing to a pair of hard drives with higher capacity is easy enough that almost anyone should be able to handle it. True, this may present an issue if the user’s goal is to achieve greater redundancy and security through higher RAID functions, but if this is the case a buyer should be in the market for enclosures with more available drive slots in the first place.
On a final note, we should mention that the S2VR Duo does not offer a variety of interface capabilities, like USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394 (Firewire). This isn’t really a problem per se, but if we had a wish list for external drives, multiple interfaces would be on it. It would certainly make the drive more mobile ; the S2VR requires a computer with an eSATA port to operate, which is hardly a standard feature on motherboards right now.
Test Setup
| System Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processor(s) | AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
2.0 GHz, 1.0 GHz HT-Link, 1 MB L2 cache |
| Platform | Nvidia : Asus AN832-SLI Premium
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI, BIOS version 1205 |
| RAM | Corsair CMX1024-4400Pro
2x 1024 MB @ DDR400 (CL3.0-4-4-8) |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Raptor, WD1500ADFD 150 GB, 10,000 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA/150 |
| Networking | On-Board nForce4 Gigabit Ethernet
Onboard Marvell Gigabit Ethernet |
| Graphics Cards | |
| Nvidia Based Cards | GeForce 6800 GS, 256 MB GDDR3
500 MHz GPU Speed, 425 MHz Memory Speed |
| Power Supply | PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1,000 W |
| System Software & Drivers | |
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.10.2600, Service Pack 2 |
| DirectX Version | 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) |
| Graphics Driver(s) | NVIDIA - Forceware 91.47 WHQL |
RAID 0




As the benchmarks show, the S2VR's RAID0 performance is solid. It simply outclasses every external drive solution out there, with great read/write transfer performance. It should, of course; it is the only external RAID0 array in our external drive benchmark suite.




RAID1 mode is slower but safer, due to its use of data redundancy, but even here the S2VR has nothing to be ashamed of compared to its peers; it offers top-notch performance for an external drive. The eSATA interface is clearly great for external drive performance.
As you can see from the data transfer benchmarks, the S2VR Duo is an excellent external RAID box that offers exceptional data transfer speeds, especially in RAID 0 configuration.
If we had to find a drawback, we would mention the enclosure's apparent lack of versatility. Sure, the PCI Express card allows for the connection of up to four of these external drive enclosures, but the unit itself is limited to two drives. In addition, with no USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394 connections, this external drive isn't all that mobile - you're pretty much forced to stick with the computer to which you initially connected the S2VR. The alternative is to pop out the PCI Express card and set it up elsewhere, or ensure that you only move the unit to other PCs that already have an existing eSATA port; neither prospect is particularly appealing.
Overall though, this is nitpicking. The S2VR Duo isn't advertised as a mobile solution, and it does what it claims to do: it allows for fast data transfer in an external drive enclosure.

Author's Opinion
I have to say that I like the S2VR Duo; it has a good, clean design, and delivers solidly in the areas that it targets. Like I said in the beginning of the article, there are advantages to external drives other than mobility. I personally like the idea of having some speedy external storage, so this product definitely appeals to me.