The Data Vault 3DX is nicely designed, even if the workmanship could be better. The special plastic corners, for example, are merely stuck on to the drive. The said plastic corners not only serve to absorb shocks, but they are shaped at the top and bottom so that they fit together, making it easy to stack several Vaults on top of one another. We wouldn't want to do that with more than two or three, however, because the rubber feet make it potentially unstable.

For a USB-2.0 drive, performance values are at the upper end of the models that we tested. What is really interesting, however, is the interface of the Mobile Data Vault 3DX, because it is designed to be extremely flexible. We got the drive with a USB connector, but cables for FireWire and even a PCMCIA adapter are available as well. This makes the Data Vault 3DX one of the most flexible mobile storage drives on the market.

On the back are jumpers needed for many configurations. Serving as an interface on the Data Vault 3DX is a small Centronics connector to which individual cables can be attached: FireWire, PCMCIA, USB - this one single drive makes it all possible.

The rubber corners can be taken off. Behind it are screws that allow the Data Vault 3DX to be opened, although for Olixir this means that the user loses warranty protection.

The rubber corners are shaped so that it is possible to stack up several Data Vault 3DXs.