StarTech Dock Hosts up to 4 External Drives
StarTech is offering two SATA HDD/SSD docking stations supporting up to two drives at the same time.
Earlier this month, StarTech announced the availability of the first-ever SATA HDD docking station that supports up to four drives simultaneously. This device would be extremely handy for those who have various drives stashed away in dead laptops or old PCs sitting in the corner collection dust.
The docking station arrives in two forms: the SATDOCKK4U3E and the SATDOCK4U2E. Both offer USB and eSATA host connections, and support for 2.5-inch and/or 3.5-inch Serial ATA hard drives or Solid State Drives (SSDs). The actual specs are as follows:
SATDOCK4U3E
- Supports up to four 2.5-inch and/or 3.5-inch SATA HDDs or SSDs
- SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and eSATA connections to host with support for data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps and 3 Gbps, respectively
- Backward compatible with USB 2.0 host connections
- High speed eSATA with Port Multiplier host interface with supported transfer rates up to 3 Gbps
- Dual variable-speed cooling fans
- Independent power buttons and drive eject buttons for quick, easy hot-swapping
SATDOCK4U2E
- Enables fast, swappable access to four 2.5-inch/3.5-inch SATA drives, from multiple computers
- Supports up to four 2.5-inch and/or 3.5-inch SATA HDDs or SSDs
- Dual High Speed USB 2.0 host interfaces with support for transfer rates up to 480 Mbps
- Four high speed eSATA host interfaces with supported transfer rates up to 3 Gbps
- Dual variable-speed cooling fans
- Independent power buttons and drive eject buttons for quick, easy hot-swapping
"Adding to StarTech.com’s extensive line of Hard Drive Docking Stations, the SATDOCK4U3E SuperSpeed single connection dock and SATDOCK4U2E high speed single/multi-PC drive docking stations are the first in the market to support four SATA hard drives or solid state drives simultaneously, offering users a practical way to maximize their external storage capacity," the company said during CES 2011.
Consumers can purchase the SATDOCK4U3E ($189.99 USD) and the SATDOCK4U2E ($186.99 USD) straight from StarTech, or they can purchase the docks from other online retailers including CDW, Dell, Newegg.com, TigerDirect.com and others.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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joytech22 I could definitely use one of these, it would be great to have 4 drives in there at once and I would be able to back up all of my drives at once!Reply
I'd probably get 4x2TB since they're so cheap ($90) -
nforce4max This is good for those who are setting up multiple machines without having to power then all at once but instead clone one drive and mirror instead on the four drives in this docking station and great for professional use vs one drive at a time.Reply -
house70 I have some single ones and a double. They are definitely worth it, if only for the plug-and-play feeling.Reply -
Ragnar-Kon I personally would have no use for this at home, but these are EXTREMELY handy for me at work. Employees find clever ways to completely tank their work computers with malware/virus/adware/whatever and they turn to me to fix their problems. I take their drive, slap it into one of these, and grab the files they still need before I completely wipe the drive.Reply
With this I could do four at one time... now I just need my boss to approve the purchase so I can get one. -
scook9 In lieu of something like this (which is nice) I got a couple of the Antec Easy SATA bays. Pretty much turns a 5.25" bay into a sata backplane for a single drive while also providing an esata port.Reply -
eddieroolz Useful but $200 is more than four of the 2-dock types combined together. If you don't mind connecting a few USB cables you could have 8 slots for $200.Reply