Portable Performance: Four USB 3.0 Enclosures For Your 2.5” Drive
USB 3.0 is set to become the de facto standard for performance-oriented portable devices. We take a look at four enclosures that bring modern performance to pocket-sized storage. If you have an old laptop drive laying around, throw it in one of these.
Test Settings
Test-System Configuration | |
---|---|
CPU | Intel Core i7-920 (2.66 GHz, 8MB Shared L3 Cache) |
CPU Cooler | Rosewill FORT120 |
Motherboard | Gigabyte X58A-UD7, BIOS F6 (03-11-2010) |
RAM | Kingston KHX16000D3ULT1K3/6GX (6GB) DDR3-2000 at DDR3-1600 CAS 7-7-7-20 |
Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB 725 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4000 |
OS Hard Drive | Western Digital Velociraptor WD3000HLFS, 300GB 10,000 RPM, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB cache |
Test Drive | Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SATA 6 Gb/s |
USB 3.0 Host | Integrated NEC D720200F1, PCIe 2.0 (x1) |
Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
Power | Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850W Modular ATX12V v2.2, EPS12V, 80 PLUS Gold |
Software | |
OS | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
Graphics | AMD Catalyst 10.3 |
Chipset | Intel INF 9.1.1.1020 |
Benchmarks | |
h2benchw 3.13 | Sequential and Sustained Reads and Writes (KB/s) Interface Bandwidth (MB/s) and Access Times (ms) |
We wanted the most direct PCIe 2.0 connection to the chipset possible, and got it using an X58 motherboard from Gigabyte. The X58A-UD7 graced our recent high-end System Builder Marathon PC and a full review of the board is forthcoming.
Proven at speeds beyond 300 MB/s, Crucial’s SATA 6 Gb/s RealSSD C300 is the fastest drive we could get our hands on for today’s review.
Stay on the Cutting Edge
Join the experts who read Tom's Hardware for the inside track on enthusiast PC tech news — and have for over 25 years. We'll send breaking news and in-depth reviews of CPUs, GPUs, AI, maker hardware and more straight to your inbox.
Next-gen Intel Core Ultra H Meteor Lake CPUs power upcoming Dell Alienware laptops, to be announced at CES per leak
Leaker says Nvidia's RTX 4090D to use hamstrung GPU variant to comply with US export regulations, new AD102-250 die
2TB WD Black SN770M (2230) SSD Review: The Portable Gaming System SSD Champion
-
Gin Fushicho You guys are really benching cases? I figured they'd all be close to the same anyway.Reply -
Crashman SubSonix1I know this isn't relevant, but what is in the pcie1 slot?Reply
Nothing, the slot is covered by an extended chipset heat sink. -
Crashman TomD_1So basically, they all have identical hardware, and IMO all look uglyReply
You forgot to mention they all fit in a shirt pocket. That is the most important part. -
warmon6 thejerkScraping the bottom of the barrel for non-iPad news?Reply
Um.... few things,
1. They haven't been just covering the ipad. They been covering alot of other things.
2. This isn't news. This is a review. Learn the difference. -
kelfen if ya think about it this is more cost effective per GB to buy one of these and a hard drive then buying a usb driveReply -
rooket What's the performance like if you use it with a hard drive? Just same as usb 2.0 I'd imagine? Odd that they're only hitting 35MB/sec with USB 2.0. It should go 60MB/sec. Why is this only half the speed?Reply