Something For Nearly Everyone
All four of today’s drive enclosures passed our quality inspection, all performed identically, and all included a high-quality USB 3.0 cable. So which one would we chose?
Aesthetics is the biggest differentiating factor between these devices and our opinion on aesthetics might differ from yours. There are a few smaller differences, such as the auxiliary power cable not included with the Eagle Tech Consus ET-CS2FSU3-BK, but we don’t plan on using any of these boxes to connect a high-power drive (such as Seagate’s 7,200 RPM parts) to a low-power USB 2.0 port. SIIG’s JU-SA0312-S1 was the only model with screw-free drive installation—if that’s important to you—while Kingwin’s ATK-25U3-BK comes with an activation button—if you can figure out what to do with it. If we’re going to get that fussy, we’d might as well move back to the discussion of aesthetics and mention that the Eagle Tech model is supplied with two different designer lids to suit the changing tastes of some users.
We did criticize the 195 MB/s limit of the ASM1051 bridge used by all four devices, but we understand that most users will not spend hundreds of dollars on the fastest-possible SSD drive simply to have a slightly faster portable device. Instead, most buyers will either purchase a new high-capacity notebook drive or reuse one from a previous system. All four of these enclosures exceed the performance limits of any 2.5” SATA mechanical drive and thus any product the buyer selects from today’s test should become the perfect unit for his or her personal needs. Pick your own favorite and you’ll come out the winner.
