Initial Impressions: ProBox 4X 4-Bay External HDD Enclosure

[BobH]

FWIW:
I have 7 HDDs on my system. Until today, 5 of them were installed in individual external enclosures. None of the external enclosures had fans to cool the drives. Heat being the biggest killer of all things electronic, I was not satisfied with the arrangement; so I shopped for a multi-drive external enclosure that would provide air movement.

First, in surveying multi-drive enclosures, I found a lot of high-end and expensive cabinets but only one relatively inexpensive cabinet, the Mediasonic Probox 4X 4-bay Enclosure. Lacking the budget for a more expensive unit, I bought this enclosure through Amazon.

A WORD OF CAUTION: This box comes in 2 flavors. One (HF2-SU2S2) does eSATA and USB 2.0 and the other (HF2-SU2S2) does eSATA and USB 3.0.

The device comes with everything needed for installation, including the enclosure and internal racks, power cable with transformer, both and eSATA and a USB 3.0 data cable, straps to attach to each drive for use in removing them as needed, screws and screwdriver for installing the straps, and very clear and precise instructions for unpacking, set up and placing the device in service. In some places the English is slightly - but only very slightly - stilted. I repeat: The instruction sheet is excellent.

It arrived yesterday afternoon. I removed 4 of my drives from their enclosures and put them in the ProBox. After installing the power cable and a USB 3.0 cable (foregoing the eSATA connection), I attached the USB to an open 3.0 port and powered up the box. Windows recognized the new device and installed the appropriate driver. All 4 of the drives appear with the same device letters that were assigned before the switchover. While I have not given the drives much concentrated activity, speeds are at least as good as they were before. (2 of my drives are USB 3.0 and the other is 2.0) It is far too early to know how this will perform in the long term, but it solved the problem of having no air flow over the drives and reduced the number of power and USB cables by 3 each.

If any problems should arise that I think worthy of report, I shall do so; but I believe that this little black box is precisely what I wanted. If my disk farm should grow, I might buy another.

[stuck]

Meanwhile on amazon.co.uk the same item retails at about two and half times the price.

Ken

[BobH]

Meanwhile on amazon.co.uk the same item retails at about two and half times the price.

Ken

OUCH!!

[viking33]

BobH wrote:
One (HF2-SU2S2) does eSATA and USB 2.0 and the other (HF2-SU2S2) does eSATA and USB 3.0.
------------------------------------------
They both have the same model number? That seems strange?
What am I missing here?

[BobH]

BobH wrote:
One (HF2-SU2S2) does eSATA and USB 2.0 and the other (HF2-SU23S2) does eSATA and USB 3.0.
------------------------------------------
They both have the same model number? That seems strange?
What am I missing here?

Phat Phingers Phailed.

[viking33]

BobH wrote:
One (HF2-SU2S2) does eSATA and USB 2.0 and the other (HF2-SU23S2) does eSATA and USB 3.0.
------------------------------------------
They both have the same model number? That seems strange?
What am I missing here?

Phat Phingers Phailed.

A common affliction!