Last week I took a look at the Kingwin EZ-Dock2, and I found it to be a decent product overall but it had one fault where it didn't support to the hard drives very well, other than that it's a good little product. Today for review I've got another HDD dock, the BlacX from Thermaltake. The BlacX supports both 2.5” and 3.5” SATA drives and features both USB and eSATA interfaces, in my time with I found it to be a great choice if you're in the market for an HDD dock. So read on to learn more...

Product Name: Thermaltake BlacX eSATA and USB HDD Dock ST0005U

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: Thermaltake

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

Thermaltake BlacX eSATA and USB HDD Dock ST0005U

USD : $64.99

P/N: ST0005U

Features:

-Patented Design

-RoHS Compliance

-Supports All 2.5” & 3.5” SATA HDDs up to 2 TB !

-Hot-Swap Capability for Rapid Multi HDDs Access & Exchange

-Supports eSATA Transfer Speed up to 3Gbps

-Supports USB 2.0 Transfer Speed up to 480Mbps

-Windows & Mac OS Compatible

-Compact Docking Station Design maximizes Heat Dissipation & Exhaust

-Windows Vista Ready !

Specs:

Enclosure Interface:

--eSATA

--USB 2.0

Transfer Rate:

--eSATA: up to 3Gbps

--USB 2.0: Up to 480Mbps

HDD Compatible: SATA I / SATA II

HDD Capacity: All 2.5” or 3.5” SATA HDD up to 2TB

OS Compatible: Windows Vista / XP / 2003 / 2000 / NT / 98 / 95 Mac 10.3 and later

Material: ABS Plastic

Power :

--Input: 100-240V / 50-60Hz / 1A

--Output: 12V / 2A

Dimension:

--130 (L) x 90 (W) x 65 (H) mm

--5.12 (L) x 3.55 (W) x 2.56 (H) in

Accessory:

-eSATA Cable

-USB 2.0 Cable

-Power Adapter

Weight: 2 lbs

Special Features

-Hot-Swap Capability for Rapid Multi HDDs Access & Exchange

-Compact Docking Station Design maximizes Heat Dissipation & Exhaust

-Supports eSATA Transfer Speed up to 3Gbps

A Better Look at Things:

The BlacX comes in a black colored box with pictures and specs listed on it. Once open we find the BlacX itself, along with eSATA cable, USB cable, power supply and user manual.

The BlacX looks like a little black box, on the front is the BlacX logo and the Thermaltake logo and a button that is used to help eject the drives.

On the back we find the power button, power connection, USB interface and eSATA interface.

The hard drive gets inserted through the top, looking at it we see space for a 2.5” drive, but it's really a spring loaded door that pushes down to be able to insert a 3.5” drive. When open we can see the standard SATA connection. Since the door is there, the BlacX supports both 2.5” and 3.5” drive very well, support as in it holds them in place so they don't move.

Installation, Testing and Comparison:

You can any 3.5” SATA drive with the BlacX, along with 2.5” SSD or conventional HDDs. On the right side of the top is an LED indicator that glows blue to indicate power, and half of it will blink red to indicate activity.

Since I just reviewed the Kingwin EZ-Dock2, I figured that might make for a good comparison.

I used the same 2.5” SATA drive for testing, the comparison is to a direct SATA connection in my computer and using the USB interface on both the BlacX and the EZ-Dock2. I used SiSoft Sandra 2009 SP3 Removable Storage Benchmark for the testing.

As we see the BlacX isn't quite as fast as the EZ-Dock2, but the BlacX makes up in build quality and the ability to hold the drives much better.

Here's the 256MB files test:

As you can see they're the same.

And no I didn't test the eSATA speeds as I didn't have anything to compare it to, but it works, and of course it's fast.

Overall the BlacX is nice product, that is easy to use and works well, I especially like how it holds the drives in place.

Summary and Comments:

I really like the Thermaltake BlacX, I think it'll be remaining near my desk and it should get quite a bit of use.

The BlacX might not be as fast as the Kingwin EZ-Dock2, but overall I think it's a much better product as the design helps to support the drives much better, the EZ-Dock2 didn't seem to hold the drives in place very well.

DragonSteelMods gives the Thermaltake BlacX a 4.5 out of 5 score.

Pros:

+Nicely made

+Easy to use

+Dual interface

+Supports drives well

Cons:

-Not as fast as I expected

I would like to thank Thermaltake for the chance to review the BlacX and for their continued support of DSM.

review# 584

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