For quite some time USB drive enclosures have been available, and come in most shapes and sizes imaginable but the none offer the ability to house two hard drives simultaneously nor offer the ability to hot swap each of the drives. This affords the user the opportunity to make quick copies from either of the drives in the enclosure or from the hard drive in the PC. This enclosure is all about multitasking, saving valuable time, and space.

Eagle Tech presents the ET-CSMDSU2-BK 3.5" SATA to USB dual drive enclosure. As the name implies this is a SATA to USB enclosure featuring two separate drive bays. The unit can be configured to handle the each drive individually or the drives can be set up as JOBD (just a bunch of disks). Lacking the eSATA port, can the ET-CSMDSU2-BK 3.5" drive enclosure stand up to the demands of daily use or will it just fall flat on it's face and just become more desk clutter? Read on to find out.

 

 

 

 

 

Let's take a look at the Features & Specifications

Features & Specifications

• Solid aluminum
• Independent access to two different drives (Dual mode)
• Combines two different drives (JBOD mode)
• Single housing design minimizes clutter
• Completely tool less and hot swappable
• Exchange drives with a push of a button
• OTB with backup software
• Plug-n-Play via USB 2.0
• Usage: Quick drive copies (A to B) or from PC to both drives.

• Type: External drive enclosure
• Form Factor: 3.5”
• Hard Drive Compatibility: 2 x 1.0TB(JBOD) 2x 2.0TB(DUAL)
• Internal Interface: SATA I/II
• External Interface: Hi-speed USB 2.0
• Data Transfer Rate: 480Mbps
• Power Source: Universal Switching Power Adapter (5V/12V 2.0A)
• Power Input: 100-240VAC, 50/60Hz
• Certification: FCC, CE Certified and RoHS compliant
• O.S. Required: Win98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista Mac OS 9.0 or higher Linux
• Dimension: 7.5 x 4.9 x 2.5 inch
• Weight: 2.9 lbs

Packaging

Packaging for the ET-CSMDSU2-BK is a fairly standard affair. The front and the back side of the box contains a wealth of information about the product. The front of the box gives a short introduction to the ET-CSMDSU2-BK and compatibility information. The back side of the box dives into more details about the product and features the specification and features on the ET-CSMDSU2-BK. The ends or sides of the box display a few of the features of the product. Overall the packaging is well thought out and should answer pretty much any questions that the consumer should have.

 

Unpacking the box unveils the goods. Eagle protects the ET-CSMDSU2-BK by isolating it inside a high density foam carrier. This should ensure that the enclosure arrives at home in the same condition as it left the factory. Peeling off the foam carrier, we really get down to brass tacks and can see exactly what is included in the package. Included are the user manual, CD, the enclosure, and the accessory kit. The accessory kit includes the power adapter and a USB cable. It seems that it is more common place than it once was to include all the cables to get the user up and running, but not to long ago when one was to purchase anything USB, a cable hunt was in order after the initial purchase.

A Closer Look

Thankfully the ET-CSMDSU2-BK is delightfully simple. There is really not much to it. To install the hard drives, press a button on the top of the unit that opens up one of the two doors for the drive bay and slide in the SATA drive. Close the door to lock the drive into position. This unit is hot swap capable so swapping drives on the fly is a breeze and if you are like me and just have a few miscellaneous drives running around this unit is nice as I can swap drives as I please. The ET-CSMDSU2-BK operates in two modes, dual, which each hard drive is accessible as their own entity or JOBD, where the capacity of the drives is combined into one large hard drive the modes of operation are selectable by a switch on the back of the unit. Also on the back of the unit is a backup button. Press it and it runs a predetermined back up routine. Rounding out the connections on the back is the power, USB and the power switch.

As I said there is not much to the ET-CSMDSU2-BK and any user should have it up and going with in about five minutes.

Testing & Conclusion

I tested the unit with both a 3.5" Western Digital WD2300AAKS hard drive. I used Sisoft Sandra as the benchmark software. The test was run a total of three times on the drive and the results were averaged.

Testing Equipment
Processor	AMD Phenom II x4 955
Motherboard	Asus M4A79T Deluxe
Ram	2 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3
Video Card	ATI Radeon 4890 HD
Hard Drive	Western Digital WD500 500 GB 7200 RPM
Power Supply	Corsair 750TX
Case	CoolerMaster Storm Scout

 

 

 

Conclusion

As you can see by the results the ET-CSMDSU2-BK performs on par with other USB drives, maybe just a slight bit slower. Performance difference between using a single drive and the JOBD option is negligible. So what sets the ET-CSMDSU2-BK apart from the rest of the crowd? Well for starters and the biggest feature: the dual drive bays. Having the ability to add more than one drive to an enclosure is a nice feature. During testing I used it a few times to transfer data to and from work, and just opening the door and sliding the drive in makes life a little bit easier. The all aluminum construction of the unit helps with heat dissipation as well as aesthetics. The fan on the back of the unit can get a little noisy, but it will help extend the life of the hard drives and I only noticed the fan noise when both hard drives were installed.  All in all I think that Eagle Tech has build an outstanding enclosure with the ET-CSMDSU2-BK and would have not doubt recommending it. I want to thank Eagle Tech for giving us the opportunity to review the ET-CSMDSU2-BK and it receives our Editor's Choice Award.