| SilverStone Treasure TS07 USB 3.0 Enclosure |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Storage | |
| Written by Marc Fruchtman | |
| Wednesday, 12 October 2011 | |
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Test OverviewFor this review we will be using the ADATA S511 120GB SSD and N004 Nobility 64GB SSD / flash drive. The ADATA S511 is reviewed here by Benchmark Reviews. We see that claimed speeds are 550MB/s read and 510MB/s write. Actual test scores were slightly better in the review. The ADATA N004 Nobility is somewhat unique in that it is a flash drive that has both SATA II, and USB 3.0 interfaces built in. According to the manufactures specification it is capable of 230MB/s Seq Read, and 130MB/s Seq Write on the SATA II interface. For USB 3.0, it claims 180MB/s Seq Read and 150 MB/s Seq Write. Important note: The SilverStone Treasure TS07 does not support a 2.5” SSD drive unless you purchase an aftermarket add-on. SilverStone markets this as the SDP09 available for around $16.99. USB 3.0 is a vast improvement over USB 2.0. Theoretically USB 3.0 is capable of 4.8 Gbits/s (600Megabytes/s) versus high-speed USB 2.0 which is limited to 480Mbits/s (60 Megabytes/s). Protocol overhead will limit the actual bandwidth significantly. For portability, the USB port currently reigns supreme because it is ubiquitous. While e-SATA could also be a contender, many computers cases do not yet include this port. How well does the TS07 USB 3.0 enclosure score? Let's look at the tests. Testing MethodologyPrior to each benchmark the ADATA S511 is zero filled, and the benchmark is run. If the software requires an active partition then this will be performed. A minimal Windows 7 environment is run to ensure repeatability. At least 3 runs are performed for each test. The ADATA N004 Nobility is a working drive with 60% data on it. This SSD is interesting because it ships with both SATA II and USB 3.0 on it. Thus the obvious question – which is faster, the built in USB 3.0 or using SATA II in the SilverStone Treasure TS07.
*Special note: The onboard SATA III of the EVGA SR-2 is powered by the Marvel 9128 Chipset. For this reason, a Highpoint RocketRAID 2720SGL was used to test baseline speeds of the ADATA S511.
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Comments
Modern mechanical drives will soon reach over 200MB/s STR so this enclosure will be a bottleneck for new huge drives.
THanks for the review!
PS: Does it support drives larger than 2TB drives? I see a lot of enclosures on newegg that say they only support up to a 2TB drive, however I thought the only hardware limitation is LBA, and 48-bit LBA has been around for like 10 years now so all enclosures should support 48-bit LBA.
Maybe it's because of the microprocessor's internal firmware that some enclosures have this limitation.
Personally I prefer a hard drive dock/caddy so you can plug hard drives in and swap them out for other hard drives. Cost about the same too.
While a dock is very useful, it does not protect the drive.
Docks are great for SSDs and drives that are already protected.
Most 3.5" drives have exposed electronics, making it pretty useless for a dock.
I have found that my hard drives require basically zero added protection. I have bought a couple of $2 cases for them to use while they're not plugged in (thus offering just as much protection as an enclosure). This is vastly superior to having a single drive enclosure for every hard drive. Add to this that many cases now come with hot swap bays, and often I can just bring a hard drive to a client or friend and it will just plug into their system. It's also less expensive to just purchase another hard drive over another complete enclosure, and I don't have the added mess of multiple power supplies and multiple USB cables. It's way easier to pull a hard drive and plug another in compared to having to pull out another enclosure and power brick and plug them in.
It's FAR from useless for 3.5" drives.
I am not sure I understand your $2 cover idea...
Your removing the cover when you plug them in?
I don't think that is a very good idea for "Most Users".
Its fair to say, that it is useful to have a docking station for hard drives that are protected. If you can get $2 covers for your hard drives that also work during docking, then a docking station does make good sense. Otherwise, its just a failure waiting to happen for the "average user". Perhaps you are willing to take that risk.
The ease of use of a docking station with "protected" drives is apparent.
Your situation applies to a very small segment of people who happen to have hot swap bays. For the general population who don't even open their cases, a USB enclosure makes a lot of sense.
I would even say HD "Enclosure" with a docking station makes sense.
But a bare drive, that you need to expose and dock... really ?