Hello Folks! I’m back today with a double review for you, it’s a comparison between a brand name USB 3.0 Enclosure and one that’s a no-name enclosure, both of which were provided by Brando for our review today. The enclosures themselves though are very different from each other, one is a simple metal casing, while the other is stylish looking and metal as well but it has a built-in fan to keep the hard drive inside cool. So read on…
Specifications:
Hornettek Goliath USB 3.0 3.5″ SATA HDD Enclosure
Price: US$69.00
Features:
-Universal fitting for 3.5″ SATA HDD
-Internal metal shielding plus one 80mm Cooling fans to provide
-Excellent heat dissipation
-Stylish Design
-BLUE LED indicator for Power & HDD activity
-USB 3.0 connection provides excellent transfer speed
-Full Aluminum metal
-Power On/Off for internal cooling fan
-Support Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2000
-Dimension: 140 x 52 x 180mm (approx.)
-Weight: 580g
USB 3.0 3.5″ SATA HDD Enclosure
Price: US$65.00
Features:
-Fit any 3.5″ SATA Hard Disk Drives
-Compliant with USB 3.0 Super-Speed (5Gbps), USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (480Mbps), USB 1.1 Low-Speed (1.5Mbps)
-On/Off Switch
-Plug and play
-Easy to assemble
-Aluminum material with special surface process, provide better heat dissipation and protection work well with either laptop or desktop
-Support Window 7 / Vista / XP
-Dimension: 210 x 30 x 122mm (approx.)
-Weight: 484g
Unboxing:
We’ll take a look at both enclosures separately, the first was provided by Brando yes but it’s Hornettek brand enclosure. I’ve got some experience with Hornettek products, and from my what I can remember they’re not too bad.
Inside the box you’ll find USB 3.0 cable, power adapter with US adapter and user manual. The enclosure itself is black metal and seems well made, there is an 80mm cooling fan on the side of it.
On the back of the enclosure you’ll find connection for USB and power, along with two switched, one for power and one for the fan. Yes you can turn the fan off if you want to, it’s nice to have options.
Overall the Hornettek is nicely made, but it’s rather large, I guess that’s where the name Goliath came from…
The next one is rather plain, I guess you could call it ‘generic’ for lack of a better name..
Inside the box we find the enclosure, screwdriver, screws, power supply, and stand. It’s interesting to note that it comes with both two prong and three prong power cables, but there’s not USB 3.0 cable in it. I’m sure it was just a packing mistake, not a big deal, I’ve got a few floating around..
The enclosure itself is black metal with some basic writing on the front identifying it and pointing you towards the power and USB connections.
On the back you’ll find USB 3.0 and power connection along with a power switch.
Installation, Performance, Comparison
For testing I grabbed a 750gb Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive.
The Goliath cover comes off to reveal a metal HDD cage where you can install the hard drive:
Yuu have no need for screws with the Goliath, just pop the drive in and move the front part down onto the drive then put the cover back on.
The front of the Goliath lights up bluish purple when powered on:
The generic enclosure is different though, the entire back comes off and attached to it is the HDD tray. There’s a cable coming from the front LED to the drive tray, if you’re careful you won’t have to unplug it to install the hard drive.
You’ll need to use screws to secure the drive to the tray, then two more screws to fasten the back in place.
The USB logo on the front lights up when powered on:
For testing I used both ATTO Disk Benchmark and HD Tune.
First off is ATTO:
The differences between them are miniscule really, they’re pretty much the same.
Here’s HD Tune:
Again there’s really no difference. They do use the same NEC chipset though, so it’s really no surprise the performance results I got here.
Looking at the actual enclosures though the Goliath is nicely designed, and you can turn the fan off if you wish, but you really can’t hear it with it on so it’s doesn’t matter much truly. The Goliath is a bit big, or thicker making it bulky and heavy.
The generic one is the one that I think I’d want to use more often, it’s not much bigger than the hard drive itself making it nice and portable.
Both enclosures seems to handle temperatures well, I saw not much of a difference with the Goliath and the fan compared to the generic enclosure with no fan at all. It was about 2C higher with the generic enclosure, which isn’t that much at all.
Conclusion:
At this point in time we’ve basically got one choice for a USB 3.0 chipset so that means performance is going to be pretty much the same .
So if you’re looking for an enclosure you’ll need to take other factors into account like aesthetics and portability.
The Goliath is nice looking yes, but it’s just a bit to big and bulky for my tastes.
The Generic enclosure is one that is portable and thin and seems well made. It’s the one that I would choose.
Pros: Goliath
+Includes cooling fan
+Simple installation
+Fan on/off switch
+Decent speeds
Cons: Goliath
-Large and rather bulky
Ratings
Overall: 4 out of 5
Performance: 5 out of 5
Aesthetic: 4 out of 5
Build Quality: 5 out of 5
Pros:Generic
+Well made
+Thin and portable
+Decent performance
Cons: Generic
-None really
Ratings
Overall: 5 out of 5
Performance: 5 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality: 5 out of 5
Disclosure: http://www.bonafidereviews.com/disclosure-policy/
