Galaxy Metal Gear Box 3500SASP - SATA/USB 2.0 Enclosure on a Budget
by Gary Key on July 15, 2007 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Application Tests
Our application benchmarks are designed to show application performance results with times being reported in seconds, with lower scores being better.
AnyDVD 6.1
Our first test has us utilizing the "ripping" function of AnyDVD to copy the Office Space DVD file from our source drive to our test drive. Our DVD features 29 files totaling 7.55GB of data and is an excellent test for determining the write speed of a drive.
We see the Galaxy configuration trailing the internal setup by one second but it is two seconds ahead of the ICY DOCK unit. In actuality, these differences are minimal. The USB 2.0 connection is 43 seconds behind the internal connection which equates to it being about 20% slower. This is strictly due to the reduced write/read speeds of the USB 2.0 connection.
Game Load Test
Our Sims 2: Open for Business test measures the time it takes to load the initial portion of the game. Our application timer starts when the game icon is initiated until the neighborhood menu appears.
Our Galaxy SATA connection ties the internal setup and the USB 2.0 configuration finishes about 13% off the pace as expected.
Game Level Load
This test centers on the actual loading of a playable level within our game selections. The Battlefield 2 test measures the time it takes to load the Daqing Oilfields level. Our application timer begins when the start single player icon is initiated and ends when the join game icon is visible.
The internal SATA, Galaxy SATA, and ICY DOCK eSATA setups are equal in this test with the USB 2.0 connections being around 15% slower.
File Copy Performance
Our file copy test measures the time it takes to transfer our test folder that contains 29 files, 1 folder, and has 7.55GB of data from our source drive to the target test drive. This benchmark is disk write intensive and requires a fast storage system. The second test does copies the same folder on the test drive to another folder on the same drive.
Our last benchmark favors pure write speeds. The Galaxy Metal Gear Box equals the score of the motherboard SATA as expected and the eSATA setup trails by two seconds. The Galaxy USB 2.0 connection finishes 150 seconds behind due to limited write speeds. In actual operating conditions, our USB 2.0 connection averaged around 26.1 MB/s in write speeds in this test compared to 34.1 MB/s in our synthetic HD Tach benchmark.
Our application benchmarks are designed to show application performance results with times being reported in seconds, with lower scores being better.
AnyDVD 6.1
Our first test has us utilizing the "ripping" function of AnyDVD to copy the Office Space DVD file from our source drive to our test drive. Our DVD features 29 files totaling 7.55GB of data and is an excellent test for determining the write speed of a drive.
We see the Galaxy configuration trailing the internal setup by one second but it is two seconds ahead of the ICY DOCK unit. In actuality, these differences are minimal. The USB 2.0 connection is 43 seconds behind the internal connection which equates to it being about 20% slower. This is strictly due to the reduced write/read speeds of the USB 2.0 connection.
Game Load Test
Our Sims 2: Open for Business test measures the time it takes to load the initial portion of the game. Our application timer starts when the game icon is initiated until the neighborhood menu appears.
Our Galaxy SATA connection ties the internal setup and the USB 2.0 configuration finishes about 13% off the pace as expected.
Game Level Load
This test centers on the actual loading of a playable level within our game selections. The Battlefield 2 test measures the time it takes to load the Daqing Oilfields level. Our application timer begins when the start single player icon is initiated and ends when the join game icon is visible.
The internal SATA, Galaxy SATA, and ICY DOCK eSATA setups are equal in this test with the USB 2.0 connections being around 15% slower.
File Copy Performance
Our file copy test measures the time it takes to transfer our test folder that contains 29 files, 1 folder, and has 7.55GB of data from our source drive to the target test drive. This benchmark is disk write intensive and requires a fast storage system. The second test does copies the same folder on the test drive to another folder on the same drive.
Our last benchmark favors pure write speeds. The Galaxy Metal Gear Box equals the score of the motherboard SATA as expected and the eSATA setup trails by two seconds. The Galaxy USB 2.0 connection finishes 150 seconds behind due to limited write speeds. In actual operating conditions, our USB 2.0 connection averaged around 26.1 MB/s in write speeds in this test compared to 34.1 MB/s in our synthetic HD Tach benchmark.
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takumsawsherman - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link
is how long this model lasts. I've had a couple of very similar looking Masscools die on me. There is a real lack of a reliable, metal enclosure, with a built in power supply, quiet fan, and a chipset that just works.Though initially disappointed with my PPA/Bytecc with the dreaded Prolific 3507 chipset, after a couple of firmware updates, it seems to be rock solid. ByteCC now sells a mostly metal 5 1/4 inch enclosure with Firewire daisy chain, USB2, and a built in power supply and fan. Still uses that Prolific chipset, but so far I have not had any issues.
The biggest disappointment for me is how many manufacturers seem to think that we want to carry AC-DC bricks around with us. Using an standard IEC cable means one less thing to remember.
AmberClad - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link
I've had an IDE version of this exact same model for the past three years and it's still working fine. The one I had was manufacturered by PPA though, not Masscool or GMG.This particular design (with the anodized aluminum body and Metal Gear Solid knock-off artwork) seems to have been around for quite a few years and it's built by various different companies (makes me wonder who was behind the original design). The SATA interface seems to be new though.
RamarC - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link
My metal gear box with ide drive and fw/usb ports has been running for over 2.5 years now. I've had no problems/issues since installing it.Slash3 - Sunday, July 15, 2007 - link
Has anyone from Konami seen these things yet? It's bad enough that they put "Metal Gear Box" on the side, in the Metal Gear Solid font, but then they go one further and add the Substance subscript. How Do they get away with it...Cheese Factor +10
AmberClad - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link
I'm not sure which is more blatant -- this, or SuperTalent's Walmart-inspired heatspreader artwork :-D.Souka - Monday, July 16, 2007 - link
They could've put another line under the logo....something like, "It's SOLID":)
mojotronic - Monday, September 7, 2009 - link
A solid POS.I bought one (a "Substance 2" model -- and I suspect the "substance" referred to is brown and smelly) with a 320 GB Seagate drive and the defective circuitry of the enclosure fried the HD. It worked for about a week when I got it, then one day the blue led light on the bottom flickered erratically and the HD icon disappeared from my desktop. I removed the drive and tested it in my tower and it was dead. As in killed.
I subsequently tried an old but working 20GB drive in the Metal Gear Box just to confirm that it was the enclosure at fault. The drive mounted. My computer froze. The drive icon disappeared. Upon restarting the drive icon was gone. The drive was dead.
I will now take a hammer to the nice-looking but ravenous enclosure. I wouldn't trust a replacement, and will never buy another product from Galaxy again.