ICY DOCK MB664US-1S: eSATA with a twist
by Dave Robinet on October 9, 2007 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Introduction
ICY DOCK's line of products has continued to expand over the years. While they have always kept pace with market trends and interface configurations, their current generation of external enclosures has been of particular interest to the AnandTech labs. The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S is the latest such product to grace our labs, and we'll put it through the paces in this review.
As has been discussed in previous articles, there are three current mainstream interfaces used for high-speed data transfer: FireWire, USB, and eSATA.
USB 2.0 undoubtedly has achieved the greatest level of proliferation for external interfaces, despite lacking the bandwidth for serious data transfer. FireWire has been around the longest, though its market penetration has been stunted due to early patent and royalty disputes. The relative newcomer, eSATA, is the focus of most recent high-performance external hard drive enclosures. ICY DOCK has remained agnostic, supporting all three interfaces on various configurations of their enclosures (including different versions of the MB664).
The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S, which offers both USB 2.0 and eSATA ports, is the subject of this review.
ICY DOCK's line of products has continued to expand over the years. While they have always kept pace with market trends and interface configurations, their current generation of external enclosures has been of particular interest to the AnandTech labs. The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S is the latest such product to grace our labs, and we'll put it through the paces in this review.
As has been discussed in previous articles, there are three current mainstream interfaces used for high-speed data transfer: FireWire, USB, and eSATA.
| eSATA, Firewire and USB Comparison | |||
| eSATA | FireWire 800 (1394b) | USB 2.0 | |
| Peak Transfer Rate (MB/sec) | 300 | 100 | 60 |
| Cable Length (M) | 2 | 4.5 | 5 |
| Daisy Chain Capable | No | Yes | Yes |
USB 2.0 undoubtedly has achieved the greatest level of proliferation for external interfaces, despite lacking the bandwidth for serious data transfer. FireWire has been around the longest, though its market penetration has been stunted due to early patent and royalty disputes. The relative newcomer, eSATA, is the focus of most recent high-performance external hard drive enclosures. ICY DOCK has remained agnostic, supporting all three interfaces on various configurations of their enclosures (including different versions of the MB664).
The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S, which offers both USB 2.0 and eSATA ports, is the subject of this review.
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Homerboy - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
ntSeanFL - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
one complaint I have about the 559 is that the drive is always on...even if my machine is off. It would be much nicer if the drive could spin down after a pre-set adjustable time for people like me that just use it to back up each day/week, etc. Other external drives can do that.Anyone know if this new enclosure does it any differently?
floflooo - Thursday, October 11, 2007 - link
Please give me some references... I've been looking for external HDD cases that have power management.icthy - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
I'm not an expert as you can see....I'm looking for a way to use my 3 ATA 133 drives; can I get an enclosure such as the Icy Dock that will deal with these?retrospooty - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
There are enclosures out there that use the ATA 133 interface, but not eSATA onces. You will be able to find USB 2.0 and Firewire enclosures, just search for them.http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL...">http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ternal+d...
icthy - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
Thanks. Guess I should have figured that out myself.DigitalFreak - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
Um, what's the twist?StraightPipe - Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - link
Well obviously, $70 is bad. Many decent enclosures start around $15-20.The PC power option is good. I keep an e-sata drive on my HTPC (it feels fast like it's in the box instead of on a wire). It would be great if the enclosure was powered by the PC (like this icydock). That way I could keep the USB and wall plug in a bag together for when I take the drive to a friend's PC. I can leave my PC connections on top of the PC case, and take the drive and it's cable bag to go.
pnyffeler - Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - link
How would a Raptor perform in this case?Would it be too hot, given the lack of active cooling?
StraightPipe - Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - link
Raptors peform about the same as that samsung they tested in the article.As drive densities have increased the transfer rates have too.
My raptor is no hotter than my 500GB WD RE2 drives in RAID0. I would assume temp is not a problem in normal (70-80F ambient) conditions.
The fact is for the price of a 150GB raptor you can get a 500-750GB drive that performs almost as well. Now that there are better performing drives available, those raptors just are not worth the cost anymore.