"Vantec NexStar SX 2.5" HD Enclosure"
Joe Citarella - 9/21/07
page 2
SUMMARY: Attractive, durable package for mobile storage.
The good guys at Vantec also sent over a sample of their latest 2.5" external hard drive enclosure to try out, the Vantec NexStar SX for 2.5" SATA drives. This is a very sleek, aluminum alloy unit that certainly can take some hard knocks under travel.
Key Features
- SATA to USB 2.0 (NOTE: Also available as an IDE to USB 2.0)
- Holds 2.5" drives 9.5 mm or smaller
- Aluminum Alloy Construction
- Install with or w/o screws
- Size: 130mm x 75mm x 15mm; Weight: 200 grams with typical hard drive
- Supports Window 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / Vista, Mac OS 8.6 & Above
- Includes USB Cable, Carry Case, mounting screws, screwdriver and Driver Disk (W98 only)
Note: For new hard drives, you will need to initialize and partition your hard
drive before it will appear in Windows Explorer or on your Mac desktop.
The key features are the same as for the IDE version reviewed earler with the exception of the har drive connector:
What I was curious about was the difference between the IDE and SATA drives.
Performance Test
For this test I used a Toshiba MK6034GSX, a 60 GB SATA drive, 5400 rpm with an 8MB buffer; for the IDE test, I used a Fujitsu Mobile MHR2020AT hard drive, 20 GB, Ultra ATA100, 4200 rpm, 2 MB buffer, ATA-100 2.5" drive.
Compared to the IDE drive I used, this SATA drive was 5.6 MB faster - 26.2 vs 31.8 MB/s - part of this is attributable to the faster disk speed, so this is not a direct comparison (I only have so many drives to test!); however, no doubt that faster drives will speed up data transfers.
Conclusions
Vantec's NexStar SX 2.5" HD Enclosure is an attractive, durable package for mobile storage - overall a very nice package with a street price of under $20.
Many thanks to Vantec for sending this our way - a nice product!
Email Joe
