Mapower 3.5″ HD Enclosure

Excellent cooling performance – Joe

SUMMARY: Sturdy, attractive 3.5″ hard drive enclosure with excellent cooling performance.

The good guys at Mapower Electronics were nice enough to send their 3.5″ external hard drive enclosure model # Map-AE31-F to try out.

Key features include:

• 80 mm cooling fan for hard drive cooling
• Blue LED fan light
• USB 2.0 port (Firewire and Firewire/USB options)
• Aluminum case
• USB cable, driver disk for W98
• External universal switching power adapter
• Size: 114 x 168 x 52 mm; 4.5 x 6.6 x 2 inches

Removing two screws from the back plate opens up the enclosure:

The HD carrier shows the 80 mm cooling fan…

which directs cooling air onto the drive and then out the front screen:

The back of the carrier shows the USB port, power port and On/Off switch:

The front shows the screen for exhaust air:

The HD is mounted with four screws to the carrier’s side – you have to scrunch down the IDE cable pretty flat when mounting the drive:

Overall, a sturdy package for HD portability, somewhat bulkier than some others due to the 80 mm fan.
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Setting the enclosure is a snap – just screw in a formatted drive, insert the HD and mount onto the carrier, screw the back onto the enclosure, hook up the power supply and USB cable and you’re ready; if you’re using Windows 98SE, you’ll need to install the drivers from the driver CD before using.

For this test, I used a Seagate 120 GB 7200 rpm HD #ST3120026A to test it out. I benchmarked the enclosure using HDTach, version 3.0.1.0, to give some idea of performance. I benched hard drive performance cabled to a USB 2.0 port:

To test temperature performance, I taped a thermocouple to the drive’s spindle base and measured temps inside and outside the enclosure with the following results:

The 80mm fan does an excellent cooling job – temps inside the enclosure are lower than temps recorded with the drive in free air.

Mapower’s 3.5″ HD Enclosure #AE31-F is a very good choice for 3.5″ hard drive portability with excellent cooling performance.

Thanks again to Mapower Electronics for allowing us to try this out.

Email Joe