Mapower Warps Pocket 2.5″ External Enclosure

Sturdy hard drive enclosure – Joe

SUMMARY: Sturdy, attractive 2.5″ hard drive enclosure.

The good guys at Mapower Electronics were nice enough to send their 2.5″ external hard drive enclosure model # Map-KC21C1 to try out.

Key features include:

• IEEE1394 FireWire & USB 2.0 high speed ports
• Blue LED indicating power on and hard drive activity
• Aluminum Construction
• Optional 5v power supply
• Carrying case
• Screwdriver
• Driver disk for W98

The carrying case has openings at both ends so that you can use the enclosure without removing it from the case.

Using it this way cuts down on the cooling, but for quick file transfers, it should not be an issue. ALos note that the clip is magnetic – I had no problem with it, but I don’t like anything even slightly magnetic around hard drives.

The front grill allows air to circulate inside the enclosure:

There is no fan, so cooling is through both the grill and the finned aluminum case. The top and bootom brushed aluminum covers are 1mm thick. With all this metal, RF should not be a problem.

The back

has ports the USB and Firewire ports and a connector for an optional 5v power supply, if needed. I used this with USB and had no power problems.
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Mounting a hard drive requires removal of the top cover…

…and reveals the PCB and drive carrier. A nice touch: the PCB is covered by a plastic protective cover so that there is no possibility of the drive shorting out the PCB. I found it easiest to take all the parts out of the aluminum case:

This includes an aluminum carrier, the PCB and front grill; at this point you have five major pieces:

• Base
• Top aluminum plate
• Front grill
• PCB
• Aluminum drive carrier

The rear of the PCB holds the ports and optional power connector:

The bottom of the PCB contains all the electronic components:

The top is clean except for the signal traces:

The hard drive is plugged into the IDE connector and then the aluminum carrier is screwed on:

The slip the whole assembly into the case and screw on the top – done!

I used the Mapower Warps Enclosure and found it a breeze – just plugged it into a USB port and it was off and running. Transfer rates will depend on the drive’s speed and whether a USB or Firewire port is used, but in my old laptop which does not have USB 2 ports, I had absolutely no performance issues.

This is a pretty sturdy product – in normal use, this enclosure should give enough protection to a 2.5″ drive so that throwing the enclosure into a briefcase or backpack should not be a problem. Overall, the build quality is very good and the design is attractive – a very nice package!

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

Email Joe