Vantec Nexstar 3.5" external HDD enclosure: mobility in style.

[alexio]

Some real world test results !!!


Read, write and copy tests performed with a 6769MB folder using the Nexstar HDD enclosure

Note: Disabled write caching is the standard option for removable USB storage. If write caching is enabled you need to "safely remove the device" via a wizzard in Windows to not risk loosing your data. For eSATA write caching is enabled by default as the OS sees it as an internal drive. To see the impact of disabling wc I ran the same tests without it. As you can in the graphs the results are clearly bugged. I did a brief test on the Western Digital 160GB main system drive and the Samsung drive in SATA mode to find out what was going on here. The results I obtained were similar so I conclude that the Intel ICH9 SATA controller has some sort of bug when write caching is disabled (at least on my system). Please also note that with the read and write tests using (e)SATA the main drive and Samsung Spinpoint are very likely limiting each other and therefore the read and write numbers are so similar.

Synthetic benchmarking using HD Tune 3.0 Pro


USB without wc.


USB with wc.


eSATA without wc.


eSATA with wc.


SATA with wc.


Western Digital My Book USB, without wc.

Analysis of the obtained test data

The Nexstar 3 is performing like it should, it is a little bit faster than the older WD external drive, but the difference is so small this could be due to the fact that it has a different drive build into it. The small dips in the graph showing USB performance are nothing to worry about, they last only a few milliseconds in which the disk is caching. When running the test for the second time these dips are gone, so I am possitive they are from the disk caching.

The eSATA functionality is a must-have in my opinion as it greatly outperforms the slower USB 2.0 interface. eSATA is performaning quite well in this test and apart from burst speed it can keep-up with the normal SATA interface.

I do recommend to enable write caching when using eSATA if you are facing the same terrible read and copy speeds like I did. I suspect that with a different SATA storage controller the impact from disabling wc may be greatly reduced.

The enclusure keeps the Samsung drive below 40Cº during heavy file copying. Just the naked Samsung drive stays about 5 degrees cooler. The ambient temperature during testing was about 20Cº. A 20 degree DeltaT is a little on the high side, but it won't cause any problems unless you live in the middle of the Sahara and have no AC.

Conclusion

The Nexstar 3 3.5" external disk drive enclosure is a very nice product to have. The build quality is excellent and it performs like it should.

The pros:
+ Beautiful and stylish design
+ Build like a tank
+ Solid performer
+ eSATA is a must
+ Power adapter and power plug build in one piece, so less annoying cables
+ Included back-up software that opens at the press of a button

Neutral:
* Not the cheapest solutions, but worth the money in my opinion.
* Dust and fingerprints are quite visable on this enclosure.
* If you live in a very very hot enviroment you may be better off with an actively cooled (bigger) HDD enclosure. For everyone else the thermal performance of this drive is good enough.
* You have to manually flip the power switch to dimm the power LED after turning off the system.

The cons:
- It doesn't completely shut-down the disk drive during inactivity.

Final verdict: 8.5/10