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May 11, 2007
FireWire 2.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure
Review: Addonics Jupiter ExDrive for 2.5" SATA hard drive (AJEDSAF)
By Arthur Whalem
Addonics is shipping the Jupiter ExDrive enclosure model AJEDSAF for 2.5" SATA hard drive ($88.95). This external FireWire 400 enclosure allows Macintosh users to mount 2.5" SATA hard drives using an Apple FireWire port.
Macintosh owners that upgrade the stock SATA hard drive inside an Apple Mac mini, MacBook or a Mac Book Pro can utilize the old hard drive as a small mobile storage device using the Jupiter ExDrive. A standard size 2.5" SATA hard drive can easily be mounted inside the Jupiter ExDrive. The enclosure supports FireWire bus power and provides a USB power cable and a power adapter for configurations where FireWire bus power is not adequate. The focus of this review is to discover how the Jupiter ExDrive performs with an Apple Macintosh.
System Requirements
Mac OS 9, Mac OS X or Windows XP.
Requires a FireWire port.
Requires a 2.5" SATA hard drive.
Compatible with Notebooks or Desktops.
What's Included?
The Addonics Jupiter ExDrive 2.5" SATA hard drive enclosure model AJEDSAF includes the Jupiter Drive enclosure AAJSACSB, a power adapter AAPAC5V, 3 foot FireWire USIB interface cable AAFWC-406, USB power cable AAUSBPCP24, a small screw driver and a users guide.
The Addonics Jupiter ExDrive model AJEDSAF includes a power adapter and a USB power cable. However, it operated using FireWire bus power during most of these tests with a Fujitsu 2.5" SATA hard drive. It is nice to see that the Jupiter ExDrive provides so many power options. Addonics sells additional USIB interface cables for the Jupiter ExDrive that support an eSATA interface and USB. While FireWire and USB connections are able to function using bus power, SATA connections require using the power adapter or the USB power cable.
Install
Installing the 2.5" hard drive inside the Addonics Jupiter ExDrive (AJEDSAF) is straight forward. A single screw holds the Jupiter ExDrive enclosure together.
Once the screw is released, the case can be opened for user access to the hard drive compartment. The top panel can be lifted back and unhinged from the rear bottom portion of the enclosure. The enclosure is made of a sturdy black anodized aluminum and the hard drive is nicely braced by a blue rubber shock resistant assembly on each side. The Addonics Jupiter ExDrive weights 11 ounces with our 60GB 2.5" SATA Fujitsu hard drive installed. The dimensions are 3.25" wide, 6" long and 7/8 of an inch tall.The image on the right side displays how the Addonics Jupiter ExDrive looks with the top hinged back. The next step to add or remove a hard drive inside the Jupiter ExDrive is to remove the circuit board that the hard drive is attached to. The case design is notched and the circuit board simply mounts in the enclosure with small pegs inserted into openings in the circuit board. Lifting the circuit board up in the rear of the enclosure allows the hard drive and the circuit board to be removed.
Once the hard drive and the circuit board have been removed the user is able to turn the unit over and view the four small hard drive mounting screws that secure the 2.5" SATA hard drive and the blue rubber shock resistant assembly to the circuit board. To remove the hard drive, unscrew the four screws and gently pull the SATA hard drive off of the SATA data and power connectors.
When installing a new hard drive inside the Jupiter ExDrive simply follow these directions in reverse. The Jupiter ExDrive provides a very secure mounting assembly for installing 2.5" SATA hard drives.
Features
The Jupiter ExDrive is available for both IDE and SATA hard drives. For the purpose of this review, only the SATA hard drive configurations will be discussed. All new Macintosh models utilize SATA hard drives. Macintosh users that upgrade the stock 2.5" Apple hard drive in their computer may want to utilize the old hard drive in an external enclosure. The Addonics Jupiter ExDrive fills that need very well. In addition, some users may want a high quality compact external hard drive enclosure for mobile use. The Addonics Jupiter ExDrive also works well for this purpose. The Jupiter ExDrive is available in several different interface configurations. These include:
Jupiter ExDrive for 2.5" SATA hard drive with USB 2.0 (AJEDSAU) $65.95
Jupiter ExDrive for 2.5" SATA hard drive with Firewire/iLink (AJEDSAF) $88.95
Jupiter ExDrive for 2.5" SATA hard drive with eSATA (AJEDSAS) $75.95
Jupiter ExDrive for 2.5" SATA hard drive with CardBus (AJEDSAC) $79.95
All of these Addonics Jupiter ExDrive products are identical with the exception that each one includes a different USIB interface cable. The design of the Jupiter ExDrive allows the enclosure to accept a different USIB interface cable for USB 2.0, FireWire 400 or an eSATA connection. If the user already has USIB interface cables that came with another Addonics product, those cables can also be utilized with the Jupiter ExDrive enclosure.
The Addonics Jupiter ExDrive model (AJEDSAF) with a FireWire 400 connector, will probably be the best choice for most Macintosh users. Every current Macintosh model ships with a FireWire 400 port and both Intel and PPC Macintosh models can boot with a FireWire hard drive. USB hard drive performance is slower than FireWire 400 with a Macintosh and while eSATA performance is faster, fewer users have an external eSATA data port available.
The Jupiter ExDrive model (AJEDSAF) FireWire 400 configuration supports hot swap, sleep and performs very well with Macintosh computers. Its small foot print makes it ideal for mobile data storage. In addition, as the Jupiter ExDrive has no fan it is ultra quiet.
Cooling
During this review the cooling capability of the Jupiter ExDrive was measured using a SATA USIB cable and a host adapter that supports SMART data. Hardware Monitor 4.11 was used to display the 2.5" SATA hard drive SMART temperature data. The Fujitsu 60GB SATA hard drive that was mounted inside the Jupiter ExDrive was worked very hard duplicating a 4.2GB folder of video files for 90 minutes. At the end of 90 minutes the Fujitsu hard drive reported a temperature of 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The black anodized aluminum enclosure was not even warm to the touch.
The next process of the cooling test was to leave the Jupiter ExDrive enclosure turned on with the hard drive mounted for an hour, but with no usage other than temperature monitoring. I wanted to see how well the hard drive might cool down inside the Jupiter ExDrive enclosure. After resting for an hour, the Fujitsu hard drive reported a temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The ambient room temperature was 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
These tests indicate that the fanless Addonics Jupiter ExDrive aluminum enclosure provides very good cooling capabilities. The ability to keep the hard drive below 108 degrees Fahrenheit while continually copying data for 90 minutes is impressive.
PerformanceIn this test, an Apple Mac Pro 2.66 GHz and a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz running Mac OS X 10.4.9 were used with the Addonics Jupiter ExDrive to record the speed of the USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and eSATA interfaces. The hard drive used in this test was a Fujitsu 60GB model MHV2060BHPL 2.5" SATA hard drive. This 2.5" 5400 RPM SATA hard drive formats to 55.89GB and provides an 8MB cache. The hard drive is quiet and rated with a typical acoustical noise level of 28 dBA at one meter when idle. DiskTester 1GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test. DiskTester measures the combined performance of the hard drive and the Mac OS X operating system. It is a Terminal application which requires using a command line executable. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 1G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester 2.0 to work testing how the hard drive will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. The results are provided below.
Apple PowerMac G5 2.0 GHz Dual (front FW400 port)
Addonics Jupiter ExDrive with Fujitsu 60GB - DiskTester 1GB Test
| model | |||
| Interface |
USB 2.0
|
FireWire 400
|
eSATA
|
| Area Full |
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
| empty |
15.2
|
17.8
|
28.2
|
38.3
|
38.8
|
39
|
| 10% |
15.3
|
17.8
|
28.4
|
38.1
|
37.9
|
38.1
|
| 20% |
15.3
|
17.8
|
28.2
|
36.9
|
36.9
|
36.9
|
| 30% |
14.9
|
17.8
|
28.3
|
35.6
|
35.6
|
35.6
|
| 40% |
15.1
|
17.8
|
28.4
|
34.9
|
34.9
|
34.9
|
| 50% |
14.8
|
17.8
|
28.3
|
32.9
|
32.9
|
32.9
|
| 60% |
15.2
|
17.8
|
28.3
|
31.2
|
31.2
|
31.2
|
| 70% |
15.4
|
17.8
|
28.3
|
29.1
|
29.1
|
29
|
| 80% |
14.7
|
17.8
|
26.5
|
26.5
|
26.6
|
26.6
|
| 90% |
14.9
|
17.8
|
23.5
|
23.5
|
23.5
|
23.5
|
| 100% |
15.3
|
17.8
|
19.9
|
19.9
|
20
|
19.9
|
| Average |
15.1
|
17.8
|
26.9
|
31.5
|
31.6
|
31.6
|
| MSRP |
Apple Mac Pro 2.66 GHz (rear FW400 port)
Addonics Jupiter ExDrive with Fujitsu 60GB - DiskTester 1GB Test
| model | |||
| Interface |
USB 2.0
|
FireWire 400
|
eSATA
|
| Area Full |
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
| empty |
17.2
|
20.8
|
26.5
|
36.4
|
38.6
|
38.5
|
| 10% |
17.6
|
20.8
|
26.5
|
36.4
|
37.9
|
38
|
| 20% |
17.5
|
20.8
|
26.3
|
36.4
|
36.7
|
36.8
|
| 30% |
17
|
20.8
|
26.5
|
35.6
|
35.4
|
35.5
|
| 40% |
16.3
|
20.8
|
22.8
|
34.9
|
34.7
|
34.9
|
| 50% |
17
|
20.8
|
26.5
|
32.9
|
32.9
|
32.8
|
| 60% |
17.1
|
20.8
|
26.6
|
31.2
|
31.2
|
31.1
|
| 70% |
16.9
|
20.8
|
26.5
|
29.1
|
28.9
|
28.9
|
| 80% |
16.5
|
20.8
|
26.5
|
26.6
|
26.5
|
26.4
|
| 90% |
17.3
|
20.8
|
23.5
|
23.5
|
23.5
|
23.4
|
| 100% |
17.6
|
20
|
19.9
|
19.9
|
19.9
|
19.9
|
| Average |
17.6
|
20
|
25.3
|
31.2
|
31.5
|
31.5
|
| MSRP |
As you can see in the table above, the USB 2.0 interface is significantly slower than the FireWire 400 performance. The eSATA interface provides the fastest performance as it is able to exceed the FireWire 400 write speed limit of approximately 28MB./sec. However, the FireWire 400 interface is compatible with a much larger group of Apple computers.
The 60GB 5400 RPM Fujitsu is not a high performance hard drive. When using a 7200 RPM 2.5" hard drive, the eSATA connection may provide more of a performance gain than this comparison suggests. However, 2.5" hard drives are not usually known for high performance. Instead, small size and quiet operation tend to be their strengths.
DiscussionThe Addonics Jupiter ExDrive model AJEDSAF provides a rugged enclosure for 2.5" SATA hard drives. The solid, high quality design of the Jupiter ExDrive is visually evident. The black anodized aluminum case provides good cooling characteristics and a clean professional style.
Users that want a small mobile hard drive enclosure for data on the go will find the Jupiter ExDrive provides a very nice solution. The FireWire 400 connection included with the Addonics Jupiter ExDrive model AJEDSAF provides good performance while having the ability to connect with any currently shipping Apple computer. In addition, PCs with a FireWire port can also be utilized with the Jupiter ExDrive model AJEDSAF once the hard drive is properly formatted.
The only design issue I encountered with the Addonics Jupiter ExDrive is a small tab on the front left side that can switch the power selector from internal to external. When using the Jupiter ExDrive with FireWire bus power, the front switch needs to be set to INT (Internal). This configuration causes the small tab to emerge from the front left side of the enclosure. If the user accidently touches this tab while FireWire bus mode is active, it will turn off the hard drive. Needless to say, this can be a problem if the hard drive is actively accessing data. Using the included power adapter will guarantee that the Jupiter ExDrive provides power no matter which setting the front power switch is configured to use. It is pretty easy to avoid this issue by not picking up the enclosure while it is in operation. However, users should be aware of the small power tab on the left side of the enclosure.
Pros
Compatible with Macintosh original manufacturer FireWire ports.
Can utilize SATA or USB connections with optional USIB cables.
Stylish rugged black anodized aluminum enclosure.
Shock resistant design provides hard drive protection.
FireWire 400 or USB connections can provide bus power.
Supports hot swap and sleep.
No driver installation required.
Compatible with Disk Utility.
Compact light weight design.
Drive activity and power LED.
Good cooling characteristics.
Easy hard drive installation.
Very low energy usage.
Cons
Small front left switch can accidently switch power to external source.
Addonics Jupiter ExDrive gets 4 AMUGs out of 5!
According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the Jupiter ExDrive uses no power while turned off and plugged in. Only 2 watts were utilized while the Fujitsu 60GB 2.5" hard drive was idle. The Jupiter ExDrive also includes a power adapter and a USB power cable for using the enclosure with an optional SATA USIB cable. The feature rich, high quality, rugged enclosure design provided by the Jupiter ExDrive model AJEDSAF makes it a great solution for mounting external 2.5" SATA hard drives.
Contact Information:Addonics Technologies
2466 Kruse Drive,
San Jose, CA 95131 USA
408-433-3899
addonics@addonics.com
http://www.addonics.com
Copyright 2007
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