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September 14, 2007
Quick, Simple, Screwless, SATA HD Enclosure
A Review of the ICY DOCK Hot Swap eSATA/USB 2.0 Mobile Enclosure (MB664US-1S)
By Arthur Whalem
ICY DOCK is shipping the hot swap eSATA/USB 2.0 ultra thin mobile enclosure model MB664US-1S ($69 MSRP). The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S Silver Screw-less external enclosure provides a single hot swap bay that is ready for use with any 3.5" SATA hard drive. No tray system is required with this hot swap design. Users simply unlock the enclosure and push the front of the enclosure up to insert or eject a bare SATA hard drive. This hard drive mounting system is quick, simple and screwless. The enclosure measures 7.65" deep, 5.4" high and 1.25" wide. It weighs one pound, 3.4 ounces when empty. Once a Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drive is installed the enclosure weighs two pounds, eight ounces. The enclosure can be mounted horizontally or vertically by using the built-in stand. The light weight construction of the MB664US-1S makes it ideal for mobile usage. In addition, the fan-less operation of the enclosure provides a very quiet computing experience. The purpose of this review is to determine how the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S will perform with an Apple Macintosh computer.
System Requirements
Macintosh OS 9, OS X, Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista computers.
Requires an external eSATA connection or a USB 2.0 port.
Can be used with 3.5" SATA I or SATA II hard drives.
ConnectionsThe ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure supports both eSATA and USB 2.0 data connections. It can be used with an eSATA external host adapter like the FirmTek SeriTek/1eVE4 for PowerMac G4 or G5 models with PCI slots or it could be used with a PCIe SATA host adapter with a Mac Pro or a PowerMac G5 with PCIe slots.
The USB 2.0 connection allows the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure to also be used with any Macintosh computer with a USB 2.0 port while still having the ability to perform faster when an eSATA data connection is available.
If the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S eSATA enclosure is oriented vertically the power switch is on the top. Just below it is the USB 2.0 port and below that is the eSATA connection. The connection for the external power supply is next and the built in security slot is below it.
What's Included
The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S includes the enclosure, an external power adapter, an external 42" shielded eSATA data cable, a 6' USB device cable, an eSATA PCI mounting bracket with an 11" eSATA to SATA cable and a printed installation guide.
The included 11" SATA data cable attached to the eSATA PCI bracket is too short and not a right angle SATA connection that is required to plug into the extra SATA ports on the Apple Mac Pro motherboard, but it
should work with a PC. I was able to connect a 24" right angle SATA data cable to the Apple Mac Pro motherboard and then use an Addonics AASA2SAP15C, eSATA2 - SATA converter cable to connect to the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S eSATA port. The downside to using one of the extra SATA ports on the Mac Pro motherboard is that they do not support hot swap. As a result, a restart is required each time the enclosure is turned on or a new hard drive is mounted in the hot swap bay. For that reason, I prefer to use the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S with an external SATA host adapter. However, the internal Mac Pro motherboard SATA ports support booting which is a nice feature to have available.
Interface
The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S design utilizes a small white power light on the front of the enclosure that flickers when the SATA hard drive is being accessed. To eject the hard disk, users simply push the gray tab up which displays a red surface indicating that the enclosure is unlocked. Pushing on the bottom white front panel while the enclosure is unlocked will eject the SATA hard drive. No tray is required. Users simply remove one SATA hard drive and insert another. This can be done with the enclosure powered or turned off.
Inserting a SATA hard drive into the enclosure is just a matter of sliding the disk into the enclosure with the SATA and power pins oriented toward the top of the enclosure.
The four retractable feet provided by the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S make vertical mounting of the enclosure easy and sturdy. When the enclosure is mounted vertically it can be knocked over by pushing it more than 20 degrees to the side. If the enclosure is in an environment where it could be knocked over, I would suggest placing it on its side. The feet of the enclosure are extend manually by the user. If the feet are no longer needed the user can simply slide them back into the enclosure openings. This vertical mounting system allows the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S to be used with minimal space requirements.
Compatibility & Design
The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S eSATA enclosure will work with any SATA hard drive that will function with the users SATA host adapter. The eSATA connections on the rear of the enclosure can be used with a host adapter with eSATA "type I" connections or "type L" SATA connections using the proper cable. The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S comes with an eSATA shielded cable with "type I" eSATA connectors on each end. However, the
MB664US-1S enclosure could be used with a SATA host adapter that utilizes "type L" ports using an external shielded SATA "L-type" to "I-type" data cable.One advantage that the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure provides is the ability to also be utilized with a USB 2.0 connection. If the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S is being used as a small portable SATA hard drive, having the ability to connect to a USB 2.0 port provides a convenient option. Users may find that they want to share data on the SATA hard drive with an iMac, MacBook, Mac Pro or a Mac mini computer that does not have SATA capability. The USB 2.0 port provides this option. In addition, Intel processor Macintosh owners will find that they can boot from the USB 2.0 port of the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S when using a hard drive with Mac OS X10.4.8 or higher installed. This may come in handy should an internal Macintosh hard drive failure occur. While the USB 2.0 connection is considerably slower than a SATA connection, it is nice to have the ability to use the USB 2.0 port for interfacing with a wide variety of computers.
If you eject the SATA hard drive from the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure and look inside, the backplane circuit board can be seen.
According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S power supply uses less than one watt when the enclosure is turned off but plugged in. Once the enclosure is turned on but no hard drive is inserted the enclosure uses one watt. Once a Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drive is mounted the power usage increases to 9 watts while idle. With heavy drive activity, the power usage can increase to 11 watts. The silver aluminum side panels of the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure match the Apple Mac Pro and the PowerMac G5 aluminum finish while the white front and top plastic trim sections match the white color of the white Apple iBook, iMac and Mac mini models.
CoolingThe ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure has no fan and uses an external power supply. The only sound you will hear from it is your SATA hard drive accessing data. Silent enclosures are nice on the ears but they usually operate warmer than an enclosure with a cooling fan.
The cooling capability of the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure was measured with a Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 SATA hard drive installed. A Mac Pro 2.66 GHz computer using Mac OS X 10.4.10 and a Sonnet Tempo E4P SATA host adapter was used during this test. One 4.2GB folder containing two video files was copied to the Seagate 320GB SATA hard drive mounted inside the enclosure and constantly duplicated for 90 minutes. At the end of 90 minutes the hard drive installed in the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure reported a temperature of 129.2 degrees Fahrenheit. The next process of the cooling test was to leave the 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 enclosure. After resting for an hour, the Seagate hard drive reported a temperature of 125.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The ambient air temperature during these tests was 83 degrees Fahrenheit.
The MB664US-1S enclosure provides few ventilation openings. This issue may cause hard drives mounted in the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure to operate very warm with extended use. However, the temperature readings recorded during this test were still within the hard drive manufacturers environmental specifications.
SATA vs USB PerformanceThe ICY DOCK MB664US-1S enclosure was tested with an Apple Mac Pro 2.66 GHz running Mac OS X 10.4.10. The Sonnet Tempo E4P was used to provide an eSATA connection. A Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drive was mounted inside the MB664US-1S enclosure. DiskTester 2.0 1GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test so that this article could display how the enclosure performed using the eSATA and the USB 2.0 port. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 1G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester to work testing how the disk will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. The table below displays the performance of these two connection methods.
MB664US-1S eSATA vs USB 2.0 Interface Speed Comparison
 |
| Area Full |
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
| empty |
74.7
|
71.8
|
17.8
|
24.8
|
| 10% |
73.8
|
73
|
17.9
|
24.7
|
| 20% |
72.8
|
72.1
|
17.9
|
24.9
|
| 30% |
69.3
|
69.7
|
17.8
|
24.7
|
| 40% |
67.2
|
67
|
17.9
|
24.8
|
| 50% |
63.7
|
63.6
|
17.9
|
24.7
|
| 60% |
60.4
|
60.9
|
17.8
|
24.8
|
| 70% |
56.1
|
55.7
|
17.8
|
24.8
|
| 80% |
52.5
|
52.3
|
17.8
|
24.8
|
| 90% |
45.9
|
46.2
|
17.8
|
24.8
|
| 100% |
37.4
|
37.4
|
17.8
|
24.8
|
| Average |
61.2
|
60.9
|
17.8
|
24.8
|
| Size |
297.8GB
|
297.8GB
|
As you can see in the table above, the SATA data port provides significantly faster performance than a USB 2.0 connection. While USB 2.0 is a good alternative connection for wide spread Macintosh usage and supports booting on Intel Macintosh models, it is significantly slower than an eSATA connection.Using a 24" SATA cable on the Mac Pro motherboards SATA port and snaking it out the PCI slots with the Addonics AASA2SAP15C, eSATA2 - SATA converter on the end is an inexpensive way to utilize the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S SATA interface without purchasing a SATA host adapter. Another option is the Newer Technology eSATA Extender Cable ($24.95). The Mac Pro motherboard SATA ports do not support hot swap but they do provide boot support.
The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S provides an elegant looking, easy to use, external hot swap SATA enclosure that provides both eSATA and USB 2.0 data connections. It includes a 41" eSATA cable, a 6' USB cable, and a PCI bracket that users could easily spend $30 for if purchased separately. As the enclosure has no fan it is very quiet. However, the cooling design of the MB664US-1S appears to be limited. The enclosures exterior design provides ventilation slots on the top of the case, but these same vents are blocked internally by the hard drive mounting system. The enclosures cooling performance could be improved if the top ventilation slots had direct access to the hard drive chamber. With this limitation in mind, the ICY DOCK MB664US-1S should work well for mobile use and creating backups, but I would not plan on using it for extended periods of operation.
Pros
Supports Macintosh and Windows.
Quiet operation.
Simple, screwless installation.
Ultra thin elegant design.
Drive activity and power light.
Built-in stand & security connector.
Direct backplane mounting design.
Can be used with boot drives or for additional storage.
Includes eSATA and USB 2.0 ports and cables.
USB 2.0 supports booting with Intel Macintosh models.
Supports SATA I and SATA II hard drives.
Can be used with a RAID or as an individual drive.
Aluminum side panels.
Includes SATA PCI bracket.
Cons
Hard drive may become warm with extended use.
No FireWire support.
ICY DOCK MB664US-1S gets 4 AMUGs out of 5!
The ICY DOCK MB664US-1S provides an amazingly easy installation option for mounting external 3.5" SATA hard drives. The direct backplane interface and the eSATA/USB 2.0 data connections provide users with the ability to connect to a variety of computer systems. The only down side to this enclosure is that hard drives may run warm with extended usage inside the MB664US-1S.
Contact Information:
ICY DOCK USA
147 Puente Ave.
City of Industry, CA 91746
Tel: 626.956.8800
Fax: 626.956.8811
http://www.icydock.com
Product page
Copyright 2007
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG)
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Additional Resources
AMUG ICY DOCK eSATA/USB 2.0 Mobile Enclosure (MB559US-1S) Review
AMUG SeriTek/2SE2-E SATA PCIe Host Adapter Review
AMUG Sonnet Tempo E4P SATA II Host Adapter Review
AMUG FirmTek SeriTek/2SE4 PCI-X SATA Host Adapter Review