 |
|
Illuminated
|
When
the drive is transferring data however the lights act
as an activity LED would, and while it does look quite
cool and not unlike an electrical storm, just as ICY BOX
state in their marketing info, sometimes the flashes are
a little too rapid and the LEDs don't have the intensity
to illuminate the rods properly, particularly on the longer
sides top and bottom. When this happens the effect is
a little weak and disappointing but even so it's better
than no lights at all.
Being
LEDs of course they add little to no heat to the unit
and draw very little power.
Performance:::...
Being
reliant on a USB interface, albeit a USB2.0 interface,
means performance is bound to suffer. As you can see from
our SiSoft Sandra 2004 results we got performance a little
below that of an ATA33 10GB drive on our Abit AI7 test
rig using a small, 20GB Maxtor hard drive.
Conclusion
The
3DVelocity 'Dual Conclusions Concept' Explained: After
discussing this concept with users as well as companies
and vendors we work with, 3DVelocity have decided that
where necessary we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions
Concept' to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the
hardware we review. As the needs of the more experienced
users and enthusiasts have increased, it has become more
difficult to factor in all the aspects that such a user
would find important, while also being fair to products
that may lack these high end "bonus" capabilities
but which still represent a very good buy for the more
traditional and more prevalent mainstream user. The two
catergories we've used are:
The
Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely
to put price, stock performance, value for money, reliability
and/or warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that
operates beyond its design specifications. The mainstream
user may be a PC novice or may be an experienced user,
however their needs are clearly very different to those
of the enthusiast, in that they want to buy products that
operate efficiently and reliably within their advertised
parameters.
The
Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the
things that the mainstream user cares about but is more
likely to accept a weakness in one or more of these things
in exchange for some measure of performance or functionality
beyond its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard
may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels
of overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually
large heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may
be considered acceptable if it offers significantly superior
cooling in return.
The
Mainstream User ~
If
you care about the data on your PC I have only three words
for you, "Backup, Backup, Backup". It's no good
complaining that you've lost 10 gig of MP3s and and three
years' accounts when you've never backed up a file in
your life.
DVD
burners are now extremely cheap and the media's getting
that way too but even then if you're anything like me
you're unlikely to get even a basic OS+essential files
backup onto a single disk, let alone find it again when
you need it.
I
only recieved the actual pricing towards the end of this
review and had been working on a mental figure of around
£60. When I disvovered the actual prce was just
£34.08 including the dreaded VAT I was pretty impressed
I must say.
The
ICY BOX external HDD enclosure is quick, easy and great
value way to add bags of data capacity to an exisiting
system without ever needing to venture inside your case.
A very nice product all round!
The
Enthusiast ~
It
backs up your data, it stores your MP3s, movies and images
and it flashes blue! What's not to like? Chances
are you have an old hard drive lurking in the house somewhere
so why not put it to work in side an ICY BOX enclosure?
The
ability to hot swap and hot plug the unit is a bonus,
and the extra performance now available through USB2.0,
or from the Firewire or SATA interfaces make these a relatively
speedy way of working. I'm really looking forward to the
day that one of these can power itself off a USB port
though, the external power supplies still stop these devices
from being truly portable. Just check out that price too!
ICYBOX
have done a first class job of taking a simple idea and
making it work well and look good. It plugged in and it
worked straight off, a nice surprise these days. You may
not know it yet but you really do need one!
