USB 3.0 Hard Drive Disk External Enclosure Case for 3.5" SATA HDD & SSD, Tool-free Installation, Support UASP & 8TB Drives

The enclosure comes nicely packed in a presentation box. The box contains the drive enclosure, power supply, USB 3.0 lead, set of 4 drive screws and a guarantee card. The guarantee is for 12 months. There are no instructions supplied but if you do require instructions then this probably isn’t the right product for you anyway. The enclosure box is quite large at 180mm x 115mm x 35mm. It’s not the most attractive case I’ve ever seen but it is very functional. The top cover slides off for quick access to the drive bay. No screws to undo. There is a solitary SATA III plug in the corner of the bay. Fitting a 3.5-inch drive is very easy indeed. Simply slide the drive in with the manufacturers label on top. Push all the way in until you hear the drive snap on to the plug. A 2.5-inch drive isn’t quite so easy as you have slide the drive, with the manufacturers label on top, over to the right before pushing it home on the SATA plug. There are 4 drive screws supplied if you wish to secure either size drive into place. Once your drive is fitted you can slide the top cover back on the enclosure. Now insert the power supply plug into the socket on the enclosure and plug the other end into the mains power. Then insert one end of the USB 3.0 lead into the enclosure and the other end into your computers USB 3.0 port. You can use a USB 2 port but expect much slower performance. Finally, press the power button on the enclosure and your computer should instantly recognise the new drive and assign it a drive letter. Fairly straight forward. As far as overall performance is concerned, you may not get the same drive performance as you would if you connected the drive directly to a SATA III port inside your computer. I have run some tests on two different drives so you can compare the performances’. One is a standard 4TB HDD and the other is a 120GB SSD. On both types of drives there is a drop in performance on the random read and write speeds. Sequential reads on the other hand are very similar and sometimes even faster. Performance on the SSD is more significantly affected. None of these figures show anything that I would be worried about. In real life scenarios I didn’t feel any real differences in general use. Overall, I am very pleased with this drive enclosure. At the moment they’re selling it at £18.99 and this offers excellent value for money. As I said it might not be the prettiest but it’s quality through and through and does the job I require of it. I hope you found my review helpful.

I bought this to use for backup HDDs, being able to keep them installed semi-permanently with the plastic covering keeping out dust (my other caddy is an open vertical slot type so I have to cover the HDD with a paper bag). It came with a USB cable, a power adaptor and some small screws & screwdriver (to secure the HDD, but which I haven't bothered with as I'm not moving the enclosure round much). The case opens easily and has a very satisfying feel, being tighter when nearly closed and looser when sliding it open, so it is very easy to slide on and off and not at all fiddly. The 3.5" HDD engaged with the connector easily too and is rigid enough to make the screws optional. Printed on the packaging box are the contents/specs, including the sentence "Unique electronic switch design, long press 3 seconds for on/off". The switch works well, and there are two tiny LEDs atop the enclosure to indicate disk activity and when it is switched on (although the drive spinning gives an audible hum as well). There is also a bright green LED on the PSU to indicate when the power socket is live. The whole operation was as simple as could be, and the build quality is very good. Data transfer speeds were what one would expect and I would recommend this as a suitable purchase for anyone needing an external HDD enclosure. The only possible negative points are that the PSU cable and the USB cable are each only a metre long, but this is typical so I am not marking the product score down because of it. I have been able to place the enclosure on my desk and use it with both my PCs with what was supplied, so they were long enough (just).

Over the years I've gathered a collection of old 3.5 and 2.5 inch HD drives as I've upgraded the storage capacity of old PCs. Rather than throw these away, I kept hold thinking I'd find a use, the only problem being finding a suitable and reasonable cost external housing for them. And that's where the Eaxer USB 3.0 HDD External Enclosure comes in. It's a very simple way to make use of spare HDDs, adding additional storage capacity to existing computers. The design of the unit is, to be honest, functional rather than stylish but the black plastic materials feel like they are of reasonably good quality. To open the enclosure, the case lid simply slides off to reveal the inside. This can accommodate either a 3.5 or a 2.5" SATA HDD and these simply push onto the SATA connector mounted at one end. Owing to its additional weight, a 3.5" drive can be further secured by means of four screws - the screw holes in the case perfectly matching those in the drive I used. There are no additional mounting screws for 2.5" drives. Once installed, the case lid simply slides back in place and closes with a satisfying click. In use, the enclosure worked flawlessly. Using the supplied cable, it can be connected to either a fast USB 3.0 port or a slower USB 2.0 port with the expected drop in data throughput. I tried both ports and both methods work with no problems whatsoever. So, for the asking price of £18.99, the Eaxer USB 3.0 Hard Drive Disk External Enclosure is functional, offering good performance and value for money.