advertisements
- Sold Individually
Product Description
PRODUCT FEATURES:The latest terabyte-level storage technologyDual drive enclosure with SPAN/JBOD and normal mode capabilitiesAccepts any 3.5″ SATA hard drivesWorks with both Mac and PC computersSupports USB2.0 and USB1.1 connectionThroughput specification up to 480Mb/s for USB2.0Hot plug and playSolid aluminum body for protection and excellent heat dissipation with built-in cooling fan and front power buttonActive LED to indicate power and data access… More >>
Macally NSA2-S350U Hi-Speed USB2.0 External Storage Enclosure for dual 3.5inch SATA HDD
In my humble opinion, this product is misleading.
In the product name (i.e., title, subject) the words “Hi-Speed” and “dual 3.5” SATA HDD” appear. I could easily read that as FAST, a RAID, and other implications to speed.
But in the ever-changing world of computer interfaces, the unit includes only one: the *slowest* interface.
I have a Macally external case that I’m *very* satisfied with. It holds just one SATA drive (a 1.5 TB Seagate), but has three interfaces: USB2, FireWire 400, and eSATA.
USB2 and FireWire 400 deal with sending data differently, so let’s just round it out and say they are both capable of data transfers of 400-450 Mbps (though USB is considered slower). And that’s the maximum you’ll get with this product.
But the Macally G-S350SUA Hi-Speed eSATA/FireWire/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure I have also provides eSATA, providing data transfers at about 3000 Mbps (i.e., 3 Gbps). I do not even use the other two, but they would come in handy if I needed to use the drive with a different computer.
I have had this enclosure for over 6 months – everything works as advertised. The enclosure hosts 2 x 3.5″ drives, which can be used as individual disks or combined into a “spanned volume”. The aluminum enclosure has nice industrial design, similar to Apple iMac/MacPro style. Highly recommend.
Enclosure: two drives can be used independently (JBOD) or combined to form one virtual hard drive (SPAN). Changing from JBOD to SPAN or vice versa requires a reformat of both disks and moving a jumper inside the enclosure. Use needle-nose pliers to reach the jumper; tweezers are useless.
Pros: – One LED integrated in the on/off button doubles as hard drive activity indicator and on/off indicator.
– All aluminum enclosure, lightweight.
– Fair price for USB2.0 enclosure for 2 drives. Compare with Newegg. Amazon rocks.
Cons: – Fan noise of stock fan is too loud but can be fixed.
– Transfer speeds via USB2.0 are good, but not great.
– No rubber feet included with drive.
– Power adapter connects to device with proprietary 5-pin plug. Lose/fry your adapter and a replacement from Macally will cost you $25.
So what to do about the fan noise? First, position enclosure on its side, with the fan exhaust on top. Second, place enclosure on rubber feet to absorb vibrations and allow airflow. Next, acquire Scythe SY124020L Mini Kaze Ultra fan. Less than 5 bucks on Amazon, free shipping. Acquire a 2-Pin to 2-Pin Mini Fan Adapter Cable. xsfans period com, 3 bucks. Replace fan. Noise problem solved.
FYI, When attached to an Apple computer and configured as JBOD, you can use Mac OS X Disk Utility to create a Software RAID-1 partition of the drives in the enclosure. In other words, drive 1 will be automatically duplicated to drive 2. When one drive fails, you have a backup of your data on the other. This works on all Macs, but when you hook this enclosure up to a PC, or an AirPort Extreme router, the drives will not be recognized.
I just received this HD enclosure today, and so far I am happy with it. It was easy to install the hard drives into the enclosure (took about 5 minutes).
It was a surprise to me that this enclosure uses the two disks to act like one; I was expecting to be able to raid the two disks together.
The fan is slightly louder than I would like, but the design and quality of the case make up for it’s noise level.
It works, if you can get the cheap Chinese screw heads from stripping, but once you power it on be ready to hear a very very nauseating on 20 second, off 20 second roar which is more noisy than the Mac G5 fans by far. I wrote Macally and they said :
“The enclosure has thermal sensor to make sure the inner temperature will not exceed the safety range and it can not be changed.
You may replace the fan with better quality and more quiet one from computer or electronics store.”
Isn’t that saying that it’s flawed? They refused to answer any other request for a switch out–just no answer! SO- BE FORE WARNED AND LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE, my advice. This just will not do unless it’s in the next room. TRUST ME!