The majority of 2.5” HDD Enclosures use USB to connect to your PC. That’s why it’s a breath of fresh air when a manufacturer decides to include eSATA on their 2.5” HDD Enclosure. Until recently, eSATA has been reserved exclusively for the larger 3.5” HDD Enclosures due to the fact that eSATA carries only data, not power. The cost effectiveness of shipping a small 2.5” enclosure with an adapter that weighs as much as it does has never really allowed for anything else. But then someone got the idea of using the standard USB cable to power the enclosure. So now the consumer has a choice. Use the USB to power the device and transfer the data, or connect both the USB and eSATA and get a much faster connection. The CP Technologies CP-UE-225 2.5” Aluminum eSATA and USB OTB HDD Enclosure is one enclosure that offers this flexibility. Click Read More to learn more about this device.

Cost: $39.37

Closer Look:

The packaging for the CP Technologies CP-UE-225 2.5” Aluminum eSATA and USB OTB HDD Enclosure is professional looking and covered in information. The Front of the box shows an image of the device as well as a few specifications.

The back of the package has a different image of the device, this one displaying the rear of the enclosure. Also on the back are a full list of specifications, system requirements and the contents of the package.

Speaking of contents, when you open the box you see that there is indeed a lot inside of it. There is the CP-UE-225 itself, as well as a carrying case, an eSATA cable, eSATA PCI plate bracket, USB Cable, User Manual, and screws for installing the drive and sealing the enclosure.

Let’s take a closer look at the CP-UE-225 itself.

Closer Look Continued:

The CP-UE-225 is hefty due to its aluminum construction. The back of the enclosure is where you will be connecting it to your PC. Here there are ports for USB, eSATA and 5V DC. The power is usually provided by the USB, but it’s nice to have the choice of using an adapter instead. There is no adapter provided, but if you insist on using one, they’re not that hard to come by.

The side of the enclosure features the CP Technologies logo as well as the words USB 2.0, eSATA, and Power over the corresponding ports on the back of the enclosure. These words are easy to read because of the matte black finish of the aluminum. The rear and front of the enclosure are wrapped in chrome, giving a custom look to the entire device. The front of the enclosure again features the CP Technologies logo, this time backlit with blue LEDs. This is a nice touch visually, as it is pleasant to look at and tells you at a glance if the unit is powered.

The One Touch Backup software installs easily and is simple to use.  As you can see from the screenshot, all you have to do is specify which folder or root you want backed up. Then you select where you want it to go on the external drive. After that all it takes is a touch of a button to back the data up. The specified folder will be copied each time you hit the button.

Let’s look at the specifications.

Specifications:

• Aluminum Construction
• Unit Size: 132mm x 82mm x 15mm
• USB 2.0
• Plug and Play
• HDD Activity LED Indicator
• OTB

And now we get to have some fun. Let’s move onto testing.

Testing Rig:

Testing:

During the testing of this enclosure I will be running a low-level benchmark and timing file transfers. For the benchmarks I will be using HD Tune, a free benchmarking utility. For the timing of the file transfers I will be using a stopwatch. We time the transfers with a stop watch because we wish to ascertain the actual amount of time it takes to transfer the file while Windows is running. Low-level file transfers get closer to the actual physical performance of a drive, but they do not reflect how long you sit in front of your PC waiting for the transfer to finish. I will be using another CP Technologies enclosure as a benchmark, the CP-USH-300. I will also compare the benchmarks of the Thermaltake Vion. I will first display the results using USB, then the results of the eSATA benches. Let’s see what happened.

So what were the results? As you can see, the CP-UE-225 was in the middle of the pack with the USB benchmarks. It did have the lowest access time and burst rate, but seemed to offset this with the highest CPU Usage. But it still did well overall. Besides what I can only describe as a hiccup in the 100 MB file transfer, it kept up with the rest of our testing group. I feel that it really shone in the eSATA portion of the test. It again had the highest burst rate and lowest access time, but had none of the hiccups it had with the USB portion of the test. I would say that this enclosure is a very good due to its ability to use eSATA. Let’s take a look at the final word on this product.

Conclusion:

Overall this is a well rounded enclosure with several nice features. I did find it quite difficult to install my drive into the enclosure. The amount of force needed to connect the drive struck me as excessive. This was also the case in removing it from the enclosure. If you intend to leave the same drive in the enclosure for all eternity, this isn’t a big deal. But if you have to swap the drive out every so often, be warned, you’ve really got to reef on it to get it out. This was the only thing that I didn’t like about this drive. As I’ve mentioned, I feel that the eSATA option is very useful and am happy to see a 2.5” enclosure with it. The Aluminum construction makes it durable and aids in the cooling of the drive. I thought it looked nice and performed well. The OTB button is easy to set up and works very well.

Would I buy this? Yes I would. The eSATA alone makes it worth the purchase. And when they include an eSATA port so you can make your PC have it, then it’s a no brainer. I like the fact that CP Technologies has made a drive with these options, to me it shows forward thinking. Here’s hoping some more good ideas are around the corner.

Pros:

• Affordable
• Aluminum Construction
• eSATA Compatible
• OTB

Cons:

• Drive Difficult to Install

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."