StarTech.com 3.5" External SATA Hard Drive Enclosure - Trayless - eSATA/USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) Hard Drive Enclosure w/UASP (S351BMU33ET)

After testing, the digital electronics seem good. It does get hot with high power hard drives (e.g. 7200 RPM drives ) as there is really little thermal connectivity between the drive and the metal outer case as it is basically in a bubble of air. As in another review, there is a place (under the back sticker) to install a 30mm by 10mm thick 12v fan (has fan retention clips, fan holes and, a fan grate), so I installed a Delta fan. Unfortunately, there is no fan header on the enclosure's motherboard, so I hardwired the fan to the motherboard's incoming positive terminal (with a disconnect so you can take the closure completely apart easily) and hardwired (splice) to the power switch wire (switched negative). Temperature dropped way down (50+C --> 35C).

I now have three of these, two in use one for backup and I've been very pleased with their performance. In my practical testing of it I've found the speed difference between eSATA and USB 3.0, the fastest my PC supports, using a SATA III HDD, is minimal. That maybe one of the reasons why Startech decided to discontinue the eSATA support. However their replacement USB 3.1 Gen 2 only enclosure is not in the same class IMHO. The case for that even looks as if it was designed to support eSATA but they blanked off the port. The On/Off switch is a nasty looking, small cheap slider rather than the quality rocker type used for this case. It also reverts to a tray based HDD/SSD mounting design. It does mean that it is more suitable for dual 3.5" and 2.5" HDD/SSD use than the tray-less design this 3.5" only one has. But tray-less is undoubtedly more convenient if you need to replace/remove the HDD. It makes doing that almost as fast as a docking station. Now to the negatives: the cost of this is now questionable. They were already expensive enclosures and what you're doing now is importing a US spec version. That comes with, annoyingly, a fixed US mains plug on the PSU supplied. It is still a universal PSU ie. 100v - 240v but unlike the EU/UK version it does not come with any socket adapters built in or otherwise. It is just a simple US two prong design, apparently non-polarized but I've not tested that. So to the cost of the enclosure you need to add either a replacement UK 12v, identical spec UK PSU or, cheaper, a decent US to UK plug adapter. I've tried both solutions and I'd go with the latter. I bought a pair from Amazon which I'm probably not allowed to link too here but they mount the PSU firmly and as far as I've tested cause no problems. That's it really - still a good piece of kit for your external 3.5" HDDs but the total cost, which will undoubtedly rise for other reasons too, now makes it far less attractive than it once was. With 3.5" HDDs slowly becoming redundant in the face of similar capacity SSDs which can make full use of USB 3.1+ speed capabilities it is a bit of an indulgence.

This case is very well designed, and also very well supported. The most important thing about it, for me at least, is the lack of forced power off. That is, unlike most of the other cases I've tried, it DOES NOT force powerdown/spindown at arbitrary, undocumented, and unconfigurable intervals. This means that one can configure the drive (if desired) to power down or spin down when *IT* is ready. This permits self-tests and internal HDD management features to run to completion, unlike other cheaper cases which just cancel such things while they are in progress. Also notable is that, when one (of the many I've purchased) of these cases had a minor packaging problem, the manufacturer sent me an entirely new case since they didn't have the exact part in stock at the time. I don't anticipate using any other style of case.

Works as an esata drive for my video cameras. Fast and easy.

Needed this for the eSata connection to add extra storage to a CCTV storage device. Nicely made, quick install of drive and works perfectly.