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Review on πŸ’Ώ Inateck 3.5 Inch HDD Enclosure: High-Speed USB 3.0 Mesh Case with UASP Support - SA01003 by Tom Beland

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Reliable and fast, but not very good cooling and durability

I needed a USB to SATA docking station that would make it easy to insert and remove drives and it did the job. Reliability is my number one priority, and I've managed to do that so far. I had no disconnects, crashes or freezes at all. I use Cable Matters instead of the one that comes with the dock, mainly because I needed more length and also because I trust Cable Matters more than the cables that come with this type of device. . Overall, the thing works reliably and that's all I really care about. However, this device has several disadvantages: It is quite thin. The plastic construction and the opening/closing mechanism don't seem very stable. Cooling isn't great despite the mesh top, as the bottom of the case is plastic with a layer of foam that insulates the bottom of the drive and does a very good job of preventing the drive from escaping heat through the bottom. I think a simple solid aluminum case would probably generate more heat. Discs come out of this case very hot after use. The case also doesn't close completely when used with "corporate" SATA drives, but it still works well and I won't count this against the case as it's an edge case. Enterprise drives might be a bit thicker or longer than regular drives, I'm not sure. Overall it's fair for the price. If there were a similar unibody aluminum option (maybe even ripped) with a USB-C connection and still an easy to load/unload drive, I'd probably buy that instead.

Pros
  • Hard Drive Enclosure
Cons
  • So far so good