Review on 🚀 HornetTek X2 USB 3.0 Type C Gen I & Type A Dual Bay 3.5" HDD Enclosure with RAID 0 & RAID 1 - High-Speed Data Transfer at 5 Gbps by Brian Page

Replacement of my NAS. I had a third drive that I subjectively found to be about 25% slower than a single drive in an external enclosure, regardless of the mode selected. Transfer (write) speed seems to be about 25% slower, leading me to believe that the internal controller is a bit slow Create a suitable spare drive or shared storage. I prefer to set up backups as RAID1 devices for redundancy and this supports RAID1 along with RAID0, JBOD and "normal" which means just two separate ones. The overall quality of the case is decent, especially given the price Yes, and it looks attractive too (except for the Serial ATA logo on the front, I mean seriously. Installation t it makes holes on the tray for the screws that hold the Fasten Core The pins did not match the threads in the aluminum case exactly and were offset by about 1/32". I had to compress the case while aligning the screws to allow them to screw in. This doesn't seem to be a problem after it was reassembled but I took it apart a few times to determine the cause of this and couldn't.Also a minor point as you usually only do this once when you install drives to change the drive mode that DIP switches are inside the case and when you change the mode you also have to press the reset button for about 10 seconds which I missed the instructions on the first one Time I changed it I had to take it apart again to reset the controller so it recognizes the new mode. I tested it in several modes on an iMac and everything seemed to work without any problems, apart from the previously mentioned transfer speed. I haven't checked the power saving feature explicitly as I'm really not worried about it and the manual says if you have trouble just turn it off and on with the switch. Others have found an issue with this when using a Mac. However, I had a setting enabled that turns off the drives whenever possible. When I was writing this review, I noticed that the fan would shut down and the drives would actually spin down. When I copied the file to it in this state, it took quite a while to wake up again. I didn't really time it, but it probably took 20-30 seconds for the drives to spin back up and the fan to come on, and then some time before the file started copying. Just something to be aware of - don't get impatient. The fan is also a bit noisy. There is a 40mm fan on the back that works when the device is on, not in sleep mode. There's a switch to turn it off, but heat is the death of electronics, especially mechanical drives, so I wouldn't turn the fan off unless you absolutely need it quiet. The fan switch is recessed and on, so I'd take that as a sign that HornetTek wants it to work unless absolutely necessary. A heat sensor would be a nice feature, but consider the price you pay for it. All in all, if you don't rely on high data transfer speeds, this is a decent external enclosure with RAID support. I can't say anything about long-term reliability. Another little curiosity. There is an on/off switch of sorts on the front of the device, but it's just an indicator light to show it's on. You can even click on it and it looks like it will do something, but it doesn't. I gave it three stars because for the price it seems like a good deal if you can live with the quirks.