Review on Mediasonic Enclosure Aluminum Support HDL SU3 by Jay Williams

I have both the plastic version of this case (K32-SU3) and the aluminum version (HDL-SU3). I ordered a plastic K32-SU3 last year and it has worked flawlessly ever since. I installed a 2TB Western Digital drive and have never seen it turn off even once. The SMART functions work great and it rolls up and down with no issues. The hard drive stays cool and has never exceeded 38 °C. It connects at full speed via USB 3 SuperSpeed and appears as a SATA III (6Gb/s) device in the CrystalDisk information. In terms of performance, I get 145MB/s sequential read/write, which is what I got when this drive was connected internally. 145MB/s is about 1/6th the speed of SATA III, but that's the limitation of the hard drive, not the USB enclosure. If you want to use the full performance of SATA III and USB 3, you have to use an SSD. Overall, I'm very happy with the plastic K32-DU3. What can not be said about the aluminum HDL-SU3. First of all, the HDL-SU3 is at least aesthetically well designed. It looks just like the Revain picture and is thin and easy to assemble. My only criticism of the design is that the power LED is on the same side as the power and USB ports. This is pretty much useless as most people face the drive with the power and USB ports facing away from them. I think it might be ok if you find the LED annoying. Functionally, the HDL-SU3 falls short of expectations. I bought 2 of these and put a 2TB hard drive in one and a 3TB hard drive in the other. The 2TB drive enclosure has worked well so far and I haven't had any performance or shutdown issues. However, the drive is not disabled when not in use. I also have overheating issues with both aluminum boxes. CrystalDisk information shows that both drives in the HDL-SU3 aluminum case have a temperature of 55°C, which is very close to the maximum operating temperature of 60°C for most hard drives. The plastic K32-SU3 next to it is still running at 36C, so I believe it's an issue with the HDL-SU3 and not the hard drives. HDL-SU3 with 3TB drive does not stay connected to Windows and needs to be power cycled. to reconnect it. This is not an intermittent issue; it will eventually turn off if left on. This is a big problem for me as these drives are used for network storage and media streaming. From reading other reviews, this seems to be a common problem with drives larger than 2TB. Because of these issues, I cannot currently recommend the HDL-SU3. If you're looking to buy these cases, I highly recommend you go with the K32-SU3 plastic. Unfortunately I will be returning the aluminum HDL-SU3 as they get too hot and I am having trouble shutting down. Not sure if the K32-SU3 has the same disconnect issues when running 3TB drives, but will update my review after testing.