Review on Mediasonic Enclosure Aluminum Support HDL SU3 by Temarquis Lopez

The Mediasonic ProBox HDL-SU3 hard drive enclosure is a sleek black aluminum enclosure with plastic end caps, a USB3 port, wall-mounted wart and a short USB3. It's subtly attractive and barely larger than a 3.5-inch drive. I installed a 3GB 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda that I pulled out of an old OWC-FW case. Installation couldn't be easier: 1. Remove the two mounting screws from the back cover; 2. Plug in the SATA connector; 3. Insert the driver into the sleeve; and 4. Replace the two screws to secure the back cover to the case. It works great with my 2013 Mac Mini running OS 10.11. It will turn off automatically when the computer turns off if it is directly connected to the computer. Unfortunately, it doesn't turn off with the computer when plugged into a powered hub and left on all night. I tried three different USB 3 hubs - Bokcore, Pluggable, and Dyconn - and it kept disconnecting, rendering it unusable. . Oddly enough, thanks to the 3-port hub built into the Inateck 3-port USB 3.0 hub with a 2.5" USB 3.0 HD body, it was 100% reliable! One feature that I really appreciate about the Mediasonic is the on/off switch. Most drives don't have a power button, but I find this to be an important feature for spare drives that are typically kept offline. Finally, the LED lighting is soft and unobtrusive. The downsides are the lack of rubber feet, the lack of a stand to set it up on its side, and the choice of USB 3 hubs. At twenty-five shells, it's not cheap, but it works well. Pleasure. It also looks better on product images. It's not as luxurious as my old OWC case, but it's half the price, so I'm happy and might buy another one to salvage my old LaCie FW drive.