Fortysomething Geek

Not all USB enclosures are built the same.
Chipset controllers make a big difference. In the firewire days, you'd search out Oxford 911 chipsets enclosures because you knew they were the fastest. The same applies for USB enclosures.

Today, I got myself an OYEN DIGITAL Mini Pro USB 3.0 2.5" case. It currently retails for 30ドル.




It has the following:
ASMedia 1051E chipset.
This chipset supports a full SATA III 6GBps drives at full speed. Most of the USB 2 and 3 enclosures support only SATA I & II. Depending on firmware, some 1051E controllers support UAS (USB Attach SCSI) protocol. I don't if that is the case here so I can comment.

So if you plan to find an enclosure/dock, look for one with a ASMedia controllers. The 1051E is currently the best USB 3.0 controller on the market. I've used Gensys Logic GL3310 controller cases and they tend to run 20% slower.

Overall, here are my impressions:
It is a great enclosure reminiscent of older G-Technology aluminum G-Drive.
This one has a black matte aluminum PVD like finish. It is very high quality.

It is surprisingly good and pushes the limites of current USB 3.0 to SSD enclosures.
Using a Samsung 830, I've exceeded the BOT (Bulk Only Transport) bottlenecks going over 260 MB/sec.

I do not know if this firmware has UAS but it is definitely fast.

Most importantly, this case is cheap compared to its nearest competitor at 75,ドル Mercury Elite Pro mini which also has the same ASMedia 1051E controller. (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other+World+Computing/MEPMU3ESK/)
The Mercury Elite does have an additional eSATA connection but I don't know if that justifies the 45ドル premium.

Furthermore, in my experience, eSATA has been capped at 200 MB/seconds. You will need a special eSATA 6Gbps card that supposedly takes more bandwidth but I have not yet seen it to be proven in any tests. Most likely, your standard eSATA port on your existing computer is limited to 1.5-3Gbps.


In short, if you are looking for something around 20ドル-30, definitely look at the Oyen.

Here are some quick speed test using a SSD to test its full potential.




Here is a quick youtube benchmark video. You can see it peaking over 230 MB/sec write and 270 MB/sec reads.

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