USB 3.0 is the future and it’s here now, there’s no doubt it’s
fast but there isn’t much yet in the way of pre-built hard drives on the market just yet
that can take advantage of its speed. The solution of course is to get an
aftermarket enclosure like the one I have today from Hornettek called the
Viper. This enclosure is small and well made; I put it up against another USB
3.0 enclosure and found that it actually performs a bit better.
Product Name: Hornettek
Viper U3 USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure
Author: Kristofer
Brozio
Sponsor: Hornettek
Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
The Viper USB 3.0 was designed out of
simplicity. The Viper USB 3.0 suits the very basic needs for users seeking a
simplistic external storage device. Fabricated in rigid aluminum, the Viper USB
3.0 applies catalytic heat dissipation mechanisms to remove heat out of the
enclosure housing efficiently. Allowing the device to operate within a stable
environment.
Equipped with a USB 3.0 interface, you can
experience data transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps. The Viper USB 3.0 works with a
PC or MAC and is designed to be lightweight yet also compact. The Viper USB 3.0
utilizes a vertical stand, minimizing the amount of space occupied. It is also
powered by a 12V/2A adapter and supports all the latest 3.5” SATA I/II/III
HDDs. Instantly adding more storage for your computers.
Features:
-Aluminum Casing Cools Down Your Hard Drive
-Maximum Transfer Rates Up to 5 Gbps w/USB
3.0
-Maximum Transfer Rates Up to 480 Mbps
w/USB 2.0
-HD Capacity up to 2TB
-Backwards-Compatible with USB 2.0 or 1.1
-Hi-Quality Shielded USB 3.0 Cable Ensures
Data Integrity and Speed
-Hot-Swappable: Plug & Play Without
Rebooting
-Universal fitting for 3.5” SATA I/II/III
HDD
-OS Supports Window 2000/XP/Vista/7, and
Mac OS 9.x/10.x and above, Linux kernel after 2.4.1.0
-Power Adapter, 100-240 VAC(47Hz~63Hz),
12V/2A output
-Front and side Aluminum with back ABS
panel
Specification:
Model: Viper U3
Interface: USB 3.0
HDD Support: 3.5″ SATA I/II/III HDD
HDD Capacity: Support up to 2 TB
Package Dimension (LxWxH): 8.75″ x
5.25 ” x 4.25 ” (inch)
Product Weight: 1.75lb
Plug and Play: Yes
File Transfer: USB 3.0 at 5.0 Gbps max
Material: Front and side Aluminum with back
ABS panel
OS System Support: Supports Windows
2000/XP/Vista/7, Linux 2.4.1.0 or above and Macintosh OS 8.6 or higher
Price:
$60.75 (from Amazon at time of review)
A Better
Look at Things:
I did an unboxing
video for this, not sure why, but I did it so here it is:
The box is nice looking with pictures and
specs on it.
Inside of the box
you’ll find the enclosure, USB 3.0 cable, power supply, user manual, screws and
a stand.
The enclosure is
mostly metal with plastic ends. On the front are what looks like two LED indicators,
but it’s really just one. On the back you’ll find the UBS 3.0 connection, power
switch and power connection.
The back end
slides off to reveal the SATA connection and two rails to mount the hard drive.
Installation,
Testing and Comparison:
For testing I’m
using a Seagate 7200.12 1TB 7200RPM hard drive.
To install the
drive in the Viper you’ll need to slide it into the SATA connector, and then
secure it with two screws on the rails and finally slide it into the enclosure
and lock it in place with two more screws.
For testing I used
Atto, CrystalDisk Mark and SiSoft Sandra Removable Storage and Physical Disks
benchmarks. I’m also comparing the Viper to the Thermaltake Max5g USB 3.0
enclosure.
In testing with Atto
I decided to see how much of a difference there was between USB 2.0 and USB
3.0, so in that test you’ll also see a comparison for that as well. So let’s
start with Atto then:
Comparing USB2 to
USB3, we can see an increase of almost four times that of USB2 performance.
Comparing the Viper to the Max 5G, the 5G is about 8mb/s faster.
Here’s the
CrystalDisk Mark test:
Here the scores
are very close, not much of a real difference between the Viper and the Max 5G.
Next up is SiSoft
Sandra Physical Disks Test:
Benchmark hard disks (i.e. the disk itself,
not the file system). Shows how your physical disks connected to the storage
adapters or hosts compare to other disks in a typical computer.
As the test measures raw performance it is
independent on the file system the disk uses and any volumes mounted off the
disk.
Drive Score: is a composite figure
representing an overall performance rating based on the highest read or write
speed across the whole disk. Thus the higher the better.
Access Time: is the average time to read a
random sector on the disk, analogous to latency response time. Thus the lower
the better.
Well they look
very much the same to me in terms of Drive Score. The difference though is the
Random Access Time where we see the Viper performs much better than the Max 5G.
The last test I
have is SiSoft Sandra Removable Storage test:
Benchmark removable and flash devices.
Shows how your removable storage and flash memory devices compare to other
typical devices.
Combined Device Score: is a composite
figure representing an overall performance rating based on the average of the
Combined Score figures over the four file sizes. (Higher is better, i.e. better
performance)
The in the graphical window the Combined
Score (y axis) is plotted as a function of the file size (x axis). The y axis
can be toggled between linear and logarithmic scale. Please note that the x
axis scale is non-linear and somewhat distorted for ease of comprehension. The
chart is intended for easy to use ‘one-glance’ comparison, and it should NOT to
be used for data readout.
Endurance Factor: is a figure representing
the Wear and Life Expectancy of flash devices; this is obtained by dividing the
average performance (normal condition, i.e. sequential write) to the lowest
performance (high-stress condition, i.e. same block re-write).
It measures the relative improvement of
endurance caused by the wear leveling or flash management algorithm; the
absolute endurance of a device (i.e. its expected life-time) is directly
dependent, in addition to this Endurance Factor, on the nominal manufacturer
rating of maximum erase/reprogram cycles, which is typically 100,000+ for SLC
and 10,000+ for MLC devices. (Higher is better, i.e. longer life-time for the
device)
Here we see the
Viper performs much better than the Max 5G for the Device Score.
Overall, not too
bad for the Viper.
The Viper is made
well, I like the size and build quality of it, it’s small. The Viper does get
very warm to the touch though, actually quite hot honestly.
It’s metal so it’s
as quiet as the drive inside.
Summary
and Comments:
So after using the Viper for a while I’ve come to like it. The Viper is well made and it
performs well.
The enclosure gets
a bit warm to the touch yes, but that’s only when it’s under load for long
periods of time.
DragonSteelMods
gives the Viper USB 3.0 Enclosure a 4.5 out of 5 score.
Pros:
+Well made product
+Decent speeds
+Nice, long length
on both power adapter and USB 3.0 cable
+Small in size
Cons:
-Can get rather
hot
review# 693
Disclosure: This product was given to DragonSteelMods
for review by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us
as payment for the review; we do not, never have, and never will, accept
payment from companies to review their products.
To learn more
about our review policy, testing methods and ratings please see this page.