Hard drive enclosures come in handy, it’s nice to be able to throw an HDD into one and transfer data easily, but not all are created equal. I’ve always been a fan of the Vizo Luxon series of HDD enclosures, I’ve always felt that they are some of the best looking and quality made enclosures out there. The Luxon series work very well and provide and easy to use enclosure to transfer data and protect your hard drive. Today for review I have the Luxon SD enclosure that is made for 3.5 SATA drives to be used with any USB interface to get your data from place to place…
Vizo Luxon Advanced SD 3.5" SATA to USB Hard Drive External Enclosure
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: Vizo
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
3.5" SATA Hard Drive External Enclosure
Interface : USB2.0
Model: LUS-360
DESCRIPTION
VIZO LUXON ADVANCED SD, 3.5" SATA hard drive external enclosure, is designed to be sleek and stylish, easy to use, and loaded with the advanced features you need to back up and transfer your data storage.
LUXON ADVANCED SD features high-quality mirror finishing aluminum case providing the best protection and excellent heat dissipation for your SATA hard drive. It comes with LED for status indication and USB 2.0 interface. Extremely easy to install and set up.
FEATURES
Compatible with 3.5SATA Hard Drive
Support 480Mbps High Speed USB 2.0 and USB 1.1
Aluminum housing for excellent heat dissipation
Side vents improve convection for better system cooling
Support plug and play & hot swappable
LED light indicates working status and file transfer
Stylish outlook with sleek design
SPECIFICATIONS
Case Material : Aluminum
Host Interface: 480Mbps USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 Compatible)
HDD Type : 3.5 " Hard Drive
Power Supply : AC/DC Power Adapter
( AC input: 100~ 240Vac , DC output: +12V, 2A )
Indicators : Blue for Power on / Purple for file access
Available colors : Black, Blue, Silver
Model No. : LUS-360-BK, LUS-360-BL, LUS-360-GY
Weight : 400 g (without HDD)
Dimensions : 210 (L) x 125 (W) x 34 (H) mm
SYSTEM REQUIREMENT
Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / Vista or Mac 8.6 & above
One USB port available for USB Host
Note : Driver needed for window 98/98SE
PACKAGE INCLUDES
3.5" SATA Hard Drive External Enclosure
Stand
USB Cable
Power Adapter
Screw Fitting Kit
Cleaning Cloth
User Manual
Find more HDD Enclosures at ShopZilla!
A Better Look at Things
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The packaging for all of the products from Vizo is always nicely done and very stylish, the Luxons packaging is no exception. It’s attractive and has quite a bit of information about the product listed on the back.
Opening the box up we find everything wrapped up neatly with the Luxon itself protected very well. Along with the Luxon we’ve got all sorts of accessories, including a polishing cloth to get rid of those unwanted fingerprints, hex screwdriver and screws, power supply, stand and USB cable.
It’s nice to see that Vizo went with a smaller power supply for this version of the Luxon, previous version had a small, but bulky power brick that was sort of a pain to carry around.
Here’s a picture of the old one from my last review of the Luxon IDE/SATA version:
I did find a something a bit disappointing though, the stand for the Luxon is made of plastic, the others I have owned/reviewed were made of metal. Not sure why the switch to plastic, but I can only guess it was to keep costs down.
The Luxon hard drive enclosure itself it very similar to the others of the Luxon line, in fact exactly the same… The outside is a glossy aluminum surface with graphics, the Luxon name and identifiers for the jacks on the back of the enclosure.
On the top is the hard drive power and activity indicator, something I do like very much about the Luxon series, the indicator is large and actually accents the enclosure.
On the back end we find the main connections for power, and USB, with an I/O rocker switch to power the enclosure on and off.
We’ll take a look at the inside of the enclosure in the next section, so continue on…
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Ok, to install a hard drive into the Luxon you’ll need to slide the aluminum cover off to reveal the plastic hard drive ‘cage’.
From the inside view we can see the LED and plastic bar that transfers the light from the LED tot eh outside of the enclosure.
At the very end of the cage is a circuit board with an SATA power and data connection on it, you just need to slide your SATA hard drive in and it’s basically installed.
To finish the hard drive installation you’ll need to use the included screws to secure the drive to the cage.
Then you’ll need to use the included hex screwdriver and hex head screws to attach the aluminum cover .
You can use the optional stand if you wish, it does look better this way, but it can also be used without it or just lying flat.
The LED glows solid blue to indicate powered on, and it blinks a light purple color for hard drive activity.
There’s nothing really special to report about the performance of the Luxon USB interface, it works and works well. It performs as well as any other I have used, and easily compares in quality and performance.
It turns an SATA drive into a USB drive, not much to it really. It allows for large amounts of data to be transferred from place to place with ease and with style.
Considering the costs of purchasing an already put together hard drive enclosure, it is much cheaper to buy a hard drive and an enclosure separately. Hard drives are coming down in price all the time, but there seems to be a premium price on those portable hard drives that really doesn’t get any lower.
Summary:
Although I am a bit disappointed at the new plastic stand, the replacement of the somewhat large power brick is very welcome and allows for the Luxon to be that much more portable and easier to manage.
The Vizo Luxon SD itself is one of those products that I can’t find much real fault with, it is what it is, an excellent hard drive enclosure that performs well.
DragonSteelMods gives the Vizo Luxon Advanced SD 3.5" SATA to USB Hard Drive External Enclosure a 4.5 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Excellent quality
-Easy installation
-Looks great
-Smaller power supply
Cons:
-Replaced metal stand with plastic
I would like to thank Vizo for the chance to review the Luxon SD and for their continued support of DSM.
review# 268