Mediasonic Dual Bay RAID Hard Drive Enclosures Review

Sandra Removable Storage Benchmark

This test was run with the removable storage benchmark in Sandra XII Standard. All of the scores are calculated in operations per second and have been averaged out from the scores of 4 test runs.

Please note that both enclosures' USB results were the same with the biggest deviation being 2ops/min. For ease of use only 1 set of USB results have been included.


As you can see, FireWire 400 and USB have nearly identical numbers when it comes to RAID 0 and it is only in RAID 1 and single mode that the 1394a standard starts to distinguish itself. Once again, proving that a higher theoretical limit does not equate to higher real world numbers. Regardless of how well both the USB and FireWire 400 results are, FireWire 800 is simply in a league of its own.


Extended Runtime Testing

Since both these units are marketed towards the SOHO environment, it is reasonable to expect them to be able to handle extended usage with random multiple requests for data. To test how robust these units are and how well their cooling would work under a heavy workload, both enclosures were subjected to 48 hour nonstop sessions. During this time the enclosures were directed to not only fill and then empty their contents but were also expected to handle multiple simultaneous read and write requests from different computers on the network.

After 48hrs of nonstop use both enclosures hard drives were warm to the touch but neither was hot and both appeared to be adequately cooled. More importantly the Texas Instrument chip and both Oxfords did get very warm, some would say “hot” but neither was in risk of being damaged and they continued to work perfectly. Both enclosures passed this torture test and continue to work fine.

The only issue we had was with the Firewire-equipped and more expensive SU2FWB. Even before testing started it suddenly stopped being recognized by any system, regardless of whether the lone 1394a or either of the 1394b ports were used. Strangely it was instantly recognized when the USB connection was used. After replacing the FireWire 800 pci card and using a different system for 1394a it still did not work.

It was then discovered that the FireWire cables and the FireWire ports themselves on the SU2FWB had become loose and allowed the cables enough flex in the ports which causes random disconnects. This problem was only temporarily alleviated by replacing the cable with a known good one. The final solution was to place the unit on its side and use the known good cable. This new orientation, did not allow the cables to sag enough to disconnect and the different orientation also did not in any way affect performance nor did it seem to affect hard drive temperatures. If one is planning on using this model in a SOHO environment you may want to invest in a good cable management system that supports the cable and seriously consider the cables that come with the unit as “backup only” cables.