Sans Digital MOBILESTORE Hard Drive Enclosure Review

ATTO Disk Benchmark

The ATTO disk benchmark tests the drives read and write speeds using gradually larger size files. For these tests, the ATTO program was set to run from its smallest to largest value (.5KB to 8192KB) and the total length was set to 256MB. The test program then spits out an extrapolated performance figure in megabytes per second.

USB


Even when compared to another eSATA based solutions, the MobileSTOR’s SIL5744 just is not a great USB performer. While 30MB/s read and 27MB/s write speeds are decent, they just cannot hold a candle to the performance of dedicated USB storage solutions. All in all this is to be expected as the USB connectivity is more of value added feature to be used only when absolutely necessary. After all, anyone who buys an eSATA capable device would be foolhardy to use the slower USB option unless they absolutely had to.


eSATA


Here is where the rubber meets the road so to speak. Without a doubt, these numbers are extremely good. Even when in non RAID JBOD configuration this enclosure posts some great numbers, and the RAID 0 numbers are excellent for a two drive RAID array. The Sil 5744 may not be good at USB but at its main job it is a wonderful performer.


Extended Runtime Testing

Where these units are marketed towards the home environment, it is reasonable to expect them to be able to handle moderate usage, with random insertion and removal and random requests for data. To test how robust this unit is, and how well the active cooling would work, the MobileSTOR was subjected to a 3 Day torture session. During this time the hard drives were inserted and removed 40 times (and yes we did count the number), the RAID 1 array was instructed to do a hard format and was filled and emptied numerous times.

During this testing the mute button did come in handy as the temperature alarm did go off, and if it wasn’t for the mute option it probably would have driven us insane. On the positive side, after 3 days the Seagate 7200.10s, while getting warm, were not anywhere close to being in danger of overheating. Their removal and insertion actually got easier as time went by and unlike some enclosures we have tested in the past we would not hesitate to recommend you use and hard drives you wish (even if the hot running WD Raptor, or any other hot running hard drive) with this enclosure.