Ineo NA307 & NA302Ue Hard Drive Enclosures Review

Extended Runtime Testing

I-NA302Ue

Where these units are marketed towards the home environment, it is reasonable to expect them to be able to handle moderate usage, with random reads and writes of various sizes. To test how good the passive cooling design of this external unit is, a Seagate 7200.10 320gb HDD installed into the I-NA302Ue was subjected to a 24hr torture session. During this time IOMeter was setup to run for 24 hours using various size tests all with completely random read/write scenarios.

During this testing the drive only got hit slightly above 39°C, but this is quite adequate considering this particular hard drive runs hot under the best of circumstances. For the whole time the enclosed drive had no active cooling and it was completely up to the metal case of the enclosure to dissipate the heat it generates. In the end we were more than a little impressed with this level of performance from a passive enclosure and its performance did rival that of some of the active cooling units we have tested in the past. Turning the backplate of the NA302Ue into one big heatsink certainly paid off for Ineo.


NA307

The moderate air movement afforded this unit from the noisy 40mm fan was more than good enough to keep the drive well below 38°C and while it was running hotter than if it had been placed in the internal drive bay it was at not time in danger of overheating. One has to wonder how much better it would have been if they had gone for either a hybrid cooling approach using both an exhaust fan and the bottom of the device as a heatsink (as seen on the external unit) or a more performance oriented fan with a higher static pressure. All musing aside this unit, AS IS, is certainly a decent performer.

CONCLUSION

When taken as a whole these two units to form a very good gestalt which is greater than the sum of their parts. The installation and removal of a hard drive from one unit to the other and back again is very straightforward yet doesn’t sacrifice security or durability for this speed. Anyone who has a need for an external enclosure yet wants to take full advantage of the hard drive and use it for the most part as an internal drive should seriously consider this Ineo one two punch; especially considering both can be had for about $50 USD.

Taken as individual products however, the outlook is not so merry. The internal NA307 enclosure suffers from latency and overall performance issues; quiet honestly better units are available from many of Ineo’s competitors (such as Zalman) which allow you to mount a standard 3.5” hard drive in a 5.25 bay which will not have any impact on performance. Of course, most of these don’t offer quick access to the hard drive, but for all intents and purposes most people looking for additional hard drive storage don’t care about speed as it will be installed and left there until the drive (or computer) fails.

Of course, not everything is less than optimal and this is a good looking unit which will reduce noisy hard drives by virtue of its additional bulk, and if you want a quick way to install and reinstall a hard drive this unit is very attractive. When you add in the very low cost of the NA307, maybe its pros outweigh the cons. Only you can decide this and we hope we have given you all the tools you need to make this decision.

On the other hand, the external NA 302 unit is a very good performer that works well at keeping its hard drive cool even though it is “only” a passive unit. When you add in the striking good looks of it and the fact that it is a eSATA and USB device which goes for less than a box of blank Taiyo Yuden DVDs it becomes a very good argument that you sometimes can get more than you paid for. In all honesty, the only negative we found with this unit was its less than durable paint job. If we were planning on using this device in stand-up configuration, we would first figure out where the included stand would be residing and give this area a quick coat of either clear nail polish or clear paint. This would solve the durability issue while not being a very obvious modification. In the end we can think of three words that sum of the NA302Ue best and those words are: Dam Good Value.


I-NA307

Pros:
- Active cooling
- Quick and easy installation and removal of a hard drive
- Attractive design
- Price

Cons:
- Mediocre performance
- Loud Fan doesn’t move much air
- Important Keys can get lost easily
- 1 Year Warranty


I-NA302Ue

Pros:
- Good performance
- Nice looks
- Passive cooling setup works very well
- Nice blue glow
- eSATA & USB connectivity
- Price

Cons:
- Fragile Paint
- Mesh Design is for looks only
- 1 Year Warranty

Thanks to Ineo for providing us with these products