Ineo NA307 & NA302Ue Hard Drive Enclosures Review

Exterior Impressions

NA307


Lets take this one product at a time and start with the “internal” storage enclosure, the NA307. This is a very striking looking device and many may even mistake it for a fancy optical drive. The black plastic and silver metal makes a nice contrast which makes it a shame it is going to be hidden inside of an computer case.


The side of the NA307 is completely unadorned except for 4 screw holes for mounting this enclosure in a free 5.25 bay. From the side profile you would never guess it is not an optical drive and is in fact a hard drive enclosure. Of course we really would have liked to have seen some air vents on the side as it would certainly have helped "shape" the air flow inside the case. Hopefully the Ineo engineers will take things besides looks into consideration when designing future revisions.


The back of the device is also very standard-looking and looks a lot like any other 5.25” bay device. You have the standard SATA power and data ports and a fan, and that is about it. To further help with air flow the back of the unit is also honeycombed to help hot air dissipate even quicker.


The front of the device even looks very similar to an optical drive, or at least it does until you take a closer look. Its facade is taken up by hard drive door and this is to be expected, except for the fact the faux front door looks like a frakin’ DVD bay door. This unit would in fact be a great chameleon except for the large blue led and the lock.

The LED of this unit glows blue when it is powered on and dims when the enclosed drive is being accessed. This led also does double duty as the ejector button. By gently pushing in on it the door pops open for easy insertion and removal of the a hard drive.


The locking device is very interesting and to be honest we are of two minds about it. The upside to having a lock is you can be sure that if you mistakenly “bump” the glowing ejector button the running hard drive will not commit suicide by flinging itself from the enclosure. The downside is you must lock the unit before the enclosure will power on and allow you to access you hard drive. On the surface this sounds like a good idea but what happens in three years time when your hard drive dies and you can’t find those keys? Yes it’s a very easy lock to pick and you can by $75 “locksmith device” (if you're too lazy to make your own) which will pick them but come on folks that sounds like a lot of hassle for the Joe & Jane SixPack.


NA302Ue


The external enclosure NA302 is not as plain as its internal brother; in fact you could call this one down right flashy. Even with a quick glance, all that mesh would make you think this is a passive cooling enclosure; and you would be correct if for the wrong reasons. We will get into why all this mesh is just for looks in the internal section but for the time being, lets just say it makes the enclosure look cool but doesn’t do much to keep the hard drive itself cool.


As you can see, the NA302 can either lay flat on its “back” or with the included stand be stood up on its side. Unfortunately, using the stand does have a major downside which has to do with the less than optimal paint; or to put it bluntly it flakes off if you even look at it wrong. During testing we removed the enclosure from its stand but a goodly portion of the paint decided it like the plastic stand better and chose to stay. This does not bode well for the long term viability of this unit and we wonder what it will look like in a years time. Ugh.


The back of the enclosure is where all the expected connectors are, if in a slightly unexpected order. Most enclosures have the power port on one end and then have the data connectors on the other and this is exactly what Ineo has done as well. On the left side you have the near ubiquitous (but always nice to see) On/Off switch, then the power port; continuing the right side you have the USB and then eSATA ports. All in all it’s a clean and nice layout which is easy to use and is very intuitive.