Ineo NA307 & NA302Ue Hard Drive Enclosures Review

Manufacturer Product Page: ineo
Part Number: I-NA307
Availability: Limited
Price: Approximately $22 US
Warranty: 1 Year


Manufacturer Product Page: ineo
Part Number: I-NA302Ue
Availability: Limited
Price: Approximately $25 US
Warranty: 1 Year




Just recently we reviewed a very innovative product which could double duty as an internal and an external hard drive enclosure. While it was very good, it did bring up an interesting point: namely we have been a little remiss in dealing with hard drive enclosures which are designed to be used inside a computer case. For whatever reason, be it added cooling, noise reduction or what have, you many consumers need (or at least want) a 5.25" bay enclosure which can handle a normal 3.5" hard drive. Even more customers would like the option of being able to quickly and easily remove this hard drive from one system and use it in a portable enclosure to "sneaker net" so to speak a massive amount of information to another location and then when finished put it back into their original computer.

While the previously reviewed enclosure was capable of doing this, it did overlook one concern many people may have about cooling their drive. Now, we know for a fact most single drive enclosures are more than capable of handling the loads of most hard drives...but there are a few drives that are notorious for running hot. More importantly, many people just feel more comfortable knowing their hard drive is being actively cooled; and lets face it, piece of mind is a commodity which one should never skimp on.

To this end, today’s review will be a bit different than most reviews we do. In the past, the only time we have combined two reviews into one is if both devices are so similar that only something minor (yet important enough to justify reviewing both items) differentiates them. For example in the past we review two dual bay RAID enclosures with the only difference being one was Firewire + USB and the other was USB only. Well today we are going to buck this trend and combine two wildly different items from a certain manufacturer into one large review.

In this review we will be looking at the Ineo I-NA307 internal 5.25 bay hard drive enclosure which allows for fast and easy, yet secure, storage of a single SATA drive. On the other hand, we will also be looking at the Ineo I-NA302Ue which is a passively cooled external eSATA + USB enclosure. Both of these devices are available in limited quantities from a few online e-tailers and they go for about $22 US and $25 respectively. We have a feeling this combination will be a very strong and viable solution for many people's needs; to this end we will not only be giving a final recommendation on each individual piece but also on this combination. Win, lose or draw this is shaping up to be one interesting review.

Before we get started though lets take a moment and give you a bit of background information on Ineo; a manufacturer whom we are sure you probably are not aware of....yet. Ineo is an American manufacturer which specializes in NAS and external enclosures. Not much information is available about them besides the fact their stated goal is to “…make its products easy to be used by everyone…”. This is a very laudable goal and we are looking forward to seeing what this new company has to offer. Of course we could leave it at this but the story does take an interesting twist since after a bit of digging it becomes readily apparent that at the very least Eagle Tech, EagleBit and Ineo all have offices in the same building; or the more likely answer is they are same company. As this review was getting ready to go live, Eagle Tech updated their site and added in an Ineo section. The reasons for this obfuscation are unclear but it could be a case of one is their high end customer support oriented site(Eagletech.com) and the other is a more value oriented one (ealgebit.com) and the third is just the manufacture website (ineo2tech.com). In any case if these kits are as good as the Eagle Consus M we reviewed, then we are in for quiet the ride with performance and elegance in equal measures.