[JRV] Hotway HDG-SU3 - 2.5" SATA HDD Enclosure with USB3.0 Interface

[directc]

Vendor: Hotway
Vendor ID: HDG-SU3
Description: 2.5" SATA HDD Enclosure with USB3.0 interface



The packaging box



The HDD enclosure and accessories



The USB3.0 cable. The length of the cable is approximately 43cm. Note that it's different from that of the cable used for 2.5" HDD enclosure with USB2.0 interface.



A self-adhesive thermal pad (10mm x 10mm) is provided. Two screws are provided. They, will be shown later, are used to tighten the HDD onto the PCB board.



Top view of the enclosure



Bottom view of the enclosure



Front view of the enclosure



Rear panel of the enclosure



Top view of the PCB of the enclosure. The LED at the top-right conner will lit green when it's connected to the system. Whenever there is data transfer, it will blink (green-red-green-red...).



Bottom view of the PCB of the enclosure



The chipset used is manufactured by VLI. The firmware version is 0.0.13.19.



HDD is attached to the PCB board (top view)



HDD is attached to the PCB board (bottom view). Two screws are used to tighten the HDD to the PCB board.



The HDD and the PCB are inserted into the enclosure through the opening at the rear panel.




Performance Evaluation
[1] Intel i7 920 OC@3.4GHz
[2] System memory 2x2GB
[3] Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R (Rev. 1.0, BIOS F6)
[4] External 2.5" HDD: Western Digital SATA-II 5400rpm 160GB (WD1600BEVS)
[5] Windows XP Pro 32-bit
[6] Software used: CrystalDiskMark v3.0



Performance of the HDG-SU3 when it's attached to USB2.0 port using the USB3.0 cable supplied by the vendor. It's interesting to note that the external HDD works well without the need of a USB Y-cable.




Performance of the HDG-SU3 when it's attached to USB3.0 port using the USB3.0 cable supplied by the vendor.

[AkG]

Good job overall.

Couple questions. Did you test the external hdd on SATA? If not, why include the OS' hdd numbers? This is needlessly adding in another variable without gaining any insight to the performance of the device. Without SATA numbers for YOUR particular external hdd, we can not accurately gauge the performance impact the Via Labs Inc controller chip (aka "VLi") has on things (ie you need something to compare the numbers to). Only other way to do it is via use of a second external enclosure using a different chipset (eg ASmedia, JMicorn, etc) then you can easily see any impacts the controller has on things.

What was the NEC controller firmware you used for the testing (ie for USB 3.0 testing)? What version of the drivers did you use? Older versions and drivers were...very less than optimal. Best place to get both is NOT the mfg'er website but here:
SONY/NEC/RENESAS Drivers & Firmwares

Is this the best of 4 runs, 8 runs...etc or simply ONE run? Please elaborate as you need to run it more than once to remove "zingers" that can skew the data. Why test using a drive nearly full? The numbers are not going to be the best it can provide (but considering we have no SATA numbers to compare it to...this is a minor issue).

You may want to explain the numbers and help put them in perspective too. ;)

You may wish to include a second (at least) test suite. Preferably a real world one.

Like I said good job and will be looking for more from ya in the future.

[directc]

Originally Posted by AkG

Did you test the external hdd on SATA? If not, why include the OS' hdd numbers? This is needlessly adding in another variable without gaining any insight to the performance of the device.

I agree. I added it mistakenly. Now, the related part has been removed.