Mediasonic HUR1-SU3S2 2-Bay RAID 0/1/Single USB 3.0/eSATA 3.5" SATA HDD Enclosure

Pros: USB 3.0 / eSata. Works with 4TB drives.

Cons: The DC power connector is not standard (not as pictured).

Other Thoughts: I purchased a couple of these enclosures and they work great in RAID 1. I tested them with both 3TB & 4TB drives (They have to be formatted in GPT above 2TB). BitLocker encryption works too. To test them, I put some test files on one and pulled the drives out. I individually hooked each drive up to a pc and they were both encrypted and had all of the files. Then, I erased one drive and put them back in the enclosure. It then automatically rebuilt the erased drive. Very impressive. A tip for setting up raid one: In addition to pressing the selection button, the enclosure must be on - hooked up to either USB, eSata, or the power sync turned off. It took me the longest time to figure out with the power sync on, it is in the power saving mode (off). I also tuned the smart fan setting off so, the fan is always on.

Pros: Effective RAID 1 external drive solution for the price
Once set up, it works as expected

Cons: Could only set the RAID mode by following the tip from the other comments: After setting dip switches, hold down button WHILE powering on the case for a moment. - The instructions (incorrectly?) say to hold down the button while power is OFF, which didn't work for me. Thanks for posting that, guys. Took a bit of extra time to sort that out.

Other Thoughts: Why were 2 Screws included?

Pros: I was easily able to set up the drive in RAID 1 configuration. The only tricky part was holding the button down inside the drive to set the raid configuration. Key: Hold the button down, press the power button and then let go of the button inside the drive. Otherwise, everything flowed exactly as I expected. It hooked up easily to my Mac Mini and Windows 7 laptop without an issue.

Cons: Newegg web site does not accurately identify the capacity of drives this can handle. I was in a little bit of a panic when the box says it can handle 2 x 2 TB drives. I was pleasantly surprised to find it holds 2 x 4 TB drives according to the documentation and manufacturers web site. That is the reason I marked it down 1 egg.

Pros: Dropped my load temps by 25 degrees! My previous load temps where around 55 with the stock AMD cooler, this has brought it to about 30! It is also much quieter.

Cons: None so far

Other Thoughts: AMD Phenom ii x6 1055T (will overclock and rerevew)

Pros: I put in 2 x 2TB WD black hard drive and set it up as raid 1. It works great so far. The installation is easy. connect this unit to my computer via USB 3.0 and the transfer rate is fast. that's all I need for this enclosure.

Cons: non so far.

Pros: -Small form factor for 3.5 drives
-Quiet
-Simple to operate/configure
-Nice design
-Hardware RAID

Cons: The only gripe I have is the USB 3.0 cable provided IMHO is not up to USB 3.0 transfer speeds or standards.
The unit is operating in RAID1 mode and as such copy to/from the unit vis USB 3.0 averages 15-25MB/s however once switched to another USB 3.0 cable those speeds increased three fold.
eSata averages around 95-125MB/s which bursts up to 400MB/s for a quick brief second or two.
ATTO confirms the numbers.

Other Thoughts: The automated Samrt Fan has a light ticking sound but noth bothersome for me at least.

Pros: 1. Pretty looking

2. Cheap

3. Basic setup, good for a backup system to toss in your safe but not for a regular day to day usage device.

Cons: 1. They market (or try to by implying) that this enclosure is ALL ALUMINUM, this is a lie, the primary housing is steel, with plastic being the primary support for the enclosure an board. The only aluminum is on the dinky side plates. THIS DOES NOTHING to cool off the drives. Without the drives in contact with aluminum there is nothing to draw the heat away. The drives will just sit in there an cook, the dinky fan only works on the board but that will be rendered mute since the heat from the drives will build up over time. I should have took it back to the store but I live 2 hours drive away from the city so the cost of fuel & vehicle wear is not worth the effort, I consider it a loss of $80 bucks.

2. The installing procedure is HORRIBLE. There are two modes for every RAID option which are "Above 2TB" an "Under 2TB", they do not tell you if that's the total capacity of the drives together or the capacity of the individual drives.

Other Thoughts: 3. One mistake in install can cause total havoc: YOU MUST press an hold down this button WHILE you power on the device, failure to do so will cause a lot of headache. I have 2x 1.5 TB seagates an instead of reading 2.7TB it reads 2TB because I had it on the wrong setting (above 2TB) an it allocated 758GB to that set up so do the math, 758 subtract 2.7 an you get 2TB. Now I do not know what the hell to do to fix this.

4. No support, I was on the forums for HOURS an found no help, also a lot of other people have "gripes". For example a CRUCIAL bit of information you should have before you even TRY installing is on the 3TB drives, an they put it an the VERY end of the manual. Why do they always do this, info like this should be at the VERY BEGINNING. This is clear evidence that they just slapped this thing together an shoved it down our throats. Anything this difficult to get just to work is a lemon in my experience, AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!

Pros: Cheap price.

Cons: Cheap quality. The Weihai Power AC adapter emits a high-pitched "whine" when the unit is off. A replacement adapter was purchased from the manufacturer, and it is only marginally better. I have a lot of computer equipment in my office, and this is the only one that I can hear when it's off.

Pros: Compact and sleek unit, hiqh-quality build, quiet smartfan, handles 3tb drives, fairly simple setup, USB3.0 support, works as advertised. Standby/spindown mode is effective when sleeping or powering off computer

Cons: 1) RAID0 Performance is pathetic - with virtually ZERO transfer rate increase as compared to a single drive (this is probably due to the JMicron bridge chipset).
2) No spindown support for O/S timeout (drives remain fully powered/spinning except for sleep and power off).
3) Drive must be powered on (cold start) by pushing an electronic switch (precludes the use of power strip switch to turn on unit).
4) Premium Price (you are paying up for the USB3.0 support - eSATA is still faster however).

Other Thoughts: All in all a decent box if you don't mind the above cons. Most other vendors do not offer spindown on sleep or smartfan support. I was really disapointed by the RIAD Zero performance on this unit. Does anyone know if similar Oxford or Sil5744 chipsets have any better RIAD0 performance?

Pros: Shows promise

Cons: Not reliable, unit died after 3 weeks in use.

Other Thoughts: Keep your boxes for the first 30 days. Newegg requires all the orginal packing for an RMA.