Thermaltake ST0020U Steel Mesh & Ruggedized Plastic 3.5" Black USB 3.0 Max 5G External Enclosure

Pros: there's a switch to turn off the blue LED lights

Cons: It can handle a 1TB WD green hard drive without a problem, but a 2TB WD20EADS won't be recognized.

apathetic support, download of the PDF manual off the thermaltake site is a 404 link

Other Thoughts: i don't even know why i'm giving this 2 stars

Pros: Highly interrested in buying this enclosure to be used to connect an internal hard drive to a Cisco Router for DLNA purposes.

Cons: But why a size limitation on a simple enclosure?! I do not understand...
I'm trying to use a Seagate 4TB drive formatted in GPT that works just fine under Windows 7 and 8.
Can somebody please explain why it "shouldn't" work?!

Other Thoughts: Apart from that, this is one sexy enclosure... if the LED last a while :P

Pros: USB 3.0
2 Fans
Quiet
tool less hard drive installation

Cons: Price

Other Thoughts: I got a free hex screwdriver with this which is the only tool you need. Nice USB 3.0 cable included also.
The hard drive I put in this was a 1TB Seagate Constellation ES ST1000NM0011. For the heck of it, I decided to run HD tune 2.55 and compare the external setup with my internal drive (WD5003ABYX which only has a SATA of 3.0 GB/sec compared to the 6.0 GB/ sec of the Seagate).

My results were:
Seagate in enclosure 67.9 MB/sec min, 151.6 MB/sec max, 119.5MB/sec avg. Access time 12.6 mS. Burst rate 163.2 Mb per/sec
WD connected to motherboard but cable is probably not the best SATA cable. 44.5MB/sec min, 133.7 MB/sec max, 104.5MB/sec avg. Access time is 13.1 mS, Burst rate is 144.6 MB/sec.
Based on this, I think I want to at least try a better cable and see if that helps anything internally.

Bottom line is that this enclosure seems to perform extremely well for an external device.

Pros: Very simple installation...except it doesn't work.

Cons: Windows 7 Won't recognize the drive.

Other Thoughts: This is the second Thermaltake product I have tried and both FAILED. Two strikes you’re out Thermaltake!

Manufacturer Response:

Hello,

If you are trying to use a brand new hard drive it will not automatically show up in Windows until it has been properly intialized and formatted through Windows Disk Management. Please review our FAQ tutorial using the link below and if you have any questions please contact our customer service team for assistance.

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Faq.aspx?ID=1143



Thermaltake USA Customer Service
email: ttsupport@thermaltakeusa.com
Toll free: 1-800-988-1088 M-F 9:00AM ~ 5:30PM (P.S.T)

Pros: Has fan to keep HDD cool

Cons: One of the 4 fan LED's on the second 80mm fan kept flickering. Had to RMA to NewEgg for an exchange and on the replacement have the same issue on the first 80mm fan in the enclosure. Poor build quality on the 80mm fan.

Pros: follow up to my review under this name: xclosureboy

I owned 3 of these for 1.5 years.
use 2 of them for backups; intermittent use.
one hung off off a pc usb 3.0 connection hosting data shared across my house by other devices; daily use.

So, how do I feel about this unit after all this time?
still loving this unit.
rock solid.

the fans keep the drive cool, and that is a very good thing.

in comparison, I have an external usb 3.0 device that you just slip the drive into from the top (common type here on newegg; good for taking a quick look at a drive), and that drive gets way hot compared to the one in this unit after doing the same test against them.

very versatile unit for daily use, backups, data replication, moving data, etc.

Cons: a bit pricey, but you do get what you pay for. keep an eye open for when it is on sale.

Other Thoughts: not everyone needs this type of unit.
but, if you DO need this type of unit, this is the one to get.

no regrets.

Pros: *Looks fantastic
*Holds my Seagate 1TB SataIII HDD Without ANY issue
*Installation was a breeze
*Keeps HDD Cool providing long life of the HDD
*Comes with necessary HEX tool, very nice!

Cons: *Soldering looks shoddy at best, when installing my HDD, I flipped the case on its side and a tiny piece of the soldering fell out of the case. I was fully expecting something to come loos but after investigating it, nothing looked out of sync...I decided to power it up and give it a go and have zero issues what so ever.
*Plastic feels a little weak but the device is still very solid.

Other Thoughts: In conclusion I give this product 5/5 stars because it looks fantastic, does what it says it will do, and I could not be happier. Thanks to Thermaltake and Newegg for the services!!

Pros: Easy to assemble
Looks great
Fans! It cools!
On/Off Switch
USB 3.0
Accepts up to 3TB
Cool Lights

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: It's not as cheaply made as some try to say.
Been using it all ready for backup and no problems.
The lights and construction are just fine.

Pros: One of the enclosures I ordered works great and recognizes drives up to 3 TB.

Cons: One enclosure recognizes the same 3 TB drives as only ~714 GB. (This is in Windows 7, trying to use the drive as a GPT drive -- this is not a WinXP problem.)

Returning this one for an RMA today.

Pros: Very fast, trivially easy to install, looks great, and very quiet (when everything is working properly, that is!)

Cons: Seems like it's pretty cheaply made! Can't rely on it to stay in the same condition it's in when you first get it!

Other Thoughts: I've had this enclosure working with my 2.5 TB SATA III drive for about 3 months now. At first, I loved it! It looked great, was very fast, and it was VERY quiet! That is, until about a month ago! I started hearing this low frequency clicking noise! It got louder and louder until I finially figured out it was coming from the enclosure!

So I took the disk out, checked the enclosure, and put it all back together. The sound was gone! Which was great, because it was driving me crazy! Two days later, it was back! I did the same thing as before, but I left the back plate off. Two days later, same thing! So, leaving it running, I gently stopped each of the fans. Turns out, the clicking was coming from the back fan!

There was absolutely nothing that I could see wrong, so the ONLY explanation is that the fan is out of alignment, and there is NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT!

So, now my 2.5TB drive is off my system, until I find a NEW enclosure! Do yourself a favor, keep looking!