SilverStone TS07B Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" Black USB 3.0 Tool-less Design External Enclosure

Pros: Very easy to assemble, feels sturdy, supplied with solid mid-grade USB3 A/B cable. Unlike a lot of USB3 devices, it was immediately recognized by both our Asrock- and Asus-based machines (Intel Z68 and Z77) without any driver issues at all. Will be testing with our Gigabyte-based AMD boxes later this week.

Cons: Power LED is on the rear of the drive - somewhat less than useful. No activity LED of any kind. Tool-less install is under ideal circumstances, if your enclosure is like ours, you'll need a small Phillips screwdriver and about 3 extra minutes to do the install. Speed is OK, definitely faster than the previous USB2 and FW800 drives, but nowhere near the USB3 spec (used a 6Gb/s SATA HDD).

Other Thoughts: Use a flashlight to check the alignment on the SATA connector inside the drive enclosure BEFORE you try to slide the drive in. If it's tipped up or down, pull out the two small Phillips screws on the interface side and slide out the controller end. Push the drive end in and rest it on that end while you slide the SATA connector into place. Once you hear the captive springs engage, re-install the screws and you're off.

Pros: I'm getting 60MB/s writes and 90MB/s reads from a rather old SATA II Seagate HDD. Pretty impressed with that. Tool less design is nice.

Cons: It vibrates a little making a hum... hardly a con.

Pros: Tool-less design is really slick. Seems well made. Newegg service was very helpful for the return I needed to make (see "cons").

Cons: Newegg incorrectly states that this enclosure accomodates 3TB drives. The manual for this product on page 3 clearly states "Support SATA har drive up to 2TB," and in fact attempting to use it with a 3TB fails. Hoppe this info saves someone some hassle.

Pros: Snap to set up, well built case. Nice solid looking enclosure.

Cons: Like ZAGS (above), same problem . It ran fine until one day Windows reported that device was unknown. Could not get it to be seen on any USB port 2 or 3. Or on my USB 3.0 Laptop. Returning for refund.

Pros: USB 3.0, supports large drives. Good price. Acceptable build quality. Transfer rate is good, when it works.

Cons: After a week of use, it began to turn itself on and off. Every couple of seconds, windows would play "hardware removed" "hardware found". This continues until you turn the enclosure off, then back on. It will then work for a couple of hours before doing the same thing again.

This is extremely annoying, especially when it occurs during large transfers.

Other Thoughts: The drive itself is fine, ran it on a different usb adapter overnight without issue, so its definitely this enclosure that is giving me problems. Wish it had lasted longer than a couple of months, going to buy something different to replace this this.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you very much for purchasing a SilverStone. Your TS07 has a one year manufacturer's warranty so please download the "USA RMA form for end-users" from the following link and follow the instructions on it so we can help you replace the defective unit:

http://silverstonetek.com/contactus.php?area=en

If you have further questions on the return process, you may also contact us directly at:

909-465-9596
usarma@silverstonetek.com

Pros: Brushed metal feel exterior and easily perceived quality.

Solid build, fantastic enclosure.

Cons: none.

Other Thoughts: Would have liked a slightly longer USB cable, but no biggie.

Pros: Perfect enclosure.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: I previously had a review about this item and I said the on/off switch was defective but it might have been my fault, I reinstalled the hard drive and this time it worked. So I'd like to update the review with a 5 stars.

Pros: Very easy to install. USB3 support is a big plus. Looks nice.

Cons: The on/off switch won't work! That's the reason I gave it 4 stars and not 5. The switch will turn the HD on, but then when I turn the switch off, it won't turn the HD off. I have to unplug and replug the enclosure and then turn the switch to on again. I don't want to let the HD run 24/24 so it's a bit of a annoyance. I'm not sure if it's a design flaw or if my enclosure has a problem.

Other Thoughts: Beside the on/off switch problem, it's a great product and highly recommended.

Pros: Piece of cake to put together
Sleek look
Comes with everything you need
Easy installation

Cons: Flimsy power connector (It sticks about half way out and wiggles around a lot, but I don't plan on moving the enclosure while it's in use so I don't see it becoming a problem).

Other Thoughts: This was my first external enclosure installation, and it took me about 15 minutes to unpack it and get the drive in use (I'm using this for simple, straight up storage space). It was easy to physically install (~5 minutes) then set up an MBR and formatted the drive on Windows 7 with the built in disk management utility (~10 minutes). No problems for me.

Pros: See below

Cons: See below

Other Thoughts: Although the more tech-savvy folks out there will realize you mistake, the less than tech-savvy won't: USB 3.0 has a speed of 5.0 GB/Sec. 480 MB is the spec for USB 2.0