Pros: See other thoughts - watch disk size

Cons: See other thoughts - watch disk size

Overall Review: Looks like a great device. However the specs page on NewEgg didn't indicate that this NAS requires 2.5" SATA drives. Needless to say the 3.5" SATA drives I ordered with the unit didn't fit. I'm returning it and purchasing a QNAP device that will go with the drives I ordered.

Pros: Solid box, seems well built - does what it says operationally.

Cons: May not give you the protection you think you're getting. See "other thoughts".

Overall Review: Most hard drives (I just sampled the specs for 20 different drives) have a max non-operating temperature of 60-70 °C. That's 140-158 °F. The endpoint for the ATSM E119 Fire Endurance Test used to rate this enclosure occurs when either all temperature sensors in the box (multiple are used) reach an average of 250°F + ambient starting temperature, or any individual temperature sensor exceeds 325°F + ambient starting temperature, or when the there is burnthrough. If your ambient temperature is 70°F, that's failure at 320°F (avg) to 395°F (max). These temperatures are MUCH higher than the max non-operating temperature specified for most hard drives by the manufacturers, so you'll likely need to use the DR service this comes with to get the platters out of the melted drive and get your data back if a fire really tests this box to the rated limit. If you want the drive to survive and remain functional, you need something with a better fire rating (maybe UL 72 Class 125 or 150).

Pros: Well constructed, easy to use, does what it says it does.

Cons: Includes 2 1.5m SATA to eSATA cables. The cables themselves are SATA cables, not shielded eSATA cables. They just have an eSATA connector on one end.

Overall Review: Although specs are clear (SATA dock, eSATA notebook), the "eSATA" in the name might cause you to purchase eSATA to eSATA cables for this dock. They won't work. The dock itself has an internal SATA connector to the outside world. It comes with two SATA (to dock) to eSATA (to external world) cables, hence the "eSATA" external connection. I didn't read closely enough and purchased two docks and 4 eSATA to eSATA cables which are, of course, useless with this hardware. Lesson relearned: read the specs, not the quick description.

Pros: Works as advertised, good construction, simple installation.

Cons: PDF manual on included CD doesn't make any reference to jumper settings on board itself. You may need to change these in order for your drive to work correctly (see below) depending on whether or not the drive attached to this card is a bootable system drive.

Overall Review: Using my eSata Seagate FreeAgent XT with this card, I found that my system would hang after BIOS initialization and just before Windows boot if the drive was attached. The drive worked fine if I attached it to the eSata after boot, or when booting it on USB or 1394. Although my system BIOS was set to boot the correct drive before the eSata drive was polled, it didn't seem to be working that way. By chance, I examined the RC-220 board more closely and noticed a jumper with the words 'Boot 1-2' and 'No Boot 2-3'. The jumper was set to pins 1-2. Since my external drive wasn't a system disk, I moved the jumper from 1-2 to 2-3 and rebooted. Two things happened: 1) the RC-220 onboard bios recognition didn't appear during BIOS initialization and 2) Windows booted without incident and the drive was there as it should be. So (absent documentation to the contrary), change the jumper to 2-3 if not attaching a system drive and boot should go just fine.