Vantec Nexstar Hard Drive Dock

Vantec Nexstar Hard Drive Dock

Published August 25, 2008 at 01:16:15 PM, by Steve Martinez

Overview

Vantec was formed in 1994 and is based in sunny Fremont, California. If you've purchased from them in the past, it's probably in the realm of power supplies or external hard drives.

We had the pleasure of trying out their latest product, the Vantec Nexstar Hard Drive Dock. Sporting both USB 2.0 and the powerful eSATA connections, this device straddles the fence between speed and convenience, with none of the discomfort.

Design

The Vantec Hard Drive Dock is fairly simple, nothing short of attractive. Vantec went for a clean white look, punctuated by blue LEDs that are pleasing to the eye. The large power button is front and center along with the hard drive activity LED so you know when your drive is up to something.

The back of the device features three simple connections. It features one for power, another for USB 2.0, and the third for an eSATA connection. All connections are clearly labeled, which makes for easy identification.

However, it would've been more effective to place the labels above the connections rather than below, since they're blocked as soon as you connect the cables. That's surely preference and a small oversight, since the connections are so few and easy to recognize that you could almost do this blindfolded.

If you are wondering where the drive is installed on this unit, you need only look to the top of the unit. The drive sits vertically through the top of the dock, and it's a moment's work to slide the drive in and complete the installation. To remove the hard drive from being docked, simply press the button that sits to the right of the opening, and the drive pops up to remove. Installation is used lightly here.

Connectivity & Images

Although the dock came with a mini-disc full of the requisite drivers, both our test machines (running Windows XP Professional SP2 and Vista Ultimate) had no problem recognizing this drive in USB mode the moment it was plugged in and powered on. The eSATA connection proved just as simple - with both our test systems recognizing the drive with no problems.

A little more about eSATA and why it's a welcomed addition to traditional SATA connections; first, it sports the same raw bandwidth as SATA II. Secondly, it allows a cable up to 2 meters (that's around 6 feet for the conversion impaired) in length, as opposed to the SATA one meter maximum. The eSATA connector is also created to withstand more vigorous use. Normal SATA connections are rated for around 50 insertions and removals. The eSATA connectors, however, can withstand an average five thousand manipulations, and eSATA cables are also shielded for external use, unlike their internal counterparts.

That being said, the majority of hard drive docks out there don't come with eSATA connectivity. If you're transferring an entire system's worth of music, video, and documents over, you'll benefit from eSATA's real-word gains of at least 400% over USB 2.0.

Features

The inclusion of both USB 2.0 and eSATA connectivity gives us two good reasons to recommend this dock. Thanks to an open-air enclosure like this one, you don't have worry about your hard drive suffocating, nor the dock contributing to vibration and noise. It runs nearly silent, but it helps to have a relatively quiet hard drive. However, this does leave the drive open for other mishaps, which may not be suitable for some. People who have a dustier environment or pets should reconsider this option as it is much easier for these particles to enter the hard drive and increase failure rate.

It's also helpful that you don't need to swap drives into your case when you want to access data. Sure, network storage systems can fulfill a similar role, although network speeds aren't as fast as a direct eSATA connection. This dock can set up much easier than mapping a network drive, although you'll need to install an eSATA bracket and connect the SATA connection to your motherboard to get the speed advantage.

Performance and Conclusion

Performance

Here at Laptop Logic, we're stalwart fans of real-world testing. Although we use a host of benchmarking programs for our laptops (Worldbench is a great example of a benchmarking program that relies on real-world testing), the end result is how well it works in an everyday setting. Let's face it; no one cares how a device works in a lab if it can't perform outside of one.

Hard drive docks are dependent on both the hard drive used and the connection used. The hard drive I used is a Seagate Barracuda 7200 with an 80 GB capacity. The transfer method is the bottleneck in this testing, so we'll concentrate on the differences between USB 2.0 and eSATA connections.

Using the USB 2.0 connection, we were able to get large files (500 MB+) to transfer at a rate of 33.8 MB/s. That's decent, but the real hopes were that the eSATA would be the real reason to purchase this dock. We weren't disappointed there either. The eSATA connection allowed us to transfer data at an impressive 119.8 MB/s. That's nearly a 350% increase in transfer speed! Now that's what we call a performance gain!

Conclusion

Vantec's Nexstar Hard Drive dock is easy to recommend. It performed admirably in both our USB 2.0 and eSATA testing. The design of the dock is an intuitive and clean look. The package comes with everything you need to take advantage of this device's potential (if you have eSATA connections on your laptop/computer that is.)

Potential is what this device is all about. If you have no need to access hard drives externally, this device is not for you. When I received this product for review I was changing over from my old 80 GB hard drive to a new 640GB one, and this dock made transferring my system over (a time-consuming and sometimes stressful process) both relatively easy and fast. Also, with the eSATA bracket sitting in your system, you don't need to worry about detaching and opening your computer to access a new hard drive. The wear and tear you'll save on your system by not opening it up, swapping drives, and inserting connections is harder to quantify, but of equal importance.

At the projected MSRP of $40, if you think you can use this dock, you'd be a fool not to check this out.

Pros:

• Easy to Use
• Clean Design
• Impressive Transfer Speeds

Cons:

• Your computer must supports eSATA within current configuration to utilize this method
• Only comes in white (as of now)
• Does not accept older ATA harddrives
• Open air configuration is not for everyone
• Not Mac OS/X compliant (according to the box anyways)

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Technical Specifications

No specifications are available.