Installation and Testing:
 

Hitachi 320GB SATA II & MX

Great Directions

The MX Manual is pretty straight forward and the directions are easy to follow. Four black screws have to be removed from the back of the MX which allows the internal chassis to slide out. As mentioned, the drives will actually mount like regular with four screws but stand vertically once back inside. Using the provided screws which have lower profile heads, you can mount the drive(s). Screws with taller, thicker heads will hit the inside of the case when sliding back on, so choose wisely. It's really nice when the drives slide right in to the chassis connectors without worrying about a good connection. The Vantec MX is so well built, it worked with every try.

Sliding the drive in	Great connection made
Attaching slim head screws	Finished

After connecting the power and USB cable to your PC, powering up the Vantec MX was as easy as flicking a switch. The unit did its thing going through detection at which point Windows automatically recognized the unit. Those familiar little popup messages in the icon tray whisked by with a successful installation message at the end. The unit's fan can be heard as well at that point. There was slight, hollow audible fan noise when the unit had only one hard drive installed. It was a little less noticeable when two drives were installed. To give you an idea of just how loud the fan is, it's just a bit louder than my 8800 GTS graphics card while typing away.

Ready to power up this sexy enclosure?

Next, the ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup software was installed. After a few quick clicks, the software installed and the system was rebooted. The software was then opened for a quick Q & A session to learn what the software can do. The software is actually pretty basic in terms of features. There are the standard methods of backing up files manually by selecting just what you need, or you can pick one of the preconfigured options that will automatically go looking for files in those selections. You also don't have to use ArcSoft for the Vantec MX to work. It really comes down to a matter of functionality and your own preferences.

ArcSoft functions	Selecting backup options
Backing up files	Restore option & updates

The MX is, by far, much quicker at file transfers than external storage options like pen drives. There are faster solutions out there, but you will definitely spend the money for those and they often have more than just a USB 2.0 interface. Those solutions will most likely have integrated controllers like those that come in back planes for very serious storage users. Most USB 2.0 devices average 30MBs and sometimes a bit higher depending on variables like improved circuitry, computer health, and more capable drives. The MX held its own by offering up 33MBs in HD Tune and 37MBs in HD Tach testing with 32MB files. Smaller 8MB files had a burst rate of 136.5MBs, which is pretty decent.

Transfer Rate 32MB Blocks

Transfer Rate 8MB Blocks

Larger Block Transfer Rate

And here, you can see where the external drive installed in the MX scores in relation to some other units as well as a Sandisk Cruzer. We recently tested a few smaller 2GB USB flash drives from ATP which scored around 9900 Operations per minute transferring just under half the operations the MX can do. A 100MB file transfers from the ASUS Blitz Extreme to the MX in about 4.5 seconds. Transferring the same file back to one of the system's 120GB SATA II drives takes about 2.5 seconds.

23578 Operations

While transferring files through ArcSoft is pretty simple and easy, it takes longer than copying an pasting manually. The software takes a little extra time caching and preparing the files for transfer. The important thing is that it didn't fall short of its assigned tasks The files listed and checked made it safely to the destination drive in the MX. Even the scheduled tasks via the software didn't miss the target. Since the process consumes a few resources and slows the system down a bit, it is probably best if scheduled whenever you don't need your PC.

Summary and Conclusion:

Intel has been able to successfully demonstrate USB 3.0 which has just recently been finalized. That solution requires optical cable to transfer it's projected 5GB/s capabilities which is theoretically faster than SATA's 3GB/s speeds. We won't potentially see any USB 3.0 till late 2008 and in to 2009. That should be very interesting to test when it arrives. Until then, we blokes have to pick and choose our USB 2.0 storage solutions wisely.

Before testing the Vantec MX, a little research in to the latest USB 2.0 performance and specs was in order. USB has it's own limitations due to the System Bus. The theoretical throughput from a USB 2.0 device is 480MBs while USB 1.0 is much, much lower. To give you an idea, internal SATA drives can transfer roughly 60MBs. Average USB 2.0 devices transfer at about half that and even lower for something like a high speed USB pen drive. The MX transfers at 37MB/s which is about 8MB/s faster than my previous solution.

Works nicely with the desktop

Granted, it's not as fast as an external SATA drive enclosure, but it does well as USB 2.0 external storage devices go. Comparing another USB device with speeds cruising around 30 to 33MB/s, a score of 37MB/s for those large scale files isn't half bad at all. That's a solid gain over the comparable test device. Also keep in mind, these scores are based on the motherboard's USB resource capabilities. With installations this simple and decent USB 2.0, there's not much that can go wrong. You'd have to intentionally sabotage the installation process or attach them to a damaged system. The most common issue would have to be a DOA hard drive, or even a drive on its last leg for the installation to fail. Otherwise, the Vantec MX can easily support most everyone's external storage needs.

Unless you'd like to spend at least a $100 or more for something faster, then the Vantec MX external enclosure will do perfectly. At about $55.00, it's one of the top Dual Hard Drive solutions currently available. It's also one of the nicest looking I've had the pleasure of working with. Given the ease of installation, USB 2.0 performance, software support, and design, it's a great alternative choice to much costlier back planes. I'll happily recommend the Vantec MX and it's support up to 2TB (2,000 GB) to anyone needing personalized back up dual drive storage. If you'd rather pick up a single drive solution, give the NexStar 3 consideration. We'd like to extend a big thanks to Vantec for the opportunity to back up some very important VH files.

Got News? Send 'em in!