![SABRENT USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Lay-Flat Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD [Support UASP] (EC-DFLT)](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81Y8qIYM2eL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
This dock is simply awesome. The build quality is fantastic, the fan feels solid and puts out a reasonable flow of air, and the dock performs exactly as it should. I got this because I do a lot of technician work, and one of my common practices is to backup a customers HD before I make major changes, just in case. I had an old cable/power supply combo I had used, but I found it to be tedious to dig it out, connect everything, find a solid, stable place to set the spinning HD and then do my backups. With this unit, that is now a thing of the past and I don't have to worry about anything happening to the drive while it's working.
Since I came from using one of those universal cables to using this, that is all I can compare it to, so I'll break it down point by point here:
Portability: This desktop device is not as portable as the universal cable; even compared to some other desktop devices this is on the larger size due to the heavy base and included fan. If you travel a lot and need a solution on the road, this probably wouldn't be your first choice, there are others that fold up nice and small.
Speed: Having both USB3 and eSATA connections, this is top of the line. USB3 is likely going to be getting faster as time goes on and the drivers become better, but even so it's lightening fast compared to my 2.0 devices. Writing large files, I would typically get about 17-25 MB/second off my 2.0 devices, with this I routinely see over 100 MB/second on single large files, performance drops slightly when copying many small files but that is to be expected. If you've ever transfered large amounts of data you can understand the significant difference here.
Features: This is another fantastic addition by StarTech. VS the cable, this one is way less stress on the actual drive ports, there is much less chance of accidentally breaking any connections, and the eject button means you won't be pulling the drive off with brute force. Some cheaper desktop docks don't have the eject button, and that can make it a pain to use if you have a lot of swapping to do. The fan is just a wonderful topper. I don't often have drives heat up to dangerous points while doing my operations, but anything that can help prevent premature HD failure is a wonderful feature. Heat is the natural enemy of any HD, and this little fan will help make sure you don't kill your drive early.
Style: Not important to most, but I like that they took the time to make it an efficient and sleek looking device. Sitting on my desktop it doesn't look like a toy nor does it stand out too much from my other gadgets. I take pride in my workspace, and having tons of extra cables strung up makes a space look horrible. With some proper wire management, this helps keep my desk clutter free and looks perfectly at home among my peripherals. A cable couldn't match that.
Ease of use: For the most part, this is simply plug-and-play, but that's the case with any of these. Works right out of the box, but then if it didn't I would most likely return it. Add-ons like this shouldn't require any special drivers, and this one works just fine without special instructions.
Price: Definately not the cheapest solution. Cables are much cheaper, but at the cost of convienience (but the gain of portability). There are other desktop units that run a little cheaper too, but considering the build quality and the additional fan, I am perfectly happy paying the extra premium. For all the features (fan, usb3, eSATA) this boasts and delivers on, I have no complaints. By comparison, I've gone through 3 of the connector cable solutions in the past three years, 2 of them died on me, and one of them I stepped on after foolishly leaving it out after I was done using it.
I definately do not regret buying this, and if you want a solid HD dock and aren't put off by paying a few extra dollars for the quality, this is a great choice.
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This Item  StarTech SuperSpeed USB 3.0 eSATA Hard Drive Docking Station with Cooling Fan |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | — | $20.99 | $39.99 | $26.99 | $36.99 | $35.99 |
| Delivery | — | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 |
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| Sold By | — | SSK Direct | Store4PC | SSK Direct | FIDECO | TNTonline |
From the manufacturer
Compatible with almost any system
The SATDOCKU3SEF Hard Drive Docking Station (eSATA/USB 3.0 to SATA) delivers quick and easy access to a 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch SATA hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) through either eSATA or USB connectivity, making it compatible with almost any system. Large capacity drives (tested with up to 4TB 3.5 inch and 1TB 2.5 inch drives) can be used to greatly enhance your computer's storage/backup capabilities.
Versitile connection options with support for eSATA (3 Gbps) and USB 3.0 (5Gbps)
The docking station supports full eSATA data transfer rates of up to 3 Gbps, and USB 3.0 transfer rates up to 5 Gbps while backward compatible with USB 2.0 system transfer rates of up to 480 Mbps.
Keep your drives running cool, with Built-in, variable speed cooling fan
The docking station features a built-in 80mm cooling fan that provides increased reliability and lifespan to HDDs by keeping the drives cooler.
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Packaging for SATDOCKU3SEF |
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Applications
Dock your 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch SATA Hard Drive over USB 3.0 or eSATA
- High performance hard drives that require active cooling for reliability
- Hot or non-temperature controlled environments where passive cooling may not be reliable enough
- Data recovery specialists who need quick access to drives for imaging
- Backup data quickly to an external drive for archiving
- Take advantage of new laptops and desktops with USB 3.0 connectivity, for faster data transfers
- Upgrade from a USB 2.0 drive dock to faster USB 3.0
StarTech Packaging
Look for StarTech Branded Packaging to ensure you are getting a genuine StarTech product
What's in the Box
1 - SATA Hard Drive Dock
1 - eSATA Cable
1 - USB 3.0 Cable
1 - Power Adapter
1 - Instruction Manual
Features
- 80mm cooling fan with variable speed control (including Off)
- Top slot-loading design with bay door
- SuperSpeed USB 3.0 compliant host interface with support for transfer rates up to 5 Gbps
- High speed eSATA host interface with supported transfer rates up to 3 Gbps
- Supports both 2.5" and 3.5" form factor hard drives (HDD) and solid state drives (SSD)
- Backward compatible with USB 2.0 systems, out of the box
- Supports automatic USB Suspend Mode
- Drive Power and Activity LED indicator
Reviews with images
Works just fine for me....and wow is it faster than any other External enclosure I have
The speed of this thing is just tremendous. I can't tell you how much faster this is than my other USB 3/eSata external enclosures. Speed tests show its off the charts for me. At first I thought it was a misprint or a screw up with CrystalDiskMark but I manually transferred a self made 4gb file over to the drive from my SSD and the speeds were dead on. It normally would take around 40 to 50 seconds to take a 4gb iso file or 4gb's of files in general but with this thing paired with a WD 500gb Black drive it only takes about 20 seconds. It's really fast folks.READUSB 3 - 169mbseSata - 174mbsWriteUSB 3 - 167mbseSata - 172mbsThe only real issue I've had with this in the few days I've had it is that it wouldn't recognize when I first turned it on while attached to the USB 3 port of my PC. It just sat there. I remembered last year when I got another external enclosure that had USB 3 it did the same thing. I had an easy solution for that. I plugged the USB 3 cable into a USB 2 port and voila!!! It immediately recognized the dock and became visible. I turned it off and plugged it into the USB 3 port. It now works fine. Haven't had any issues since.The fan is kinda loud but that's to be expected as its plastic on plastic...i.e...plastic fan settled in a plastic like cage will cause some noise and such. Plus, a smallish fan like this one has are not known for quiet if you want it to produce efficient cooling. I have a Rosewill 358 USB external enclosure and it's fan is way more quiet than this but it's fan is much larger. All in all though, this is a minor issue cause with this model, you can turn the fan speed higher or lower or....off if you want.Great purchase for me. Well worth the money.
Top reviews from other countries
CrisC
Poor build quality. Consider an alternative.
Reviewed in Canada on December 28, 2014