Antec MX-100 3.5-Inch USB Aluminum Enclosure for SATA Hard Drive
by Antec
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List Price: Our Price: $23.00 You Save: $21.99 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Antec MX-100 3.5-Inch USB Aluminum Enclosure for SATA Hard Drive
Customer Review: A 5 star product, does what it says, and looks beautiful.
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently went from having several computer workstations, to a single laptop. I did not want to backup everything on disc (I already have things backed up on external drives) and I didn't really want to just sell my drives with my work on them (I have loads of pictures, video, and 3d renders stored over 2-3 TB of space).
I was at circuit city, and seen this case. It is from Antec, a company I trust and like, and it works with internal sata drives. As long as they didn't screw things up, this was going to be a good thing (they did not, and it is).
Assembly is so easy, a caveman can do it (darn you geiko!). You take your sata drive out of your computer, open up the antec case, insert your harddrive, screw in the 4 screws (they fit easily with my Western Digital 500gb drives) then insert the drive (and backing) into the case and plug in the power cord. Once that is closed, you screw in 2 black screws. Very easy, and it looks great too.
I have 5 of these right now, in use, and they all run perfectly, look fantastic, are slim, make no noise, do not have glaring lights, and work the way you would want.
These look great, and work great. Transfers are fast, and the unit does what you want it too.
If I have a complaint, it is the stupid power supply, The thing is slanted sideways, and takes up 2-3 ports on your power supply. Why they can't use standard power supplies, or supplies connected to a power brick is beyond me.
If you are going to be setting these up and keeping them on your best bet is to buy the Surge Protecter known as PowerSquid (it is here on amazon) that way you can keep them running at the same time, without messing up anything.
Also while I am at it, if you want a USB hub that matches these drives perfectly, then I highly recommend the low priced, and highly functional Cables To Go 7 Port USB 2.0 Hub that is also available here on amazon. It matches the design of the enclosure perfectly.
All in all, a perfect product, it does what you want, with no frills.
Note this model only has USB 2.0 function, which is fine. If you need high speed transfer for video, I would recommend a firewire 2 setup, or nas, and this will cost money.
Customer Review: A Life Saving Quick Swap
Summary: 5 Stars
This object alone saved nearly three years of hard work (documents, studies, and pictures). I owned a Western Digital 320gb external hardrive, as sturdy as the ext hd was, it couldn't survive my little nephews constant tugging on the wires. After opening it I quickly thought I could fix it with a soldering iron (oh how wrong I was), only to have a handful of burns literally. Realizing the problem layed within the usb and power area, a few stores reccomended me some rather pricey (50-80$) replacements. Problem was for that price I could easily go out and buy a new ext hd, grab the part needed from that and fix it on my own so on so fourth.
After a little bit more searching I came to the conclusion Antec's MX-100 would not only do what I only hoped for, but exceed that of what I thought I could do and for a much more reasonable price (under 30$). When I received it I was also happily suprised to see how nice the brushed look had over the aluminum, and the ease of installation didn't hurt either. Running this thing for a few hours at a time swapping data between computers and laptops, I've found the MX-100 to minimal heating (with no issues currently present). It's just as functional as my Western Digital.
The set up is amongst one of the easiest things to do in a gadget run world today. Remove your hardrive from its current enclosure, open the MX-100 by the power switch side, mount your hardrive into the little slot, and aline the little led light cable. Close, screw in four screws, and plug in the two cables given with it (power supply, and USB 2.0), and well there you go. Whenever you're ready to use your hardrive, flick the power switch to on and make sure the power supplies plugged into the wall. I mean really it can't get much easier then that.
Between the ease of use, the ability to save those hard drives often times thought to be well beyond the grave, and its stylish looks the MX-100 is a sure buy. The only con I can find (which honestly isn't all to bad) is that the cables are a tad bit short, and your hard drive may feel a little loose in there enclosure. Just a small gripe of mine, however that does not effect my views of this at all.
Customer Review: No frills, nice enclosure
Summary: 4 Stars
Right out of the box it worked without any fuss on my Windows and Linux machines. I'm using a WD Caviar Green 1TB, and it was simple to install. Maybe I've always had cheap enclosures before, but this is the first one I've had that will power down the drive if the computer shuts down or goes to sleep, and turn it back on with the PC. Really saves the life of the drive, and makes it more of a plug in and forget thing - real easy. Transfer speed is pretty standard USB speed, nothing groundbreaking here. No eSATA connection available. There's one white LED on it that indicates power - it kind of blinks for activity, but it's so bright that it's hard to tell. Since it's on even when the drive is powered but sleeping, I find it less than useful. Given how bright it is, I cover it up with electrical tape.
Folks have complained about the 4 screws for mounting the drive, which I can imagine as annoying if you're wanting to frequently swap drives. But if that's your goal, you're better off with a dock. Anyway, the screws keep the drive very secure and I have no vibration in the enclosure. The power brick is a freakish shape though, it will likely block at least one other outlet on a standard surge protector. With the power cord and included USB cable run out as long as possible without being taut, I get about 5ft between the end USB connector and the outlet, so plan on getting a long USB cable for a longer run. The aluminum case seems to stay cool enough, but it's not a heatsink and there's no ventilation in there, so I wouldn't want to treat this as a 24/7-on device, especially with a 7200 RPM drive. The benefit to no fans means that (as long as your HD is working fine) there's almost no noise.
Overall, this is a nice above-entry-level enclosure that will work well for users who just want to do a simple external HD mount for some extra storage. For power users, an enclosure with eSATA or an included fan might be something worth paying extra for.
Customer Review: Reasonably priced; nice fit and finish. Beware: GIANT wall wart!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a a fine, reasonably priced SATA hard drive enclosure.
Installation of the hard drive is straightforward:
(1) Slide out the mounting tray from the enclosure.
(2) Mate the fixed SATA/power plugs on the hard drive to their partners on the mounting tray.
(3) Secure the hard drive to the mounting tray with four included screws
(4) Slide the tray back in most of the way
(5) Attach the three-pin power/disk activity LED connector wire
(6) Slide the mounting tray in the rest of the way
(7) Secure the rear panel with two more screws (also included).
Included in the box:
-Stand for vertical placement (or it can sit horizontally on four small rubber feet).
-Power cord (with the *biggest* wall wart you've ever seen!),
-USB cable
-Driver disk for Windows 98 (it works natively with newer versions of Windows; I checked it with machines running both XP Home and Windows 7 Professional).
As with anything electronic, time will tell about its durability (but its always a good sign when they work out of the box as mine did).
Why not five stars?
Three things:
(1) BEWARE! The "wall wart" for plugging this in to your AC power source is HUGE (1.25 inches thick and approximately 2.5 x 3 inches in area). Even on a power strip with wide gaps between outlets, expect to give up two outlets to accommodate this. Surely this bulk could have been worked into the case instead, or simply made smaller.
(2) The power switch is on the rear of the case. It would be better placed in front, easily accessible to users (although the rear placement seems to be the norm for most enclosures).
(3) Included instructions are silly, Ikea-like pictograms. While they are clear enough, their content will probably be obvious to those experienced with other enclosures while remaining inscrutable to technical novices.
Customer Review: Enclosure made for Batman? Avoid the sunlight.
Summary: 3 Stars
If Bruce Wayne were to own an enclosure, it would seem like he would own this one; the enclosure is a black brush metal, but most of all, the LED on the front is shaped like a bat. Seriously. It lights up in only white (which is a good thing - who needs flashy rainbow colors?) and flickers when it is reading/writing.
This is a good basic enclosure if you just want to hook up your SATA drive via USB 2. It is very simple to install and sticks in easily (no annoying ribbons like on some IDE enclosure). For beginners, it includes an instruction sheet on how to install in all black & white picture drawings - not a single word on it - so this is good for visual learners.
With this enclosure, when you SAFELY REMOVE THE DEVICE, it will automatically shutdown the hard drive for you (from the sound of my hard drive, it seems to shut it off abruptly). Most enclosures I've used will still have the hard drive running even when you safely remove the device from the computer). If you reconnect the USB, the hard drive will power back on (that is if you have the power switch kept to ON).
The power supply doesn't use one of those "power bricks", but instead, the thickness (horizontally) is on the plug itself so it may block some areas on the power outlet.
The reason I gave this a three star is, while the enclosure works, the black brush metal started to fade and turned orange because I had it near the window - avoid from sunlight! It also will show signs of finger prints as well.
The design is really similar with Vantec's NexStar 3 Enclsoure, but I definitely prefer Vantec's glossy sleek finish (and it feels nicer too). If you want people to drool over your enclosure, then go with the Vantec. If you want more of a casual, plain look then go with this Antec.