Rosewill RX355-X2 External eSATA Enclosure - Testing

Category: Cases & Hardware Enclosures

Created on Thursday, 07 January 2010 03:16

Written by Steve

Testing:
Testing System:
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6600 2.4ghz @ Stock Speeds
Motherboard: Asus P5K-E WIFI-AP
Memory: 4x1gb Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2 800mhz (4-4-4-12)
HDD: Western Digital 500GB SATAII
DVD+/-RW: Pioneer DVD-R212
Video: Asus 8800GT 1GB
Sound: MOTU 8PRE Firewire Audio Interface
Power Supply: Seasonic S12II 500W
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition x64

To get an idea of how well the RX355-X2 performs, I will use HD Tune Pro to run benchmarks on it using both USB and E-SATA interfaces. Screenshots of my results are posted below.

USB 2.0 Performance

E-SATA Performance

As you can see, USB performance is on par with pretty much all the USB enclosures I've reviewed here. I was surprised to see that E-SATA performance was slightly better than the past few E-SATA enclosures I've reviewed - a definite plus if you're looking for an enclosure with minimal speed loss.

The only downside to this enclosure that I noted during testing was the loud fans. I think two 50mm fans is complete overkill in a single-drive enclosure. They would have been better off using either no fans and a good passive cooling design or one single fan that is thermally controlled but still leave the appearance of 2 fans so as not to change the symmetrical look of the case itself.

Another very small item is the fact that on the rear of this enclosure the power adapter connection is above the power switch. Personally I prefer to reach over the top of an external hard drive enclosure and have the power switch at the top to make it's operation easier, and not have to fumble between all the cables to find the power switch.