Features:
The EZ Swap EX is a rather innovative 2.5" drive enclosure solution from Vantec. Not only does it function as a portable 2.5" enclosure, but it includes a dock that allows you to run it off one of your computer's SATA ports when docked!

The external drive enclosure box, is mostly made of aluminum with a plastic front and back. It's all black with the Vantec and EZ Swap EX logos seen several times on it. The back has SATA data and power plugs as well as a USB and power plug. Inside, this enclosure houses a single 2.5" IDE style hard drive. The SATA ports on the back are for the docking port, or for using it for E-SATA. If you have a 2.5" SATA drive then don't worry, Vantec makes an entirely SATA version of this enclosure as well.

The dock is the really innovative part of this package. As you know, traditional USB enclosures suffer with bandwidth limitations on those large file transfers. Vantec has found a way to solve this problem by making a docking port to put the drive in on it's "home" system. This dock fits in either a 3.5" drive bay, or if you use the included adapter it will also mount in a 5.25" bay as well. Inside, the dock is powered with a molex plug that gets plugged into the included adapter. The included SATA port gets plugged into the back of the dock and straight into a free SATA port on your motherboard. Now, the IDE drive is connected directly to your motherboard's SATA port, meaning the only speed limitation is that of the IDE drive. Keep in mind that IDE drives that are plugged into the SATA port will not gain the speed of a SATA drive.

 
(Click above to enlarge)

You may question why Vantec includes a USB cable with an adapter plug at the other end for the external case. Well, since the case not only has a USB plug externally, but also two SATA plugs (used when in the dock), you can also run the enclosure as an E-SATA drive. However, SATA data cables do not provide power to the drive like using the external USB cable does, so if you chose to do that, this USB adapter cable will provide power to the drive while you have it connected to an available E-SATA port on your system. This method still eliminates the need to have to carry any bulky adapters around with you!

The included zippered carry case was an excellent addition as well. I was happy to see it had improved on a few of the things I didn't like about the carry case with the NexStar SX. When opened this case has a Velcro pouch to hold the drive case on one side, and a mesh and elastic pouch on the other side for you to put other items such as the USB cable. Now, you can carry everything you need safely in only one pouch, unlike the NexStar SX pouch which only held the drive but left the user to carry all their cables separately.