EnhanceBox E4 External Storage Hard Drive Array

Real World Use:

Upon unpacking and first inspection of the EnhanceBox E4 box we found it incredibly simple and yet very well built. The E4 gets its name from its ability to handle up to 4 drives which are stacked and removable via the front of the device. Drives mount into removable drive containers with 4 screws from the bottom. The containers themselves are very well built and have a latch on the front which offers excellent retention as well as positive feedback for removal. As we mentioned previously you have the ability to mount SATA I or II drives and even SAS should you have the need for some seriously fast access storage.

All told we had unpacked and mounted the drives in a total of 15 minutes. We give the device the thumbs up for quickest time for a ready to use status of all the external storage containers we have tested yet. Of course the E4 and E8 require you to use an appropriate controller card that matches the interface you select when buying the E4.

We selected the use the E4-MS in this review which means our E4 box comes equipped with a rear mounted Mini-SAS connector. This requires us to use the appropriate internal SAS controller card with an external Mini-SAS connector as well as a Mini-SAS cable to connect the two. Why do we have to use such hardware? One word . . .Speed. When connected via Mini-SAS and depending upon your SAS or SATA controller the E4 box can be configured for a variety of different RAID arrays. The of SAS drives offers two very important benefits to small businesses.

SAS Hard Drive Connector

Mini SAS Connector

1. Reliability: SAS drives offer industrial grade reliability and support.
2. Speed : Primarily with a rotational speed of 15,000 rpm as well as other internal differences the SAS drives simply operate faster.

The E4 can handle up to 4 drives and with its current firmware up to 6 TB of storage using Seagate Barracuda SATA drives or up to 1.8TB of storage using Seagate Cheeta drives. For a full listing of supported devices and drives look here.

Connectivity to your PC or Mac OSX (9.X also supported) is as simple as plugging it in once the controller card is installed. Drives are hot swappable if configured in a non RAID array, which means you can install and uninstall drives on the go without the need for restart or shut down.

Model Description E4-ML Compact Desktop 4 Drive Multi-lane Enclosure E4-SA Compact Desktop 4 Drive SATA-to-eSATA Enclosure E4-PM Compact Desktop 4 Drive SATA-to-Port Multiplier Enclosure E4-MS Compact Desktop 4 Drive Mini-SAS-to-SAS/SATADisk Support E4-ML 4Drive SAS / SATA Disks with Keylocks E4-SA 4Drive SATA Disks with Keylocks E4-PM4Drive SATA Disks with Keylocks E4-MS4Drive SAS / SATA Disks with KeylocksCooling Everflow Model F 128025BH brushless fan DC 12V, 0.19 AMPPhysical & Environment Operating Temperature 32°F ~ 131°F Non-Operating Temperature -4°F ~ 158°FCooling Everflow Model F 128025BH brushless fan DC 12V, 0.19 AMP

Power Supply Single 180 Watt AC Input: 100-240V, ~2A, 47~63Hz Output: +12V/5A +5V/5A Dimensions D 12.25” x W 5.75” x H 7.5” Weight 13 lbs (without disk drives) Material Face Plate Bezel Sturdy ABS Plastic Housing & Tray Aluminum alloy Supported Operating System Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, 2003, 2008 Mac 9.X, 10.X Red Hat Enterprise VMware ESX 3.5 Manufacturer Warranty 3 years limited manufacture warranty

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