Our Test Setup:
AMD Phenom II X4 940
MSI DKA790FX Platinum
Kingston HyperX PC8500 4GB
Palit Geforce 280 GTX
Seagate 1TB Hard Drive
Highpoint RocketRaid 2322
Lian Li PC888
Tagan BZ-800
We should mention that setup, speed, and access times highly depend upon the particular controller card being used as well as the overall system specifications and that your results may differ from ours. That being said we had no issues using the Highpoint 2322 which is what the EnhanceBOX E4 MS (Mini-SAS) was originally designed for and the bios configuration of the card went smoothly. As for the E4 unit itself we were amazed at how quiet it is. In fact we had to be closer than 2 feet from the box in order to know that it was indeed on, aside from the indicator lights on the front. This is a great deviation from previous enterprise storage units which often had to be kept in server rooms for their noise and in order to keep them cool. The E4 box never exceeded 100F during our testing and its noise level was downright near silent. In fact a closer inspection of the rear of the E4 reveals that the fan is a user serviceable part. The fan is a standard 80mm fan with a SEC interface and is connected via a standard 3 pin fan connector. removal of the fan and holder is accomplished by two thumbscrews. This is really thinking ahead for the consumer here, both on a replacement basis, and on an ease of use here. A hearty round of applause for the engineers at Enhance Technology.
Why are we so impressed with this? Easy, given that the unit performs cool and silent it now becoms possible and feasible to use the unit as a workstation side companion out in a production, SOHO, or business environment without even knowing its there. You can have speedy access to your data within reach of your fingertips, not located on some server across the building on stuffed in a closet to keep the noise in.
Turning the unit on results in a blue power indicator and green status light for the hard drives. The first dissappointment we encountered is located here as the status lights on the front door panel refer only to the second hard drive and not all. You will have to open the panel to see the status of all four of the drives. This is the only dissappointment we had during our testing and its not serious enough to cause any issues.
Power for the unit comes in the form of a standard PC power cable. Thats right, no bulky external AC adapter to lose, overheat, or cause placement problems. The power supply has been built into the unit, right below which can be found the connector for your Mini-sas, eSATA, or Multi-lane connector.
[…] TechwareLabs reviews the EnhanceBox E4 External Storage Solution […]