Date: September 30th, 2010
Article by: Jackie Mueller (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Thermaltake
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PRODUCT INSTALLATION AND TESTING
Installation is quick and easy with the BlacX. Simply insert the drive into the dock until it clicks into place. After that it's just a matter of plugging in the power cable, USB cable, and turning the unit on. No drivers are required; the OS will detect and install the drive automatically.
I recommend using a pre-formatted drive with the BlacX, but if you will be using it with a brand new or unformatted drive, Thermaltake has a FAQ page with instructions on how to format the drive in Windows XP/Vista/7 as well as Mac OS.
For testing, I connected the dock to my test PC running Windows 7 Home Premium with all updates applied. A DVD .iso file 4.35GB in size was copied from the test PC to a 500GB Seagate SATA II drive connected to the dock. The same file was then copied from the external drive to the test PC. Transfer times using USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 were recorded.
Before beginning, I copied the .iso file between two SATA II drives in my test PC. It took one minute, 29 seconds. Let's see how that compares to USB 2.0, then USB 3.0:
4.35GB File Transfer (USB 2.0)
|
Time (minutes:seconds) |
Write to external drive |
2:04 |
Read from external drive |
2:03 |
4.35GB File Transfer (USB 3.0)
|
Time (minutes:seconds) |
Write to external drive |
1:26 |
Read from external drive |
1:16 |
The results show pretty clearly how much faster USB 3.0 is than its predecessor. Theoretically it's up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0, although real world speeds will be more in line with the test results shown here. Regardless, it's a big jump in speed that's definitely worth it – especially when transferring large files like HD videos and DVD images.
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