The Stackable 3.5-Inch USB 2.0/FireWire External Hard Drive Enclosure:

     The Stackable External Drive enclosures come in a variety of flavors: IDE to USB 2.0, IDE to USB 2.0 or FireWire and SATA to USB 2.0 or ESATA.  Choosing USB 2.0 only drops your price to a MSRP of $39.99 but the $10 is well spent to get USB 2.0 coupled with the FireWire functionality for many of us although USB 2.0 is still the faster transfer rate.

     Here you can see the assembled drive enclosure with the optional vertical brackets attached.  All of the devices except the Power Center come with these vertical brackets for amore traditional stand alone setup.  the vertical brackets cannot be attached at the same time as the horizontal pads.  This inconvenience is reduced by Ultra including an extra set of pads with each device allowing you to change your mind at least once down the road.

Specifications

• Plug and Play USB 2.0 and Firewire Interface
• Support 3.5" ATA 133/100/66 Hard Drives
• Maximum Capacity Supported: 750 GB
• 30mm Cooling Fan
• Front LED Indicators
• Dual External Firewire Ports
• USB 2.0 Transfer Rate: 480Mbps
• Firewire Transfer Rate: 400Mbps
• DC Power: 12V
• Model Number: ULT33051

System Requirements

• Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / Vista
• Mac OS 9 and above
• CDROM Drive for Driver Installation
  (Windows 98 SE Only)

     The drive enclosure comes with: A users manual, warranty registration card, drivers for Windows 98, an AC adaptor, a 5 foot USB 2.0 cable, a 5 foot FireWire cable, and two vertical brackets and four soft feet for horizontal stacking.

     As with the eSATA/USB version, the front of the drive is dominated by three red drive activity lights and three blue power lights.  These red and blue lights are all about an inch tall and light up in an all or nothing scheme.  Compared to the smaller LED style lighting on the rest of the devices, these look a bit old school big.  The blue lights stay on when ever the enclosure is powered up and have a soft pleasing glow to them where the red flash with the drive activity.  Both lights are pretty non-intrusive after the first day or so of use.

     The back of the enclosure features (from left to right): A 30mm active cooling fan, an on/off toggle switch, two 1394 FireWire Ports a USB 2.0 port and a DC power port.  The power can come from the included power adapter or directly from the Ultra stackable 180-Watt Multi-outlet DC 12V Power Center.   The inclusion of two 1394 FireWire ports allows for up to three FireWire devices to be DaisyChained together.  This could be a handy way to add a couple more FireWire enclosures to the stack for compatible systems (or a  Mac?).

The install:

     For this install I used a Seagate 500 GB 7200.10 IDE drive.  The bracket works just like the eSATA version and the plugs seem to be a bit more forgiving.  With the USB output the Seagate should be fast enough to measure the USB 2.0 throughput at max speed.

     With the same setup as before, the drive running through the USNB hub and the Buddy Hub, I tested the Seagate.  As you can see here a Raptor is wasted in an external USB setup.  My $60 Seagate drive performs at nearly the same speeds through the USB controller.  The moral of the story is simple; there is no reason you cant put together a smoking external hard drive for very little money right now with the Stackables!