Hardware Bistro

Product: SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock with One Touch Backup; Y-1040B
Manufacturer: Unitek
Supplied by: Brando
Price: USD53/ RM186
Launch Date: NA

Hard drive enclosure is very common nowadays no matter it is for 3.5" HDD or 2.5" HDD. Today we are going to bring you a special HDD enclosure which can be used for 3.5" or 2.5" HDD and the most important thing is this HDD enclosure comes with one touch backup feature which is good and easy to back up the important files just in a second; Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock, provided by Brando.

Company Profile

Tech-Top Technology Limited, a trendy, flexible and reliable company, is a leading supplier of cables and computer accessories for customers all over the world. As the name stated that, "Tech-Top" always stands at the top among the technological field. We are confident to provide the latest and efficient computer products, as we are enthusiastic in research and development fields. Undoubtedly, continuous innovation and improvement on the variety and quality of the products are the only way to succeed and outstand.

Tech-Top outcropped in 1995. Our factory has been concreted in Shenzhen, China with gaining trust and improving scale on production. ISO9001 approval ensures our products are in good quality. It occupies about 8000 sq meters with 10 production lines, where 8 lines are for cable manufacturing and the other 2 are for electronics. In order to provide better service, offices are present in both Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Hong Kong Office mainly serves overseas customers. This network enhances the efficiency indeed!

With a wide customer network, our customers spread all over the world. We have concrete experience in serving customers with different demands. This enables us to regulate with the market trends, to provide the latest, the most suitable products and tailored-made service for our clients. We will cherish every chance of cooperation with clients to seek the opportunity of co-development and the integration of the advantages of each other, and to open a glorious future. For all your cabling needs, contact us today!!

usb.brando.com.hk, member of Brando Workshop, offers a wide range of special, useful and helpful USB products for our customers. We deliver happiness and convenience to everyone.

 

Features:

- Supports both SATA 2.5" HDD and 3.5" HDD
- PC connection: USB 2.0
- 2-port USB hub
- 4-Slot Card Reader
- Standable, convenient and trendy design
- One Touch Backup function
- Power LED indicator
- Support Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9.X or higher
- Dimension: 165.5 x 110 x 102mm
- Weight: 236g
- *OTB function supports Windows only

Support Card Types:

- SD / SDHC / *Mini SD / *Mini SDHC / *T-Flash Card / *Micro SD / Extreme SD / Extreme III SD / Ultra II SD / MMC 1 / MMC 2 / MMC 4.0 / RS MMC / HS RS MMC
- X-Memory
- CF 1 / CF 2 / Extreme CF / EXtreme III CF / Ultra II CF / HS CF / MD
- MS / MS DUO / MS PRO / MS PRO DUO / MS MagicGate / MS MagicGate PRO / MS MagicGate DUO / MS MagicGate PRO DUO / Extreme MS PRO / Extreme III MS PRO / HS MS MagicGate PRO DUO / MS ROM / MS Select
(* means Adapter is required)

Package Contents:

- SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock with One Touch Backup
- Universal AC Adapter ~ 100-240V 50/60HZ
- Power Cable
- USB Cable
- CD Driver
- User's Manual

**Hard Disk Drive is not included

 

Packaging

 

Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock comes with a quite squared box with dimension 16.5 x 12.5 x 11.5 cm (W x D x H). The whole packaging is mostly in red & white. There isn't much of the information about how to use this device and what can it does. Some brief feature and basic information about hardware specification were written on the packaging.

 

Here is whole kit of the Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock. It comes with HDD docking station, power adapter, power cable, USB cable, driver and user's manual. All these stuffs are packed very compact in the box without any foam to protect them but everything still look well.

 

The user's manual is very complete and detail; it shows the guide step by step on how to install the software, backup and restore the files. In order to use the One Touch back up feature, software; PC Clone must be installed. Besides that DC power supply is also required to power up the Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock; will prefer a slimmer power adapter.

 

Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock with One Touch Backup

Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock is very unique and totally unlike normal HDD enclosure as you can see from the picture above. Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock has no casing at all as it allows user to swap and install the HDD just in a second. Without the HDD casing, the HDD should be cooler as for most of the HDD enclosure in the market do not come with any active cooling.

The long vertical stand is to support the HDD especially for the 3.5" HDD as the HDD requires 90 degree insertion on the docking. However will prefer the vertical stand which is removable as it is very hard to transfer or carry this docking and user might break it accidentally. The whole Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock is just around 236grams which is pretty light as overall the whole docking is made by plastic without any metal material.

The red button here is the button for One Touch Backup the file from PC to external HDD. Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock can support 2.5" and 3.5" HDD but only one type of HDD can be used at the same time. 2.5" and 3.5" are having same kind of SATA and power connector and this make Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock able to support them by designing the HDD holder bigger to support 3.5" HDD but due to this 2.5" HDD basically can't be held very firmly as there isn't other external support besides that vertical stand. Another point need to highlight here is there isn't any eject button to eject the HDD so user need to disconnect the HDD by plugging the HDD out from the docking.

At the back of Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock, there are one ON/OFF switch and 2 connectors; one is USB mini 5 pin connector to connect the external HDD to PC while the other one connector looks like old PS/2 mouse connector is for power supply.

Besides the One Touch Backup feature, Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock works as card readers as well. Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock has total four card slots for CF, SD, XD and MS to support up to 64 kind of storage cards in that are common and popular in the market. Most of the card readers will have USB ports as well and this is same for Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock where there are two USB 2.0 ports.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

Test Bed
Notebook : Dell Inspiron E1720
Processor : Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T7500
Memory : 2GB 666MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive : 120GB 2.5" 5400RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card : Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
Optical Drive : DVD RW
Operating System : Microsoft Window XP SP2
Benchmark Software : HD Tech 3.0
Ambient Temperature : 28 Degree Celsius

 

Hardware installation or setup is pretty straight forward where Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock just needs to connect power supply with the incoming adapter and PC through USB cable then HDD need to be installed vertically. However as we mentioned previously there isn't any eject button to eject the HDD so user need to unplug the HDD tenderly to avoid damage the HDD since HDD is a sensitive device.

 

Software installation and setup maybe take longer time but it shouldn't an issue even for a PC beginner. No driver is required for XP and vista OS systems but for the rest of the older OS, it is requires to install the driver and please make sure to select the right drivers as there are many drivers for other peripherals in the same driver CD.

 

After the driver is installed or skipped for XP and Vista OS, then software must be installed and the software provided is called PC Clone EX. The software installation process will take around few minutes only. In order to enable the one touch backup, this software must be launched or started first before the pressing the backup button.

 

Basically the one touch backup isn't really one touch because after the button is pressed, it will still prompt up confirmation message in order to proceed further; provided all the backup setting and the rest of the detail have been setup before maybe during first time installation.

 

Left picture above is the other setting which can be setup besides the backup/restore source and destination. During the testing, we have selected around 35GB of OS file and it took around one and half hour to complete the backup which doesn't really quick enough but still acceptable. The backup and restore with Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock is really easy; just select what the files you need to backup or restore. All the files that were backup in the external HDD will be under a hidden folder called Fnet.

 

 

Although the Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock isn't really meant for data transfer but backup features, however we have included some read/write benchmarks as well. We have compared the read/write benchmark results for HDD and flash drive. Base on the benchmark results, Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock doesn't really lagging behind than the direct connection to the PC and basically the result is pretty good for an external all in one storage docking device. 

(top pictures are direct HDD connector; bottom are through Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock)

 

Conclusion

If you are looking for a device to instantly backup your files and data all the time then you should really have a look on this Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock as it comes with software to backup and restore your files easily without scratching your head. Furthermore this device is an all in one docking which can support 64 kinds of storage card and 2 USB2.0 ports. However this device isn't cheap at all which will cost around 53USD but if you think it is worth for it then yes it is as it can supports both 2.5" and 3.5" HDD which is extremely outstanding feature compare with the rest of the HDD enclosure; kill two birds with one stone.

 

Pros:
* Back up the files instant & easily
* Support both 2.5" & 3.5" HDD
* Hot swappable
* Support 64 kinds of storage card

Cons:
* No HDD eject button
* Not easy to carry it around due to the docking design

 

Thanks to Brando for providing this sample for us to review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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