Home > Computers & Internet > Drive Cases > VANTEC NST-360UFS-BK NexStar 3 Aluminum 3.5in External Hard Drive Enclosure Retail Serial ATA, USB 2.0, eSATA External Drive Case
VANTEC NST-360UFS-BK NexStar 3 Aluminum 3.5in External Hard Drive Enclosure Retail Serial ATA, USB 2.0, eSATA External Drive Case
Pros: FireWire and SATA support. Cables included. Runs quiet.
Cons: Fanless case gets warm. A bit pricey. Short cables. Wall-wart type power supply.
The Bottom Line: I recommend the Vantec NST-360UFS. It works reliably and is one of the few cases that will connect a SATA drive to a FireWire interface.
shamino's Full Review: VANTEC NST-360UFS-BK NexStar 3 Aluminum 3.5in Exte...
I have a Macintosh. The latest version of it system software has an automatic backup/snapshot system (called "Time Machine") which automatically backs up changed files every hour, providing a convenient interface for recovering historic versions of files.
In order to make this work, you need a hard drive to store the backups on. I chose to buy a bare 1TB SATA drive (not reviewed here), and install it in an external drive case.
A FireWire interface is a requirement for me. USB does not perform as well, and I don't have any eSATA ports on my computer.
Unfortunately, FireWire is not very popular these days. In my local store, there was only one drive case available that both hosts a SATA drive and has a FireWire interface. This is the Vantec NexStar-3 360UFS.
When shopping for this case, be sure you select the correct model. Vantec makes many different cases, with a wide variety of internal and external interfaces. The 360UFS has a purple sticker on the box specifying its three interfaces (USB, FireWire and eSATA.)
Installation
It was very easy to mount the drive in the case. The case consists of two parts - an outer sleeve, and an inner sled (where the drive and the external ports are attached.)
Before mounting the drive, it is always a good idea to double-check any jumpers on the drive. In my case, the drive came shipped with a jumper that disables 3Gbps SATA performance (for compatibility with some older 1.5Gbps interfaces.) I removed this jumper, because the Vantec case promises full compatibility with 3GBps speeds.
To mount the drive, it just snaps on to the sled's circuit board, thanks to standardized SATA connectors. Four screws attach the drive's case to the sled's metal frame. Be sure to use the screws that Vantec provides - they are pan-headed and end up flush with the sled. I first tried to use the screws that came with the drive, but they were round-headed, causing the drive/sled assembly to not quite fit into the case.
Once the drive is mounted on the sled, it easily slides into the case (the metal sleeve.) Before completely closing the case, a wire is attached to the sled's circuit board, to connect the drive's in-use light. You don't have to worry about connecting the wire backwards - its pins are symmetric, so the light will come on properly regardless of which side is "up".
Once the wire is connected, slide the rest of the case closed and secure it with two screws, and you're done.
Overview of the 360UFS
The case is powered from an external power supply. It is a "wall wart" type supply, that attaches directly to the power outlet. It is narrow enough to not block neighboring outlets on a standard power strip, but I prefer power supples that have a cord to run from the transformer to the outlet.
The case has no fan, but the drive is thermally attached to the aluminum case. After several weeks of operation (accessed for a few minutes approximately once per hour), the case is warm, but not hot to the touch.
Despite having rubber feet that mate with notches on the top of the case, I would not recommend stacking other devices above this case. There might not be sufficient airflow to dissipate heat if multiple devices are stacked. Instead, I recommend using the provided stand, which will mount the case vertically, minimizing the surface area in contact with your desk, to maximizing the area available for cooling.
The case has a blue in-use light in the shape of the Vantec logo. The light comes on when the drive is powered and blinks when the drive is accessed. Some people (especially those who keep their computer in a bedroom) may find the light too bright and may want to cover it.
In the package, you get the case, desk stand, power supply, mounting hardware, three data cables (USB, FireWire and eSATA), a SATA-to-eSATA adapter bracket (for PCs without eSATA ports), a CD containing driver software, mounting hardware, and a small instruction manual.
The instruction manual is well-written. There was no difficulty following the instructions.
Evaluation
On the back panel, there are two 6-pin FireWire ports (suitable for daisy-chaining), a USB port, and an eSATA port. I only used one FireWire port. I don't know how the drive performs using the USB or eSATA interfaces.
The first thing I noticed, when setting up the drive, is that Vantec's bundled wires are not quite long enough for my purposes. I could not place the drive where I wanted (on top of the computer's tower-case), because the wire from the power supply was not long enough. When I placed it in an alternate location on my desk, I found that the bundled FireWire cable was not long enough to reach my FW hub. Fortunately, I had another FW cable on-hand, so this was not a big problem.
When used with a Macintosh, or a modern Windows system, there is no need to use the software on the included CD. I did not install (or even view the contents) of the CD.
It is worth noting that the CD is a 3" mini-CD. This means a computer with a slot-loading drive (like many laptops) may be unable to read it.
I attached the drive to my computer via FireWire and powered it on. Mac OS X immediately saw the drive, saw that it was not formatted, and asked if I wanted to format it. After clicking "yes", Mac OS launched its Disk Utility, which had no problem formatting the drive.
Once it was formatted, Mac OS asked me if I wanted to use the drive as a Time Machine backup volume. Since that was my intention, I clicked "yes". And it was up and running.
I don't have actual performance benchmarks, but the drive appears to run quickly. For an informal benchmark, it took about 9 hours to zero-out the entire contents of a 1TB drive (about 31MB/s). After setting up Time Machine, the initial backup took about 4 hours to copy 90GB of files (about 6MB/s).
Of course, these are not valid throughput benchmarks, since my computer's speed affects the numbers. My computer is a five-year-old Power Macintosh G4, with dual 1GHz processors.
Final summary
I am quite happy with my 360UFS case. It works reliably and has not given me any problems. If the cables were a little longer, and if the power supply was not a wall-wart, I would consider this an ideal case.
The fanless design means the case introduces no noise, but it may be inappropriate for installations where the ambient temperature is high.
The $70 price I paid was a bit high, but that's to be expected from a retail store. I see from the Epinions listing that lower prices are available.
The NexStar 3 utilizes USB 2.0, offering speed up to 480Mbps, Firewire providing speeds of up to 400Mbps, or SATA with speeds of up to 3Gbps.More at TigerDirect.com
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Mirror Finished Aluminum Casing Cools Down Your Hard Drive Easily Add Storage to Any System with USB or Firewire Transfer Rates Up To 400Mbps With Fir...More at Amazon Marketplace
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