Rosewill Aluminum/Plastic 2.5-Inch USB 2.0 and eSATA External Enclosure, Silver (RX25-AT-SC-SLV)

Poor build quality:The aluminum sled inside the unit is held in place by two screws through the rear plastic face. The adapter board inside mounts to two tabs on the sled, but in my case the tabs were not bent far enough - the SATA header of the adapter board was angled too far down to allow proper installation of the drive. I had to remove the screws holding the adapter board and straighten out the tabs with a pair of needle-nose pliers before the drive would install correctly.This enclosure uses tape to secure a wire ribbon to the very bright blue status LEDs on the front side, but not enough to actually keep wires out of the way during installation. The wires have a tendency to push out between the aluminum edge and the plastic face which prevents the sled from completely sliding back into the case.I tested throughput of my OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD using HDD Tune 2.5.5 (the free version) over both USB2 and eSATA. Directly connected to an internal SATA header, this drive usually gives read speeds over 400MB/s, Over USB2, this enclosure managed a miserable 22MB/s read speed (USB2 shouldn't be saturated until ~48MB/s). Over eSATA, the read speed only increased to 140MB/s (eSATA 3Gbps shouldn't be saturated until ~300MB/s).*EDIT 2013-09-09* Further testing reveals that the poor eSATA performance of this unit is tied to my Marvell 88SE6111 eSATA controller, which reports a 3.0Gbps link but actually runs in ATA/133 mode. A motherboard with a SIL3132 controller tested at ~105MB/s read speed, but this was only a 1.5Gbps link.In my opinion, the MOST serious issue is how very frequently this unit just disconnects. The drive will just disappear from the system without warning, leading to a very unresponsive and unstable system. I suspected that this may be power related, because while the power for this unit was being provided from my motherboard's USB ports, every disconnect caused my USB mouse and soundcard to freeze as well. I attached the USB cables to a known good powered external hub not attached to the rest of the system, connecting the drive only via the eSATA cable, but the disconnects were not improved. Furthermore, the USB ports on my motherboard where this enclosure had been plugged in no longer work for ANY of my other devices.*EDIT 2013-09-09* The USB ports on my motherboard DID work again after disconnecting power at the power supply. Rebooting did not work.

I have several of these metal Rosewill enclosures and am very happy with them. For the first time, I am disappointed: Since eSata does not provide power, you have to have your own 5v external power supply. Had a known better, I'd have gotten a USB 3.0 enclosure: USB 3.0 is reputed to be more or less comparable to eStata, but carries it's own power, so you don't need external power. In any case, I'd gladly have paid $5.00 or so more for this enclosure to have the power supply included and save the inconvenience of not having to get my own power supply. Marketing this drive as supporting eSata but not including the power supply is a bit unfair.

The head of one of the screws that holds the drive to the internal frame protruded slightly too far. This made the drive quite difficult to slide into the case.I used a 1/4 inch drill bit in my fingers to ream out the countersunk hole slightly and now it fits together okay. Other than that, it works well.It came with a USB cable and an e-sata cable. The USB cable had two type A connectors (computer connectors) on one end. One of the connectors was for power only. I guess you could plug both of them in simultaneously if your computer couldn't supply enough power on one port. I didn't have to do that.If I plugged in the regular USB connector (the one attached to the thicker cable) to the computer, it operated as a USB connected drive. If I plugged in the power only connector, I could connect the e-sata cable and use it as an external SATA drive. The SATA connection is considerably faster than USB. Note that the e-sata cable doesn't carry power. You need the USB cable to supply that.Actually there is a "barrel" power connector on the case also, but it doesn't come with a wall wart to plug into it. USB power works fine though.I would probably buy this again, but if you aren't a tinkerer and the drive fits too tightly, be prepared to return it.Modern 2.5 inch drives, even the ones that spin at 7200 RPM, don't generate enough heat to overheat in this case. An older drive working hard doing a full format, maxed out at 117 F. A newer one maxed out at 112 F.

I have several of these RX25-AT-SC cases and am satisfied. Ignore the "320GB" spec. I have a new inexpensive 500GB WD Caviar Blue in there and it works fine. Other people have even larger cap drives.eSATA cable fix: Hold the eSATA cable (that came with my Rosewill RX25-AT-SC external case) in one hand. You will notice that the top and the bottom of the connector is metal, and that on both the top and bottom, there is a little lip/tab out on the end that sticks up. I suppose that little lip/tab is suppose to snap inside the eSATA connector on the HP Pavilion dv7-1464nr laptop, and hold the cable in, or help center the connector on the internal pins. Take a small screw driver and bend that little lip up some more. I'm suspecting that the cable is not made quite to eSATA design specs and is not making contact with either the contacts on the cable, or the contacts on the laptop. Maybe the connector in the laptop is not to specs, who knows. Anyway, my cable now has the little lips/tabs maybe 1-2mm (~1/64") off the plastic part of the connector. Plug in the modified cable and plug in USB power. I now have cheap eSATA cable joy.Hey, I didn't even expect an eSATA cable to come with it. Just wish I had tested the cable with another known good one before I wasted 6 hours debugging the problem. Consider having an extra quality eSATA cable around for the day this one flakes out. Would give 5 stars if the cable had worked out of the box. There you go . . .