Page 3: Use, Conclusion
Use
Please watch our video review to see how the product actually works in use. Our own Editor-in-Chief is doing the video for your viewing pleasure. What you should take away from this is that since the unit supports eSATA, the controller won't be the bottleneck in your data transfer path. If you are using USB2, you should expect your data transfers to be limited to the bandwidth of USB2.
The controller doesn't add any real slowness to the transfer speed of the hard drives. You'll see the full speed if you have eSATA on your computer. Don't expect that both drives working at the same time will be able to push the maximum data transfer, though. Also, if your computer doesn't support port multiplied eSATA, you'll only see a single drive using the eSATA connection. USB2 doesn't have this limitation. These are things to think about, but most computers will have no problem using the unit to the fullest on eSATA. The BlacX Duet performs well and gets the job done.
Conclusion
The Thermaltake BlacX is retailing for about $45 (Newegg, Amazon) at the time of posting. This might be more expensive than competing models, but we feel that the overall construction and the quality of the unit speaks for itself. There is some novelty in this product, though. If you don't need to have two hard drives connected at once, this unit is overkill for your needs. Thermaltake makes a single drive unit that is a bit less expensive.
If you are the type that will use a dual drive dock, this is the product for you. External Serial ATA connectivity allows the transfer speed to remain as fast as the drive can handle and this type of product makes very large backups very easy. Imagine having to backup 300GB of files on some type of removable media. The hard drive is the removable media! Thermaltake pioneered the concept and it still carries on today. The BlacX Duet is a great product if you want to connect two drives to your computer at once. If you need it, we recommend it.
ASE Labs would like to thank Thermaltake for making this review possible.
Please watch our video review to see how the product actually works in use. Our own Editor-in-Chief is doing the video for your viewing pleasure. What you should take away from this is that since the unit supports eSATA, the controller won't be the bottleneck in your data transfer path. If you are using USB2, you should expect your data transfers to be limited to the bandwidth of USB2.
The controller doesn't add any real slowness to the transfer speed of the hard drives. You'll see the full speed if you have eSATA on your computer. Don't expect that both drives working at the same time will be able to push the maximum data transfer, though. Also, if your computer doesn't support port multiplied eSATA, you'll only see a single drive using the eSATA connection. USB2 doesn't have this limitation. These are things to think about, but most computers will have no problem using the unit to the fullest on eSATA. The BlacX Duet performs well and gets the job done.
Conclusion
The Thermaltake BlacX is retailing for about $45 (Newegg, Amazon) at the time of posting. This might be more expensive than competing models, but we feel that the overall construction and the quality of the unit speaks for itself. There is some novelty in this product, though. If you don't need to have two hard drives connected at once, this unit is overkill for your needs. Thermaltake makes a single drive unit that is a bit less expensive.
If you are the type that will use a dual drive dock, this is the product for you. External Serial ATA connectivity allows the transfer speed to remain as fast as the drive can handle and this type of product makes very large backups very easy. Imagine having to backup 300GB of files on some type of removable media. The hard drive is the removable media! Thermaltake pioneered the concept and it still carries on today. The BlacX Duet is a great product if you want to connect two drives to your computer at once. If you need it, we recommend it.
ASE Labs would like to thank Thermaltake for making this review possible.