BlacX Dock Report

[thedeske]

With a 2013 iMac just in, the need for a fast USB Dock is a no-brainer. The ol' Firewire Docks have to go. They were great.

Trying the Thermaltake BlacX 5G Drive Dock

There are good reviews and bad. Some even say stay away with Macs, but at 45-50 bucks, it's not a big deal to give one a try. It doesn't take much to realize there will be bad units of anything in this price range. After a few days of really putting it to the test, I must have a good one. The first thing was a clone & boot. No problems. Reading & coping files from some very old drives went without a hitch. Mount time is fast with every 2.5 and 3.5 I own. Nothing special about the unit. It's USB3 and the power button and silly "Superspeed" right next to it wink when active. The 1 meter A/B cable included seems to be good quality.

An SSD would be interesting to really see what USB speed is like with an ASmedia chip device, but I doubt I'll own one for storage any time soon. The last test will come when I zero a new drive, but it was fine on a 3 hour copy, so I don't expect any trouble. I'll keep it.

Best to all

 

[Jrtesq]

I use one with my late 2012 Mac Mini. Works great. I use it for making various backups. It's not something I keep a primary drive on; not something I use 24/7.

I use it with a few old 5,400 rpm drives. Speed is great (at least for my purposes).

Thermaltake sometimes sells them refurbished in their "B-Stock" store on their website. That's where I got mine.

Bottom line: I like it and it works well for me.

YMMV.

 

[johncon]

I use one at work and I like it very much. Very fast, hasn't given me any problems. Use it with Acronis True Image to do our imaging and backups.