Just a quick review of the Macally USB 3.0 Aluminum Enclosure Model NSA-S350U3
Purchased this for my 2012 iMac a week ago and have had a couple days to play with it. My initial impressions are pretty good.
Value: Cost is around $50 so a bit of a premium over other enclosures but you get a nice aluminum enclosure and design. You get a USB 3 cable (about 3 feet in length, AC charger, and plastic stand color matched to the aluminum finish). Noteworthy is that this is only USB 3.0 so no eSATA, firewire, or thunderbolt.
Design: Compared to cheapo aluminum enclosures that can be bought for half the price, the Macally case looks very nice. Goes well with rest of the Mac peripherals to give a nice overall esthetic look. The design I will say has more of a Mac Pro feel from a few years ago so some may see it as a little dated compared to the new Mac designs coming out. I think some of the Porsche design Lacie external drives have a little more minimalistic and cleaner look but those don't come as enclosures. There are two colored LED (blue and red) that sit behind the front grate. The are not overly bright but do fill the square grate on one side with light. Blue seems to indicate USB 2 connection while red indicates USB 3 connection. Again personally I like more subtlety my design such as the LED lights on the Apple Trackpad or Wireless Keyboard but being able to see the LED light from 6ft away certainly has its benefits. The stand is plastic but sturdy. Other reviews have griped about using plastic given the premium of the drive. Personally, it's fine. sure I would have liked to have seen an aluminum stand with felt or other soft material laid within so as not to scratch the enclosure. Other notables, you do get a kensington lock port on the back for some security. Additional design notes worth noting, unlike many prior Macally enclosures this one is missing a power switch on the front bezel which would have been a nice feature. Rather the power switch is located in the back like most other enclosures.
Performance: USB 3 speed is nice. I only have a SATA II drive in there. Older generation Western Digital Black 1TB drive (WD1001FALS). I get around 90MB/s read and write on BlackMagic. This same drive would get about 40MB/s read and write on a USB 2.0 drive. I think the speeds are a limitation of the drive but hopefully I will get my hands on a free SSD drive or a SATAIII drive such as the Seagate Momentus XT to see the speed potential. No issues connecting on the iMac. Drive was recognized instantly. I can also verify the sleep function works well with the iMac. Putting the iMac into sleep function spins the hardrive down and spins back up again when the iMac is brought back from sleep. The LED light stays on to let you know the drive is connected.
Cooling: With regard to heat, the aluminum case performs very well. I did a about a 170GB time machine install on the iMac on the 7200rpm drive and while the case did get a little warm to the touch it was by no means hot. Basically I could keep my hand on the enclosure for a long time without it feeling uncomfortable. From day to day use, the enclosure feels cool to the touch so I'm guessing it's around a just above room temperature.
Well here is my quick review. Like I said, I'm pleased but this case has its flaws/shortcomings. A little pricey but can be expected to a degree given the speed and aluminum aesthetics in my opinion. There are certainly other options available but in my opinion very few hard drive enclosures are nice too look at, especially the limited selection of USB 3.0 ones out there. I cant help but feel compared to the many other great Macally enclosures this one feels like its another typical generic enclosure but slapped on with a little aluminum. I would think for this price it should come with few additional design upgrades (front power button, better stand, and more subdued LED indicators. Lack of eSATA and firewire will make this unappealing to some PC users and users of old MAC products although Macally has a plethora of other enclosures to meet those needs.
Purchased this for my 2012 iMac a week ago and have had a couple days to play with it. My initial impressions are pretty good.
Value: Cost is around $50 so a bit of a premium over other enclosures but you get a nice aluminum enclosure and design. You get a USB 3 cable (about 3 feet in length, AC charger, and plastic stand color matched to the aluminum finish). Noteworthy is that this is only USB 3.0 so no eSATA, firewire, or thunderbolt.
Design: Compared to cheapo aluminum enclosures that can be bought for half the price, the Macally case looks very nice. Goes well with rest of the Mac peripherals to give a nice overall esthetic look. The design I will say has more of a Mac Pro feel from a few years ago so some may see it as a little dated compared to the new Mac designs coming out. I think some of the Porsche design Lacie external drives have a little more minimalistic and cleaner look but those don't come as enclosures. There are two colored LED (blue and red) that sit behind the front grate. The are not overly bright but do fill the square grate on one side with light. Blue seems to indicate USB 2 connection while red indicates USB 3 connection. Again personally I like more subtlety my design such as the LED lights on the Apple Trackpad or Wireless Keyboard but being able to see the LED light from 6ft away certainly has its benefits. The stand is plastic but sturdy. Other reviews have griped about using plastic given the premium of the drive. Personally, it's fine. sure I would have liked to have seen an aluminum stand with felt or other soft material laid within so as not to scratch the enclosure. Other notables, you do get a kensington lock port on the back for some security. Additional design notes worth noting, unlike many prior Macally enclosures this one is missing a power switch on the front bezel which would have been a nice feature. Rather the power switch is located in the back like most other enclosures.
Performance: USB 3 speed is nice. I only have a SATA II drive in there. Older generation Western Digital Black 1TB drive (WD1001FALS). I get around 90MB/s read and write on BlackMagic. This same drive would get about 40MB/s read and write on a USB 2.0 drive. I think the speeds are a limitation of the drive but hopefully I will get my hands on a free SSD drive or a SATAIII drive such as the Seagate Momentus XT to see the speed potential. No issues connecting on the iMac. Drive was recognized instantly. I can also verify the sleep function works well with the iMac. Putting the iMac into sleep function spins the hardrive down and spins back up again when the iMac is brought back from sleep. The LED light stays on to let you know the drive is connected.
Cooling: With regard to heat, the aluminum case performs very well. I did a about a 170GB time machine install on the iMac on the 7200rpm drive and while the case did get a little warm to the touch it was by no means hot. Basically I could keep my hand on the enclosure for a long time without it feeling uncomfortable. From day to day use, the enclosure feels cool to the touch so I'm guessing it's around a just above room temperature.
Well here is my quick review. Like I said, I'm pleased but this case has its flaws/shortcomings. A little pricey but can be expected to a degree given the speed and aluminum aesthetics in my opinion. There are certainly other options available but in my opinion very few hard drive enclosures are nice too look at, especially the limited selection of USB 3.0 ones out there. I cant help but feel compared to the many other great Macally enclosures this one feels like its another typical generic enclosure but slapped on with a little aluminum. I would think for this price it should come with few additional design upgrades (front power button, better stand, and more subdued LED indicators. Lack of eSATA and firewire will make this unappealing to some PC users and users of old MAC products although Macally has a plethora of other enclosures to meet those needs.
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