Jason Dunn
09-23-2004, 05:00 PM
<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/GHD125C80hi.jpg" /><br /><br /><b>Product Category:</b> External hard drive enclosure<br /><b>Manufacturer:</b> <a href="http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GHE125C">Iogear</a><br /><b>Where to Buy:</b> <a href="http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GHE125C">Iogear</a><br /><b>Price:</b> $99 USD<br /><b>Specifications:</b> Accepts any 2.5” hard drive. The casing is compatible with USB 2.0 and Firewire connections, and requires a 5 volt power line. 3.1" wide (8.1cm), 6.4" in length (16.5 cm), 0.6" high (1.7 cm).<br /><br /><b>Pros:</b><li>Professional-looking;<br /><li>Light and sturdy metal casing;<br /><li>USB 2.0 and Firewire offer interface flexibility.<b>Cons:</b><li>Bulky cables weigh down the unit;<br /><li>Power supply is quite large;;<br /><li>Not powered even when connected to a 6-pin Firewire port;;<br /><li>Expensive in comparison to other options out there.<br /><b>Summary:</b><br />If you’re looking for a way to carry a lot of data with you, a 2.5 inch hard drive is a good option, and the Iogear shell gives you both Firewire and USB 2.0 interface options. Iogear cripples the mobility factor by including cables that are far too large, and a bulky power adaptor the you wouldn’t want to carry with you. <br /><br />Read on for the full review!<!><br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>2.5 Inch Hard Drives: A Great Solution</b></span><br />Have you ever wished you had a hard drive that could fit easily in your jacket pocket, like every spy seems to have? Whether it’s corporate espionage or helping a friend pull data off his computer before formatting it, 2.5” hard drives offer a good blend of portability and storage. Most people haven’t seen 2.5” hard drives, unless they’ve done upgrades on their laptops, so you may be surprised at how thin they are. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-01.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 1: The Iogear enclosure attached to my Shuttle XPC.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-02.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 2: The 40 GB, 4200 RPM 2.5" hard drive I'm using with the Iogear enclosure.</i><br /><br />Designed primarily for laptop use, 2.5” drives are available in capacities up to 100 GB in size, and 7200 RPM in speed – although unfortunately right now there’s no 100 GB 7200 RPM drive. If you want to dabble in the 2.5” hard drive world without spending much money, eBay is a great source to pick up both new and used drives. Entry level drives are usually in the 40 GB range.<br /><br /><span><b>Installation</b></span><br />The first step was to remove the screws from the case – this was surprisingly easy, as the screws weren't turned very tightly. Now, either Iogear is using senior citizens (or RSI-inflicted geeks) for labour and they can't turn the screwdriver hard enough, or Iogear is making this easy for the user on purpose by not over-tightening the screws. Either way, I'm happy with not having to crank my screwdriver hard to get this started. Unlike most mounts that I've seen, this one wasn't designed around the concept of opening up the case – the ends come off, and the metal body is actually one piece. I'm not sure why Iogear took this approach, but it makes for a more professional looking hard drive enclosure because there are no seems. I do wonder about thermal issues though, because there are no vents anywhere on the drive, but perhaps they use the metal case as a heat conductor.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-03.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 3: The circuit board the hard drive attached to.</i><br /><br />Next, the circuit board has to be removed from one of the end caps. I found this somewhat difficult – it wouldn't just slide out as their instructions indicated. I had to press aside a small plastic piece on each side in order to slide the board out. Once that was finished, it was simple enough to attach the hard drive to the circuit board (although it took more force than I thought it would). <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-04.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 3: The 2.5" drive attached to the circuit board.</i><br /><br />Inserting the circuit board and hard drive into the plastic end cap ended with a satisfying click, then the joined pieces went into the metal shell. When the bottom piece was inserted, it lines up perfectly with the screw holes. On the top however, it does not – I needed to press down slightly to get the holes to line up. Even after getting all four screws in, it still looked like the top wasn't quite inserted all the way, even after a minute of pressing and pushing on my part, and one full disassembly, re-assembly. Further, the upper-left screw had no resistance after several turns, almost as if there weren't enough threads on that side.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b> Small Drive, Big Accessories Required to Make it Work</b></span><br />Once I completed assembling the drive, it was time to connect it to my desktop computer and make sure everything was working. This is when I was in for my first real disappointment with this drive – the power adaptor for the drive was huge! I was further disappointed to see that the USB power adaptor required a PS/2 port, something my laptop lacks. This is a bad approach to powering the unit.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-05.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 5: The bulky power adaptor that comes with the Iogear enclosure.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-06.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 6: The USB connection plugs into a PS/2 port for power – but only if your laptop has that port.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-07.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 7: Everything that comes with the Iogear unit. The leather carrying case for the drive is a classy touch, but it would have been nice to have a pouch on the front for the cables.</i><br /><br />My last external 2.5" enclosure, a no-name brand I bought at Fry's when I was in Las Vegas, had a single cable that plugged into another USB 2.0 power and drew power from it. This was a much more elegant solution than the Iogear brick adaptor, and it just so happens that it works in the Iogear drive! Given that these drives are much smaller than 3.5" enclosures, mobility is a key factor here – which makes me wonder why they’d saddle the user with all these cables.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-08.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 8: Curiously enough, the Iogear unit appears to have a…belt clip? I can't imagine what else this would be for, yet I have difficulty imagining a scenario where someone would clip this to their belt. Perhaps if the cables were integrated…</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-09.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 9: On the left we have the cables required for use with the Iogear unit. On the right we have the actual drive in its leather case.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/iogear-2.5enclosure-10.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 10: The Iogear unit with the replacement cables – one for USB power, one for USB connectivity.</i><br /><br /><span><b> Conclusion</b></span><br />The Iogear enclosure is small, stylish, and very high quality. But Iogear decimates the effectiveness of this unit by burdening the user with an unacceptable amount of adaptors and cables. The key factor for a drive enclosure like this is mobility – if the user wants an external hard drive for their desktop computer, they'll buy a larger, faster, less expensive 3.5" drive. I've seen 2.5" portable drive enclosures that have a single USB cable for both power and connectivity, and the cable was even integrated into the unit, making it a true one-piece solution. At the very least if this drive requires two cables, they should be small, portable, and <a href="http://www.ziplinq.com/retractable-cable-usb.html">retractable</a>. The drive works well for what I need it for, but ultimately Iogear needs to put as much thought into their cabling solutions as they did into the design of the drive case.<br /><br />But here's the good news: Iogear has a <a href="http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GHE225U">USB 2.0 version of this product</a> out that says it's "bus powered", meaning it only requires one cable to function. That's a bit improvement, and ultimately that's the product I wish I had purchsed instead. Oh well. :wink: