Looking for a good enclosure for your 3.5" hard drive? Yeah we all been there. Now a days there are an unlimited number of enclosures on the market which makes it really hard to compete amongst. Ineo Technologies are in that market and doing fairly well. Their approach to the market is trough business look and feel of their products. Today we are going to take a look at one of the business class 3.5" hard drive enclosures by Ineo Technologies, I-NA306Ue. I-NA306Ue is a screw less design enclosure which has a very stylish look to it. Let us see if it has all functionality and ease of use.

 

 

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Ineo Technologies website.

The ineo | I-NA306Ue is designed for space-saving because it stands. The front panel can be easily opened and users can simply slide in their hard disk drives. In less than 5secs, the installation process can be completed.

Features

Truly Plug and Play
Hot Swappable
Attractive Blue LED Status Indicator
Aluminum Alloy covered with Leather Coat



Specifications

Support 3.5" SATA I/II Hard Disk Drives up to 2TB
USB2.0 Transfer rates up to 480Mbps
eSATA Transfer rates up to 3Gbps
Universal Power Adapter: 5V/1.5A, 12V/1.5A, 100-240V
Dimension (W x D x H): 221 x 131 x 55 (mm)
Windows ME/98/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista, MAC, Linux

Package Contents

Now that we got specifications out of the way, lets take a closer look at I-NA306Ue.

Closer look

Front Shot		Rear Shot

I-NA306Ue comes in a colorful box with alot of information on it. From every side of this packaging you can see Ineo logo. This packaging has a tri color theme which is easy on the eyes and helps the vivid images of I-NA306Ue to stand out. Since this is a screw less device, Ineo has included an open state of I-NA306Ue just to show the users what they are looking for if this device is chosen.

Side Shot		Side Shot

On the both sides of the packaging we found some signature features and specifications of the I-NA306Ue. This particular model is capable with Windows and Mac, so there is no problem with compatibility. Most of the systems out there will recognize this unit automatically. If the problem arises Ineo has included a driver cd with I-NA306Ue.

Top Shot		Out of the box

On the top of the box is stylish plastic handle. While carrying this unit around, why not carry it by holding a handle. Opening the box was pretty easy. No tricks here just a few pulls and everything came undone. I-NA306Ue unit comes in a white foam support so that your unit doesn't get scratches while in transport. Ineo has included a small box with accessories and a stand for I-NA306Ue along with the user manual and a drivers cd.

Contents		I-NA306Ue

The accessory box contains USB 2.0 cable, eSATA cable and a power supply for the I-NA306Ue. I could never understand why not include a power supply inside of the actual enclosure? I-NA306Ue has two sides which needs to be talked about. The bottom side of the I-NA306Ue is bare plastic but the top side is coated what looks to be leather. It is very attractive and stylish design.

I-NA306Ue Side Shot		Rubber Feet

On the side of the I-NA306Ue there is a thin chrome line which also adds on to the look of this unit. I-NA306Ue sits on four rubber feet which would help the stability of the actual enclosure.

Stylish Logo		Activity Indicator

There aren't many logos on the actual unit. In fact there is only one in the front. On the back of the unit we found an activity indicator for the I-NA306Ue. Very simple design but it doesn't the job.

Rear Panel		Front of the unit

On the back of the I-NA306Ue we found a connector panel. User are able to use USB 2.0 or eSATA connections with I-NA306Ue. If you would like faster speeds i would recommend using eSATA connection. The front of the unit is also made from plastic but has that abs look to it as well as the whole unit.

Back plane		Size Comparison

Opening up I-NA306Ue was easy. Ineo provides a small needle key on the bottom of the stand. With this needle you can release a front lock and install your hard drive. The I-NA306Ue is a little bit longer than your average 3.5" hard drive which makes a the whole unit to look slimmer.

Ready to rock!

Now that we got pictionary out of the way, lets take a look at some test data.

Testing

ASUS P5K-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

MSI RX2600XT Diamond Plus Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB 128-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16 HDCP

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor

4 Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200 RPM SATA-300 Hard Drive

2 OCZ Reaper HPC 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit

For our testing purpuses we are going to be using HD Tach to perform a benchmark of a Western Digital 250 Gb hard drive. We will be performing tests in USB 2.0 and eSATA connection.

HD Tach USB 2.0 8 Mb vs 32 Mb

Our first test was with USB 2.0 connection. We got speeds anywhere between 34.9 MB/s to 35.6 MB/s with burst speed of 35.8 MB/s. This is pretty much the maximum speed you can get out of the USB 2.0 connection.

HD Tach eSATA 8 Mb vs 32 Mb

Our next test was performed with eSATA connection. We have gotten much faster read speeds from 69.9 MB/s to 70.2 MB/s with burst speed of 174.4 MB/s. Very much expected on the eSATA channel

Conclusion

I-NA306Ue definitely stands out in the crowd and makes a great first impression. As we dig deeper to find a stylish performance unit, it makes it clear that this units is oriented towards business class users. There aren't any cool flashing points or amazing performance in this unit however it is designed to just work and work well. If you need a car to drive you to work and back, why would you buy a Maserati? Over all experience with I-NA306Ue was a pleasant one. The performance of this unit is also was acceptable. I strongly believe that I-NA306Ue would be a good item to have for any travel purposes. Ineo took extra time to design I-NA306Ue and i think they did a great job. 10/10!

 

Some pros we found:

Lightweight design.

Stylish leather cover.

Fair performance.

Screw less design.

Some cons we found:

None that we could find.