Introduction

Since the introduction of USB 3.0 major companies try to expand their product line in to the high speed field. Lets face it, faster connection equals faster transfer speeds so you can get your job done faster. For moving small files, under 5 megabyte, USB 2.0 is perfectly acceptable but when you are trying to move larger files you might have to wait for a while. How much is a while? Well expect a 50 gig file to take and hour and half. By using USB 3.0 connection, you should be done with that 50 gig transfer just under 15 minutes. Value your time? Then you better stick to USB 3.0. Today we are going to take a look at the newest product from Ineo Technologies, I-NA318U+. I-NA318U+ is an external hard dive solution which is equipped with USB 3.0 connection for those faster transfers we have talked about. Let us take a closer look at I-NA318U+ and see what it has to offer to a modern user.

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Ineo Technologies website.

The I-NA318U+ is an intelligent Plug-and-Play super speed USB 3.0 portable storage device. The portable device has been designed to backup and protect important data. It provides the best solution to keep data between different computers up-to-date or to carry important information securely and conveniently. The data transfer rate of USB3.0 is 5Gbps and it is 10 times faster than USB2.0. This is the best solution for you to not waste time for waiting data transferring.

Features

Stylish Aluminum design keeps hard disk drive cool down
USB3.0 transfer rate up to 5Gbps. USB2.0 transfer rate up to 480Mb/s
Fully compatible with 3.5" SATA I/II Hard Disk Drives
Truly Plug and Play and Hot Swappable
Supports: Windows 98SE/2000/Mac/Linux for USB2.0
Supports: Windows XP/ Vista / 7 for USB3.0
Blue and Red LEDs indicate the power and activity of data access

Specifications

Interface: USB 3.0 to 3.5” SATA HDD
Supports: SATA I/II Hard Disk Drive
Data transfer rate: USB2.0: 480Mbps / USB3.0: 5Gbps
Maximum Speed: 5 Gb/s
Material: Aluminum Alloy casing
System Requirements: Windows 98SE/2000/Mac/Linux for USB2.0
System Requirements: Windows XP/ Vista / 7 for USB3.0
Instruct Light: Blue and Red LEDs

Package Contents

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a closer look at I-NA318U+.

Closer look

Front Shot		Rear Shot

Ineo's color schema is relatively simple yet effective. They are trying to keep things as simple as possible yet fair towards the consumer. From the front of the packaging we found a shot of I-NA318U+ in action. What really does jumps at you is the USB 3.0 connection which is mentioned all over the packaging. There are few action shots on the back of the packaging that shows users how to properly install the hard drive in to this enclosure.

Ineo Logo		Description

Ineo was never shy about putting their logos all over the packaging. I strongly think that with fewer logos they would leave a stronger impression on a user. On both sides of the package we found helpful information about the transfer speeds and also features and specifications of I-NA318U+. Very helpful when you are shopping for something and would like to know its technical side.

Out of the box		I-NA318U+

I-NA318U+ comes with a clear stand, power supply, instruction manual, USB 3.0 cable and of cource the I-NA318U+ itself. There aren't any other connections on this particular model and that is a bit of disappointment. I-NA318U+ has aluminum design. This is extremely helpful with cooling of the hard drive. However the front and rear panels are both made out of plastic.

Plastic Surface		Rear Panel

The design of the I-NA318U+ is not all that bad however, it would be highly beneficial to have a whole unit being made from aluminum. On the back of the I-NA318U+ we found a USB 3.0 connector, power connector and on/off switch. What we noticed about the real panel that it has a slot for eSATA connection but it is empty. Why not utilize the space for an additional connection?

Front Shot		Size Comparison

On the front of the unit we found a thin silver stripe with a small LED on the top of it. This LED shows us the activity of the unit. The rear must be removed in order to install the hard drive. As you can see the overall size of I-NA318U+ is about the size of any ordinary 3.5" hard drive. It is worth of mentioning that the maximum size of the hard drive I-NA318U+ can be used with up to 2 TB.

SATA board		Read to go

The rear panel contains the sata board which the hard drive need to be attached to. Ineo has included screws for mounting the hard drive to the caddy. The best way to mount the I-NA318U+ is by using a clear stand which is also provided by Ineo.

Action Shot

The whole installation takes roughly 5 minutes and once you have correctly installed and secured the hard drive its time to transfer some data.

Testing

Today we are going to be using a Seagate Barracuda ST31500541AS 1.5 Tb Hard drive to perform benchmarks on. Our programs of the choice are HD Tune and HD Tach. With these two benchmarking applications we intent to see the performance and the speed you might expect with I-NA318U+. Please keep in mind that these benchmarks are done with USB 3.0 connection.

HD Tune Pro Read

The first benchmark we have performed was HD Tune in Read mode. We have started very strong at 103.9 MB/s and then gradually slowed down to 46.7 MB/s. The average read speed for this benchmark was 78.4 MB/s with the burst rate of 118.1 MB/s and access time of 14.9 ms. Since this is a large hard drive we should expect the high access times while operation.

HD Tune Pro Write

Our second benchmark was with HD Tune in the write mode. We didn't started as strong as in the reading mode but yet numbers seems to be right. The starting point of the benchmark we have achieved speeds as high as 94.8 MB/s. As the benchmark progressed we slowly experienced in the degration of the speeds down to 45.6 MB/s. The average write speed in this benchmark was 76.1 MB/s with burst speed of 122.5 MB/s and access time of 15.4 ms. The burst speed looks great in these two benchmarks as it is an important factor in the small to medium file transfer.

HD Tach 8 Mb vs 32 Mb USB 3.0

Our next benchmark was performed with HD Tach. We have used 8 Mb and 32 Mb tests and have gotten values very similar to those in HD Tune. The average read speeds were a 82.6 MB/s with an average burst speeds of 119.5 MB/s. The access time average recorded for these two tests was 14.7 ms.

Conclusion

It is hard to find a right product for the right job. If you are in the market for an external USB 3.0 storage for the PC then I-NA318U+ might be a suitable match. A speed hungry users could definitely benefit by having this enclosure handy. Since I-NA318U+ is oriented towards PCs and even Macs it might become a great tool for some users. I-NA318U+ also lacks the eSATA connection but we did discovered an additional space for potential eSATA connector. Perhaps in the near future I-NA318U+ will come with firewire and eSATA connectors. Over all performance of I-NA318U+ matched the reported speeds of USB 3.0 connection. With burst speeds up to 121 MB/s you should expect your data to transfer with in a fraction of the time it would take to transfer the same date under USB 2.0 connection. Our experience with I-NA318U+ has been a pleasant one and I would like to recommend it as an replacement for USB 2.0 enclosure.

Some pros we found:

Easy to install and manage.

USB 3.0 connectivity.

Backwards compatible.

Some cons we found:

Plastic front and rear panels.

No FireWire or eSATA connectivity.