Introduction

Being a geek is a tough job. I often run around the place looking for things as my work area is often a messy one. The same pretty much applies with my files. Finding the right image or a video could be difficult at times if you are like me. I am looking on my table and there are about 14 hard drives on it. Some are 2.5" and some are 3.5". Finding the right folder would be a mess. Luckily there are hard drive docking stations are available for geek like me. Today we are going to be taking a look at the newest product line from Ineo Technology, I-NA317U+. I-NA317U+ device is designed for a quick accessibility to the data on the hard drives without actually installing them in to the computer. This is a USB 3.0 portable docking station. Let us take a closer look at I-NA317U+ and see if it is going to be a suitable tool to find a folder with my birthday pictures.

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Ineo Technology website.

I-NA317U+ series are intelligent Plug-and-Play high speed USB3.0 portable docking station. It gives you the flexibility of connecting any SATA I/II HDD to your PC or laptop through USB 3.0 interface without opening up your computer case or installing into an enclosure. Simply insert any 2.5” or 3.5” SATA I/II hard drive into the I-NA317U+ HDD docking station and you are ready to transfer, copy, or backup files from now on.

Features

Without casing provides excellent silent cooling
USB3.0 Transfer rate up to 5Gbps
Fully compatible with 2.5" or 3.5" SATA I/II Hard Disk Drives
Truly Plug and Play and Hot Swappable
Blue and Red LEDs indicate the power and activity of data access

Specifications

Support 2.5" or 3.5" SATA I/II Hard Disk Drives
Support Plug & Play
Support 2.5" HDD Capacity up to 1TB
Support 3.5" DD Capacity up to 2TB
Windows 98SE/2000/Mac9.1/Linux for USB2.0
Windows XP/Vista/7 for USB 3.0

Package Contents

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a closer look at I-NA317U+.

Closer look

Front Shot		Rear Shot

I-NA317U+ comes in a very stylish packaging. Ineo's color theme is very simple but yet effective. They use colors like blue, white and black to bring out signatures on the item inside. It is very easy to read features and specifications of the item inside. On the back of the packaging we found some of the action shots of the I-NA317U+ and its features. It is important to mention that this unit is USB 3.0 capable.

Speed Comparison		Ineo Logo

On side of the package we found some helpful information about transfer speed of USB 2.0 and 3.0. There is a significant difference in the transfer speeds so this unit would be a valuable one for an every day use. There are a number of Ineo logos throughout the packaging and you should expect a few more inside:)

Out of the box		Front Shot

I-NA317U+ comes with a USB 3.0 cable, power supply, user manual and of course the docking station. I-NA317U+ is made from white marble plastic. It has a very shiny surface and it very smooth to the touch. There is only one Ineo logo on this unit and it is in the front.

Rear Panel		Rubber Feet

On the back of the unit we found a USB 3.0 connector, power connector and a power switch. Very simple indeed. The whole docking station sits on four rubber feet. The have a good grip so you don't easily knock over the unit with hard drive being inside.

Simple logo		SATA connector

There isn't much of decals on I-NA317U+, just a simple front and center logo which appears to be silver. Since this is a SATA docking station, looking briefly inside of the I-NA317U+ we found a SATA connectors. This unit is backwards compatible with SATA and SATA II. On the top right of the unit we found a small LED which is responsible for providing a user with power and hard drive activity notifications.

2.5" Hard Drive installed		3.5" Hard Drive installed

Installing the hard drives is rather easy. Just slide the hard drive in until it locks in the place. Removing the drive was a bit of a task. I was scared to give it a pull because it didn't look like it wanted to come out. Too bad I-NA317U+ doesn't come with a release mechanism for easy removable function.

Testing

We have used Seagate Barracuda ST31500541AS 1.5 Tb hard drive to benchmark I-NA317U+ unit. Our choice of applications is a HD Tune Pro 4.01 and HD Tach 3.0.4.0. With these tools we are hoping to see some of the major differences in speed between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connections.

HD Tune Pro Read

Our first benchmark was performed with HD Tune in a read mode. Maximum read speed was reached of 99 MB/s and minimum speeds recorded as slow as 46.7 MB/s. The average read speed for this benchmark was 78.1 MB/s. Comparing this to USB 2.0 connection we are doing much faster transfers. The burst rate in the read mode was 104 MB/s. So if you are planning to transfer small amounts of data, the transfer speeds would be nice and fast. The access time of the hard drive this size is usually anywhere between 14 and 16 ms.

HD Tune Pro Write

Our second benchmark was done by HD Tune in write mode. The numbers look very similar to the read mode benchmark. Maximum write speed we have achieved was 81.6 MB/s and the minimum speeds were 45.2 MB/s. The average write speed was 70.8 MB/s with 15.5 ms access time and burst rate of 118.1 MB/s.

HD Tach 8 MB vs 32 MB benchmark

Our final benchmark was with HD Tach. We have conducted an 8 MB and 32 MB benchmarks to see if the results differ from HD Tune. Average read speed of I-NA317U+ was 82.4 MB/s with 14.75 ms latenency and average burst speed of 118.1 MB/s. As you can clearly see that these speeds match the same as the HD Tune benchmarks.

Conclusion

I-NA317U+ is a very well designed docking station. There really isn't much to it however, it does provide fast and easy access to your files. With USB 3.0 support you should be able to transfer data at much faster rate than USB 2.0. We did noticed that I-NA317U+ has only USB connection. It would be highly beneficial to have more than one connection being available to users. Adding eSATA and FireWire support to the I-NA317U+ older motherboard which are not equipped with with USB 3.0 connectivity still could benefit from the higher transfer rates. Our experience with I-NA317U+ has been great and it it highly recommended to pick up I-NA317U+ if you are looking for a docking station solution for fast and easy file access.

Some pros we found:

Fast and easy access.

USB 3.0 support.

Stylish.

Some cons we found:

No release button.

Doesn't have other connection methods.