Introduction

It gives me a great pleasure to introduce to you Eagle Tech USA. Eagle Tech USA was kind enough to provide us with this item for a review. We are going to be looking at Consus and E-Series SATA to USB hard drive enclosure. And we are also giving one a way in our forums:) As i mentioned we are going to be looking at Consus and trying to see if this enclosure would fit in every days activities or not. There are alot of external hard drive storage's. Many are the same and some are not. It is up to the users to decide which one is for you. Here at UMLan, we have done a great deal reviews on external storage's, so we see first hand what the newest products have to offer.

About the Product

Following information is taken from Eagle Tech USA website.

Overview
Eagle | Consus E-Series Aluminum external hard drive storage system featuring in USB 2.0 interface with transfer rate up to 480bps. It support for most of the hard drive. This is the value hard drive kit provides the best and easy solution for upgrading your internal hard drive to a portable external USB 2.0 hard drive. Plug and Play USB 2.0 connectivity providing a perfect external storage solution for you to store or backup your data, music, picture, video and more! It expands your hard drive capacity instantly! Eagle | Consus E-SERIES designed for stand vertically and horizontally. Yet, it comes with quiet fan less design to keep your hard drive in tip-top shape and silent. Eagle | Consus E-SERIES external hard drive storage system offers you super-speedy data transfer and remarkable versatility.

Features
  Works with 3.5" SATA hard drive
  Thumb screws Installation
  Simple and easy installation
  Fan-less quiet design
  Plug-n-Play USB 2.0

Specification
  Internal Interface: SATA
  External Interface: USB 2.0
  Transfer Rate: 480mbps
  Supported Hard Drive: SATA (Serial ATA-150 / Serial ATA-300)
  Power Source: External Switching Power Adapter (5V/12V 2.0A)
  Power Input: 100~240VAC, 50/60Hz
  Certification: FCC, CE Certified
  Microsoft O.S. Support: Vista/XP/2000/ME
  Others O.S. Support: Mac OS 9.0 or higher
  Dimension: 8" (L) x 4.5" (H) x 1.25" (W)

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a look at the Consus.

Closer look

Overhead shot		Back shot

The Consus arrived in a rather light box. If i had mention how much it would weight, i would have to say anywhere between 1 and 2 pounds. This is rather light for an external storage device.

Side shot		Bottom shot

The package is rather colorful and very much straight forward. Eagle made sure that the customers who are checking this item out, know this is coming from Eagle.

Opening the box		Plastic protection

When i have opened the box the first thing i saw was the actual unit. Great presentation for the users if i may add. The Consus was wrapped in a protective plastic bag if you will. I believe this to protect the Consus from any scratches during shipping.

Out of the box		Instructional Manual

While taking everything out i have discovered a power supply, the stand, usb cable, user manual and 4 mounting screws. This is pretty much what you would expect to every external hard drive enclosure to have.

Out of the box		Stylish Logo

Lets take a look at the Consus itself. Consus is an aluminum based enclosure with front and back made of plastic. On the right side of the Consus there is a Eagle and Consus logo.

Bar code?		Front of the unit

I am not sure why there is a bar code on the left side of the Consus but it could be easily removed. From the front of the Consus there is a chrome design. No its not a button.

Overhead shot		Back of the unit

From the bottom and top of Consus there are two removable plastic panels. While securing the hard drive to the case, these panels come off. From the back of the Consus you can see the Power button, USB 2.0 Connector and a Power supply connector.

Rear board		Rear board close up

The rear access panel comes off. This is where you would connect your hard drive to. Remember, this is SATA drive unit so regular IEDE wouldn't work here. The connectors are just the right size without any extra slack.

Size comparison		Mounting

The size comparison of the Consus and the SATA drive is in above pictures. It looks like there is just enough space for the hard drive and that's pretty much it.

Mounting close up		Read to power up

Mounting the drive was easy. Just a couple of screws and we were ready power on.

Testing in progress		Testing in progress

When i have plugged in the Consus and turned it on, i got a soft blue light glow on the bottom right of the Consus.

Testing

Our testing rig was build just few month ago and we are ready to put it in the test:) Following are the components of the test machine.

We have performed multiple tests on the external drive. Two programs we have used were HD Tach and SiSoftware Sandra.

8mb vs 32mb USB 2.0 test

With HD Tach we have performed two tests, 8mb and 32mb. With 8mb test we got speeds as high as 37.8 MB/s and with 32mb test we got speeds as high as 35.9 MB/s.

Sandra drive benchmark

To get another sample and comparison data we have used Sandra to perform the benchmark. With Sandra we got 32.19 MB/s on average benchmark.

Conclusion

There are many hard drive enclosures out there and everything depends on what your needs are. Some users could need extra storage and acceptability where others could be in need of speed and performance from the external devices. In any case, many users look forward that sharpness of the unit and features. In our studies we found out that majority of users look for eye candy when it comes to enclosures. Consus E-Series SATA to USB External Storage System has performed relatively well as far as the performance of the unit. We have gotten speeds up to 37.8 MB/s, which is standard for a USB 2.0 connection. If you are looking towards the performance and speed with an enclosure, this unit would not work for you. However if you are looking to store work files that need little change or this would be a perfect product. Some of the areas where Consus E-Series SATA to USB External Storage System could be useful would probably be a web development studio or a personal picture / mp3 collection. This particular unit does not offer any extra features such as instant back up or high speed esata connections. Do keep in mind we recommend this unit for every day use but not performance or showing off. A strong 7 out of 10!

Some pros we found:

Light weight

Easy to install and operate

Aluminum casing for better cooling

Some Cons we found:

Lack of performance