Introduction

First of all i would like to say a big thanks to Eagletech USA for providing us with this review item. They were kind enough to send us this unit for the review and once again we are all very thankful. Today we are going to take a look at a bare bone shell of Consus I-Series JBOD (ET-CSIU2J-BK). The actual unit comes in two flavors 2 750 gig drives or 2 1tb drives. We are going to be using 500 gig drives from our own collection for testing purposes of this unit. So what is JBOD? JBOD is just a bunch of drives. This solution allows you to combine any drives in to one and act as one drive. So in theory you can combine a 1 tb drive and 20 gig drive and get 1.020 gig drive. Makes sense? Of course it does! Lets take a look at Eagle Consus I-Series JBOD and see what it has to offer.

About the Product

The following information is taken from Eagletech USA web site.

Take the hassle out of manual backups with OTB! Initiate customized backups at the touch of a button. This external hard drive combines two 750GB drives into a single 1.5TB volume. JBOD controller allows you to mix-n-match hard drives of different capacities should you decide to upgrade this unit with more spacious hard drives in the future. Ultra thick 2.0mm solid aluminum chassis is extremely rugged and thermally efficient. Includes two user changeable color bezels.

• Cool running 1.5TB

• JBOD allows you to add capacity as needed

• One touch backup (OTB) with software by FNet

• Virtualization software by VMWare (30 day trial)

• User changeable 2 color bezels

• Ultra thick 2.0mm aluminum

• 6cm smart fan

• Plug-n-Play USB 2.0

• Usage: Scheduled backup & synchronization of important files between PCs

• Type: External hard drive

• Form Factor: 3.5”

• Hard Drive: 1.5TB (2 x 750GB 7200RPM 16MB cache each)

• Internal Interface: SATA I/II

• External Interface: Hi-speed USB 2.0

• Data Transfer Rate: 480Mbps

• Power Source: Universal Switching Power Adapter (5V/12V 2.0A)

• Power Input: 100-240VAC, 50/60Hz

• Certification: FCC, CE Certified and RoHS compliant

• O.S. Required: Microsoft Win98SE/Vista/ME/2000/XP Mac OS 9.0 or higher Linux

• Dimension: 5.2 x 8.4 x 4.3 inch

• Weight: 3.0 lbs

External storage system

Power adapter

Resource CD

Quick installation guide

Certified USB 2.0 cable

2 color bezels

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a closer look at Eagle Consus I-Series JBOD.

Closer look

Box Front		Box Back

Just like every item we have gotten for a review from Eagletech USA the Consus I-Series JBOD comes in a very well built box with allot to offer to end users. On the front and on the back of the box a potential buyer can check out the specs and look at the item featured before opening it out. I think it is very important aspect of show and tell.

Logo		Top shot

On the back of the box Eagletech described and explained on that the JBOD is. This is not the term you hear every day and so it may confuse some people at first. May i add that Eagletech USA logos are all over the box. I guess they were making sure that you know who you are buying from.

Left side		Right side

On the left side of the box, a short description of package content. On the right side, a clear see trough-like window. I like this design because it allows you to look inside of the product. Great marketing idea. What's better than seeing the product you are interested in or about to purchase?

Protective plastic		Out of the box

When i removed the Consus I-Series JBOD out of the box i found the actual unit neatly packaged in the plastic protective case. Nothing was moving or rambling inside. We don't want any loose items of course. Few un tucks and everything was on the table and out of the box. The contents of the package was: instructional manual, driver cd, spare face plate, power supply with power cord Consus I-Series JBOD itself and of course mounting screws:)

Consus I-Series		Front close up

Dimensions of the Consus I-Series JBOD are 5.2 x 8.4 x 4.3 inches. It is a little bit bigger than two SATA drives stacked on top of each other. In the front of the unit there is a interchangeable face plate and a oversize activity/power button. The case is made out of a solid aluminum and the front of the Consus I-Series JBOD is made of plastic.

Rear view		Feet

On the back of the Consus I-Series JBOD we found a 60 mm exhaust fan, a USB connector, power switch, power connector and an instant backup button. With included software you can set up particular folders to back up to the drive with a click of a button. The supported OS versions are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS 9.0 and later and also Linux. Very neat feature if you are a web developer or some one who works with allot of data. Consus I-Series JBOD is held by four coaster like legs. These legs are made of plastic and look very stylish on a cherry wood table:)

Underneath shot		Mounting sled

On the bottom of Consus I-Series JBOD there are four screws to remote the drive tray. Also on the bottom we found serial tags for asset tracking. The mounting sled is part plastic and part aluminum. Assuming the hard drives will get hot, aluminum shell would disburse the heat properly throughout the casing.

SATA connectors		LED activity connector

On the actual board there are 2 sets of SATA power and data connectors. Looking inside of the shell, there is a led activity connector which you must attach yourself if you want to see the unit in on or off positions.

Our test subjects		Mounted

Our guinea pigs for today are two drives. They are both 500 gig drives but from different manufacturers. One drive is from Seagate and another is from Western digital. We are going to be using them in our test. Mounting the drives is as easy as sliding them in the proper sockets and tightnening the screws on both sides of the enclosure.

LED connector socket		Power supply

On the side of the circuit board a small diagram showing how to properly connect the power led to the main board. Nothing special here. Consus I-Series JBOD comes with an external power supply. It is unfortunate that there has to be an external power supply, but what external enclosure doesn't have an external power supply? HAHAHA

Eagle Consus I-Series JBOD

Once everything is installed and properly connected, it was time to power on Consus I-Series JBOD and start the testing.

Testing

Following instructions is what you should be doing if you do not have any experience in windows drive management. I won't bore you with the set up and partition of the drives and so on. We have performed two tests and one benchmark on Consus I-Series JBOD. Following are the results.

HD Tach 8 Mb vs 32 Mb test

First test we have performed was with an 8 Mb test with HD Tach. The average read speed was capped at 34.3 MB/s and the burst speed was at 35.3 MB/s. The second test was with 32 Mb. The average speed for this test was 34.5 MB/s with burst speed of 35.4 MB/s. Considering this is done over USB 2.0 the numbers look great and the graph looks very stable.

Sandra

Next step was to run a benchmark and compare it to some of the similar USB devices out there. For this test we have user Sandra to perform the benchmark. The results were stunning. Since USB 2.0 is capping at 480 Mbps, we have gotten a full 480 Mbps on Consus I-Series JBOD. The operations per minute were much higher than some of the other devices out there. Consus I-Series JBOD was capped at 14284 operations per minute.

Conclusion

In conclusion Consus I-Series JBOD brings out allot of possibilities and options for the end users. The ability to combine any two SATA drives is a great feature for anyone out there. If you are looking for a SATA enclosure this might be a good pick for you. If you are looking for performance oriented device this also might be a good pick for you. Consus I-Series JBOD utilizes USB 2.0 to its full potential however higher speed could be achieved with eSATA connection.(not present in ET-CSIU2J-bk model) I want to quickly reflect on the ease of installation and accessibility to one touch backup options. It was very easy to un box, setup and get this unit on the road. Very well structured and designed with style. I am proud to give Consus I-Series JBOD and 10/10!! Great product. Will definitely recommend.

Some pros we found:

Easy to set up and use

Very stylish

Quiet operations

JBOD ability

Full USB 2.0 speed

Some cons we found:

Would be much more efficient with eSATA connection