Introduction

Does speed matters to you? What a dumb question! It matters to everyone! We all trying to go as fast as we can to be more productive, to win a race or just to get the job done faster. Today we are going to take a look at one of the top of the line product by Eagle, W-Series Consus. W-Series Consus is an external hard drive enclosure which is equipped with USB2.0 and eSATA connectors for fast transfer rate. What makes this enclosure so special is the eSATA connection which supports speeds up to 3.0Gbps. W-Series Consus comes with 3 different size of hard drives, 500Gb, 750Gb and 1tb. Unfortunately we don't have an opportunity to review W-Series Consus with Eagle's hard drive, so we are going to use one of our 1tb drive for testing. Lets take a look at W-Series Consus and what it has to offer. I am very much curious what speed can we get out of this unit:)

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Eagle's website.

Don’t let your hard drive overheat! This sleek and sturdy external hard drive is made from solid aluminum with two rows of heat sink plates to quickly dissipate heat. Soft glowing logo adds a nice touch to your home or office décor. Its USB/eSATA interface provides 3.0 Gbps data transfer rate ideal for digital audio/video editing workstations. Newly improved 500GB SATA hard drive is up to 20% faster. The result is class leading durability, thermal efficiency and speed.

• Ultra fast 500GB SATA drive

• Solid aluminum

• Two rows of heat sink plates

• Soft glowing logo

• Quiet fan less design

• Plug-n-Play USB 2.0

• 3.0Gbps eSATA

• Usage: Quick storage subsystems for workstations and DVRs

• Type: External hard drive

• Form Factor: 3.5”

• Hard Drive: 500GB (7200RPM 16MB cache)

• Internal Interface: SATA I/II

• External Interface: Hi-speed USB 2.0 and eSATA

• Data Transfer Rate: 480Mbps and 3.0Gbps

• 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: 7.8 x 4.9 x 1.5 inch

• Weight: 2.8 lbs

External storage system

Power adapter

Resource CD

Quick installation guide

Certified USB 2.0 and eSATA cables

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

Closer look

Box Front		Box Back

If you have read any of our reviews on Eagle products you should remember us saying that almost all packaging we have dealt with from Eagle have similar patterns and layouts. Eagle's colors are Orange, Black and White. With these colors Eagle publishes their products and also establishes a knowledge base for past customers. Personally i think it is a great idea to keep the same box design style for all of the products.

Logo		Side shot

On the front of the box Eagle clearly shows the product and its signature features. No one wants to buy a cat in bag so Eagle is taking extra step in describing what is inside. From the back of the box you can look up some of the product features and versions of the product. As i have mentioned earlier in the review, W-Series Consus come in 3 different flavors so making sure you are purchasing the right unit is very important:)

Plastic handle		Un boxing

Logos, logos, logos! Anywhere you look, you can find Eagle Consus logo. After a while its becoming annoying, but hey what you going to do, that's marketing for you hahaha. Opening up the box was rather easy. Just a couple of pulls and everything opened up like a charm box. Everything was nice and neat, no lose part or anything rambling inside.

On the table		Left side

The whole package includes Drivers CD, power cord, USB cable, eSATA, a set of screws and of course Instructional manual. The actual W-Series Consus unit was wrapped in a protective plastic bag and supported by plastic. Lets take a look at the actual unit. It is completely symmetrical from left and right sides.

Right side		Front close up

W-Series Consus is made out of a light aluminum body which is very stylish i may add. On both sides of the unit you can see two parallel heat sinks which help to cool the hard drive while in the operating state. The actual stand is a part of the body so you don't have to look for it or anything rather. The front of W-Series Consus is made out of plastic. It is covered with a protective seal. Before use i would recommend removing it for that special glossy look.

Rear close up		Connections

The back of W-Series Consus is also made of out plastic, but this time it is not as shiny as the front. On the back of W-Series Consus there is power switch, power connector, USB 2.0 connector and eSATA connector. Pretty much self explanatory.

Rubber feet		Hard drive tray

On the bottom of the unit Eagle has installed clear rubber feet for a more stable usage of W-Series Consus. The hard drive tray comes out from the back. Just a couple of screws and the whole tray is out.

Additional connectors?		Blue-black / Red-black?

At the end of the tray there are 4 connectors. There are no labels on them and they all look identical so there is no way to tell apart which front end led goes to what. I have gotten to the installation manual but not much help there. All was said is to connect the wires to the sockets on the board. Weird.

Hard drive installation		Secured

Securing the hard drive to the tray hardly took any time. But you are going to need a screwdriver to do this. Eagle has included screws but not a screwdriver, go figure eh? You would secure the drive to the tray the same way you would a cd drive. Very easy task.

Connected		Ready to rock

Once i have slide the tray inside of the W-Series Consus i had to connect the power and hard drive activity LED's. Again i had no idea which goes where. After making sure there are no wires coming out of the shell, i ve secured the tray to the shell with two screws. Now that we got pictionary out of the way, lets take a look at some benchmarks of W-Series Consus.

Testing

For today's testing of W-Series Consus we are going to be using HD Tach and Sandra to perform benchmarks on W-Series Consus. Our testing rig is using a ASUS P5K-E LGA 775 motherboard with external eSATA connector. We are going to be performing tests on USB and eSATA channels of W-Series Consus.

HD Tach 8 Mb vs 32 Mb test USB 2.0

Our first test was an 8 Mb vs 32 Mb USB 2.0 benchmark by HD Tach. The 8 Mb average speed was 34.8 MB/s and for 32 Mb average speed was pretty close to 8 Mb, 34.5 MB/s. Pretty much normal and maximum speed, which could be achieved by USB 2.0 controller. The random access time was rather slow, 14.6 ms but this is depended solidly on the drive.

HD Tach 8 Mb vs 32 Mb test eSATA

Next was to take a look a the eSATA benchmark and see how it would behave. The 8 Mb benchmark archived average speed of 66.1 MB/s and the 32 Mb benchmark achieved 66.4 MB/s. Rather faster than USB 2.0 don't you think?:)

Sandra

Sandra benchmarks showed us that the W-Series Consus + 1tb Drive stands out in the competition. The read performance was noted at 58.735 MB/s comparing to the Western Digital 500 GB drive (68.362 Mb/s). Please keep in mind, our test drive is Western Digital 1TB drive so the read speed would be slightly slower.

Conclusion

Whether you are looking for a fast access or not so fast access to the external hard drive enclosure W-Series Consus stands out in the competition like a soar thumb. Utilizing best of the both worlds USB 2.0 and eSATA W-Series Consus gives performance options to its users. W-Series Consus could be used in many applications and i would definitely recommend this product. W-Series Consus had many great features like fan less cooling and eSATA support. I am really trying hard to find a problem with this unit but i really cant. The only confusion i had with W-Series Consus is the installation of power and hard drive activity LED's. W-Series Consus deserves a 10 out of 10! Good job Eagle! Keep up the good work!

Some pros we found:

Fan less cooling

USB 2.0 and eSATA ready

Lightweight and slick body design

Two row of heat sink plates

Some cons we found:

None that we could find