Introduction

We have reviewed alot of hard drive enclosures in the past from different manufacturers and i can truly say that we saw some good and bad once. It all comes down to the very few factors. Is it stylish look you after or is it the performance that you seek. It is rarely that you find product that satisfies both categories. Today we are going to take a look at one of the promising products by Eagle Tech, M-Series Consus. The M-series Consus is designed to provide accessional performance for a user along with elegant and stylish looks. This particular model is a 2.5" model with USB 2.0 and eSATA capabilities. Lets us take a look at M-Series Consus in detail.

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Eagle Tech website.

Highly functional, stylish and portable! No other 2.5” enclosures offer the performance and convenience of this tool less enclosure. Works like a HDD reader without the bare drive risks: just snap in your hard drive to use it. Sleek and sturdy aluminum alloy chassis improves heat dissipation to prolong the lifespan of your drives.

• Solid aluminum

• Works like a HDD reader without bare drive risks

• Just snap in your drive and it is ready for use

• Completely tool less and hot swappable

• Patented F.I.T. (Fast Installation Technology)

• Plug-n-Play via USB 2.0

• 3.0Gbps eSATA

• Usage: Quick hard drive imaging and multiple OS boot up

• Type: External drive enclosure

• Form Factor: 2.5”

• Hard Drive Compatibility: 500GB

• Internal Interface: SATA I/II

• External Interface: Hi-speed USB 2.0 and eSATA

• Data Transfer Rate: 480Mbps and 3.0Gbps

• Power Source: USB powered

• Power Input: 5V DC

• Certification: FCC, CE Certified and RoHS compliant

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

• Dimension: 5.1 x 3.2 x 0.3 inch

• Weight: 0.7 lbs

External storage system

Resource CD

Quick installation guide

Certified USB 2.0 and eSATA cables

USB to DC power cable

Key

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a closer look at Eagle ET-CS2XMESU2-BK 2.5” SATA to USB/eSATA tool less enclosure.

Closer look

Box Front		Box Back

As almost every other enclosure from Eagle we have reviewed, the packaging is very much similar. Eagle tends to use white, orange and black colors to bring out the images on the packaging box. On the both sides of the box you can clearly see the product and what is this all about. The glossy finish of the box makes it pleasant to touch.

Features and Specifications		Top Shot

On the back of the packaging we found some of the features and specifications of M-series Consus. From the top of the box all is seen is a partial image of M-series Consus and M-Series logo.

Bottom Shot		Inside of the box

Just to make sure that the customer knows what this product is about, Eagle placed a "External Storage System" lettering on the bottom of the box. Needed? Not sure, but it looks good. The whole package is rather weightless. Opening and removing of the components was pretty easy and quick.

Out of the box		Stand

Inside we found M-series Consus unit itself, USB 2.0 cable, eSATA cable, USB to power cable(needed for using with eSATA connection, driver cd, stylish pouch, a stand and of course an instructional manual. The stand is very small and also very stylish.

Hidden key		M-Series Front Shot

What i thought was really cool, is the hidden key underneath the stand. You need this small key to unlock the front bay for the load and unload of the hard drive. On the top side of the M-series Consus we found a stylish logo with stylish mesh coating the top portion of M-series Consus.

M-Series Bottom Shot		M-Series Side Shot

On the bottom of the M-series Consus there are four rubber feet. Very much handy if you are using M-Series Consus by itself. As i mentioned earlier M-Series Consus has a top side made of stylish aluminum mesh and the bottom part is made of hard aluminum.

Front Panel		Rear Panel

The front of the M-Series Consus looks simple but yet informative. The front panel is made of plastic but feels very sturdy. On the back of M-Series Consus we found DC power connector for use with eSATA, eSATA connector and mini usb 2.0 connector.

Opening up		Wide open

In order to open the M-Series Consus you would need a needle or a key which comes with the M-Series Consus. The key is hidden in the stand of M-Series Consus and is hard to find without paying a close attention. I had to refer to the instructional manual to find this key hahaha. Just slick the key in to the top part of the M-Series Consus and the M-Series Consus opens up.

Size comparison		Ready to go

Comparing M-Series Consus size was rather simple. The whole body of M-Series Consus is just about the same size as the sata 2.5" drive. Installation of the drive is rather easy too. Just slide the drive inside of the M-Series Consus and close the front door. That's it! no screws or anything like that needed.

M-Series ET-CS2XMESU2-BK 2.5” SATA to USB/eSATA tool less enclosure

When powered on, M-Series Consus has a small blue led at the end which glows on power and blinks on access. Now what we got the pictionary out of the way lets take a look at the test data of M-Series Consus.

Testing

For the testing purpuses we have used Seagate 250 Gb 2.5" hard drive with our testing rig which specs you can see above. We have performed our standard tests (HD Tach and Sandra) to see if M-Series Consus stands out in the crowd.

HD Tach 8 Mb vs 32 Mb USB 2.0

Our first test was done with HD Tach with USB 2.0 connection to M-Series Consus. In comparing test data from 8Mb benchmark and 32Mb benchmark we came to a concussion that the average read speed was equaled to 34.2 MB/s. This is pretty much standard speed for all USB 2.0 connections.

HD Tach 8 Mb vs 32 Mb SATAII

Our second test was made with eSATA connection to the M-Series Consus. From this test we have gotten average read speed of 50.6 MB/s. Very nice and very impressing but this was expected due to the higher transfer rate via eSATA connection.

Sandra Benchmarking

Third and final test was performed with Sandra Benchmarking software. From this benchmark we have came to a conclusion that the Drive Index of M-Series Consus was 45.32 MB/s and the Access time was 14ms. As you can see from the graphs this is very well with in the limits for the eSATA connection. Please do keep in mind that some of the data test were performed on 2 drives running RAID1. As many of you might know, RAIDed drives are slightly faster in transfer speed and shorter in latency.

Conclusion

Very well designed product. I really don't have any negative comments for this product. The fact that M-Series Consus supports USB 2.0 as well as eSATA connections is a winner in my book. There are many positive factors which you might find in the M-Series Consus such as screw less installation and compatibility with multiple operating systems. One thing i would like to comment on, M-Series Consus comes with a quick hard drive imaging software. If you are looking to clone a hard disk, this tool will definitely could be beneficial for you. Another great accessory to the M-Series Consus is the stylish bag. If you are going to carry around M-Series Consus you might do it in style. I was very much satisfied with the performance of this unit. Overall benchmarks showed that the drive connected trough M-Series Consus stand out very well in the access time and reading speed of some of the other hard drives on the market. It gives me a great pleasure to award M-Series Consus a highest rank by UMLan. 10/10!! Great product!

Some pros we found:

Easy to install and use

Stylish and lightweight

Amazing performance comparing to the other enclosures

Some cons we found:

None that we could find