An even more portable spin on portable storage and external drive bays.
Here's the spec:
| Dimensions: Material: Weight(g): Drive Support: Interface: Transfer Speed: Power Requirements: Supported O/S | 76(W) x 16(H) x 29(D) mm Plastic 20g 2.5”/3.5” SATA I/II/III SSD/HDD* USB 3.0 Micro B Max 5Gbps 5V/ 12V* Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Mac OS 10.x and Linux |
*3.5" HDD's require external 12V DC power (not included).
Link to Silverstone's product page for full details and technical specifications
Link to Silverstone's product page for full details and technical specifications
Design:
The EP02 is design wise a compact version of the essential components you will find in a hard drive enclosure. This means the product is small and compact, perfect for travelling.
| On the back side we have just two connections, the USB 3.0 Micro B connector and a separate 12V DC power connector. The interesting thing about this product is that the supplied cable features both a USB 3.0 and a supplemental USB 2.0 connector on the opposite end. This will provide both the data and enough power to run not only SSD's but 2.5" hard drives too without external power. The only thing that will need an external power cable is 3.5" hard drives hence the 12V DC power cable not being supplied and the price being lower. I would like to see this come with an extra option to have the cable too as the potential for the customer to make a mistake buying the extra cable is all too possible . |   |
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The EP02 has very clearly been designed for use with the MS07 by Silverstone. Fitting in with the shape and size of the MS07 makes this perfect for using it in a duo as a portable external hard drive casing while also being able to quickly disconnect it for use with another drive. This unfortunately does have some downsides and issues however.
| In making it fit the shape of the MS07 they have had to account for the extra silicone protection the case provides, adding a lip underneath the hard drive connections. This wont be an issue if you are just connecting an SSD to it but if you are going to use the EP02 for mechanical drives of any size, especially 3.5" drives, the extra weight puts undue stress on the connector not to mention causes the disk to spin at a slight angle which can lead to a shortening of the life of your HDD. While the latter is fixable by levelling the drive out, unfortunately unless you hang your drive off the edge of your table or something, you will still be putting the connections under stress that could be avoided. |   |
Performance:
We tested the EP02 with a 2TB Sata 3.0 Seagate Barracuda and on both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. The photo (Right) shows our results on USB 2.0 with up to 40.47MB/s read and 39.01B/s write!
Here is our results on USB 3.0:
From the test we have have done we concluded that the EP02 never once became the limiting factor on results and our limiting factor in this case became the storage device and for the first test the USB 2.0 standard. I was very impressed with the speeds produced through the EP02 however we did come across an issue with power though where the drive would sometimes not spin up at all and would need reconnecting.
I believe this power issue was down to the EP02 needing constant maximum power throughput from the primary USB 3.0 connector regardless of if external DC12V power was being used or not and so I am at a stage where I can't provide an exact answer and will leave the decision up to the viewer on this one. Once the drive was working this became a non-issue.
I believe this power issue was down to the EP02 needing constant maximum power throughput from the primary USB 3.0 connector regardless of if external DC12V power was being used or not and so I am at a stage where I can't provide an exact answer and will leave the decision up to the viewer on this one. Once the drive was working this became a non-issue.
Conclusion:
Being an adaptor that converts USB to SATA there really isn't that much to say about this product. Build quality is good and the fact you can power most drives just through the USB ports makes it great for travelling with. This coupled with the fact it can be integrated in a kit style fashion with the MS07 gives it that extra edge over both similar adaptors and full enclosure products.
It's only issue ties into it's greatest strength and that is that when not being used with the MS07, connecting a drive to this will leave it at sitting at an angle with the pressure on the connectors.
To conclude, I love the build quality and the versatility this product provides at such a cheap price. We have given it the value rating of 8 because it is great value for what it is but due to the design being based around the MS07 being integrated, it was left with a few faults when used alone and that left it a little worse off as a standalone product. IT was also great value again when coupled with the MS07 but not anything out of this world for us to give it a 10. For its cost independent rating we have given it a 7/10 for the sheer fact that even though it has some faults here and there, there really isn't any competition for it in the adaptor market with most other products being very very cheap and horrible leaving this product king of the hill.
Receiving a total of 15/20 the EP02 is very comfortably above par (10/20) and receives our BRONZE award.
It's only issue ties into it's greatest strength and that is that when not being used with the MS07, connecting a drive to this will leave it at sitting at an angle with the pressure on the connectors.
To conclude, I love the build quality and the versatility this product provides at such a cheap price. We have given it the value rating of 8 because it is great value for what it is but due to the design being based around the MS07 being integrated, it was left with a few faults when used alone and that left it a little worse off as a standalone product. IT was also great value again when coupled with the MS07 but not anything out of this world for us to give it a 10. For its cost independent rating we have given it a 7/10 for the sheer fact that even though it has some faults here and there, there really isn't any competition for it in the adaptor market with most other products being very very cheap and horrible leaving this product king of the hill.
Receiving a total of 15/20 the EP02 is very comfortably above par (10/20) and receives our BRONZE award.
Rating:
Rating: 7/10
Value: 8/10
Value: 8/10
