Today I will be reviewing an external HDD enclosure from Icy Box called “IB-318STU3-B” (wonderful name). It has a USB 3.0 interface which should boost the data transfer speeds significantly, at least according to the specs.

INTRODUCTION

Only months ago, the third revision of the USB standard appeared. I’ve seen it called both “USB 3.0” and “USB SuperSpeed”. What is clear is that the new version includes several improvements compared to USB 2.0.

The most important update is of course the increase of the data transfer speed (theoretical) to 4.8Gbps (600MB/s) compared to USB 2.0’s 480Mbps (35MB/s). This is really a huge difference.

Another important change is the maximum power output of USB 3.0 of 900mA (500mA in USB 2.0), which will allow USB 3.0 ports to power a number of devices and accessories to laptops. In real world, this means fewer AC adapters to accessories like external harddrives, notebook cooling pads etc.

The really great news is that USB 3.0 is 100% backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1.

OK, enough details of the new USB 3.0 standard, let’s instead have a look at the specifications of the IB-318STU3-B:

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Below are some images of the accessories included with the IB-318STU3-B.  As you can see it’s nothing out of the ordinary: a manual; an AC-adapter; an USB 3.0 cable; the plastic stand and the rubber vibration pads.

ICY BOX IB-318STU3-B IN DETAIL

One thing about Icy Box’s products that always impresses me is their choice of high quality materials. This baby is made of aluminum in a nice matte black finish:

Because this is a 3.5 inch box I think it makes a rather big difference that it is made of aluminum instead of steel (lighter).

The ICY BOX logo is barely visible on the sides of the unit, which gives it a very classy and sober look

All the connectors and the power button is located in the back of the unit. There are no connectors or anything else in the front.

To open the case up you have to loosen a screw placed in the bottom of the unit.

As you can see there’s not much to say about the inside of this case. The control PCB has the AsMedia ASM1051 chip.

The installation of the hard disk couldn’t be simpler. Just anchor the HDD to the SATA data and power connectors and then fasten it directly to the chassis placing the vibration dampeners between the chassis and the HDD.

TESTS AND RESULTS

In a previous motherboard review I came in contact with USB 3.0 for the first time. The tests I made then were intended to clarify the potential of this new standard. Therefore, I will not have it as my main focus in this review.

Instead I am going to test the transfer speeds with two different disks, one with a SATA2 interface and the other with a SATA3 interface. The disks I am using in this review are a Seagate 7200.10 SATA2 320GB and a Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX SATA 3.0. My test system:

In order to realize the tests I used HD Tune 2.55, CrystalDiskMark 2.2 and HD Tach 3.0.4.0. I transferred a one big file of 3.3GB and also a folder containing 265 files with a total size of 596MB.

Here are my results from the software tests:

The results are indeed very good. We see a big difference between SATA3 and SATA2. In read and write speeds we are talking almost a doubled performance. USB3 has no troubles handling the higher numbers for SATA3. Clearly the bottleneck is now the disks we use. The question is: when will disks reach the limit of what the SATA3 and USB3 interfaces can handle? I doubt we will ever get there with mechanic disks, I think we will have to rely on SSDs to take things to the next level.

Here are the real world tests:

Again, what determines the transfer speeds is what disk we put in the IB-318STU3-B. We have to also consider that the hard disk in my test system is a SATA2 7200rpm disk which also limits the transfer speeds to and from whatever external disk we connect. I.e. the transfer speeds in the “real world” tests should be considered as not entirely reflective of the SATA3/USB3 standard.

I also did a measurement of the power drainage that the external drive had on my system. I used the SATA3 disk for this test. Below are the results:

The USB 3 standard is supposed to have power saving functions which are enabled when the disk has not been used for a while. However, I never saw any of this, the minimum consumption was constantly at 10W.

CONCLUSIONS

Icy Box has managed to produce a good looking, high quality HDD enclosure with the IB-318STU3-B. It features the latest version of both SATA and USB and it seemingly works perfectly. Furthermore, it was easy to install the drive and since it is fanless, there are no noise emissions to talk about.

One thing that annoyed me is the fact that an AC-adapter is required. I guess this is not anything I can blame this product for, but instead a limit of the USB3 standard. Another thing that might be on somebody’s wish list is some connectors in the front of the device. For me, it would only ruin the sober looking design, so I wont’t put it up on the con-list.

As an investment, at around 50-60 Euro it can’t be considered expensive, but remember you will have to buy a HDD to put in it as well.

Pros:

• Looks and design
• General quality with aluminum housing
• Supports SATA3 and USB3 as well as all the old SATA/USB standards
• Price

Cons:

• AC-adapter

The final score is 90 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Icy Box IB-318STU3-B″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Icy Box for letting me review this HDD enclosure.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

Synology Disk Station DS210j is a fantastic NAS (Network Attached Storage) for your home with a ton of interesting features.

INTRODUCTION

Synology is a company that has specialized in NAS devices and has quite an extensive catalog of products which basically covers every need on the market. Today I will be reviewing one of their newer products, the “DiskStation DS210j” which is primarily intended for use in home networks. This product really has o ton of interesting specifications which are available at their website.

The specifications of the DS210j are doubtless impressive but the really interesting thing about this NAS is the accompanied control software which enables all the extra features. We will go into that more extensively later in the review.

DS210j IN DETAIL

Bundled with the DS210j chassis are the following accessories: a bag with screws, an AC adapter, an installation CD and a manual.

The Synology Disk Station DS210j is a quite small unit with attractive aesthetics which will not scare away even the most sensitive Apple users. The housing has room for two 3.5” or 2.5” disks.

There are two buttons altogether. One to power on the system and the other executes backups of the devices that are connected to the USB ports. The LEDs in the front panel indicate the state of the system. There’s a power LED, two hard drive LEDs and a LED for the network status.

I like the fact that Synology has included a USB 2.0 port in the front which makes it easy to plug in units like mp3 players and USB pen drives.

The back part of the Disk Station DS210j holds two more USB 2.0 ports; a network port and the input connector for the AC adapter. Above the AC adapter input hole is a small reset button.

The last important element is the 70mm fan which cools the hard drives. According to the manufacturer, the noise level is only 24db. The fan is manufactured by Evercool and the model number is “EC7025L12ER”. More stats from the manufacturer regarding the fan; consumption level at 1.68W; the rotation speed is 3000 rpm; the air flow is 28.2 CFM and lastly the expected life length is 40000 hours (more than 4 years when the unit is power on without interruption).

The bottom of the unit has 4 rubber feet which lift the box a couple of millimeters off the ground. This allows the fan exhaust to work as efficiently as possible.

INTERIOR OF THE SYNOLOGY DISK STATION DS210J

To open the case you slide of the sides backwards, no screws are needed.

From the images below you can see the two drive rack where the hard drives should be installed. Each drive is connected by a SATA-2 connector (SATA300). These connectors are then connected to the control PCB through a PCI-E x1 connector.

The placement of the fan is quite good although it would have been even better if there was more free space between the fan and the drives.

The installation of hard disks couldn’t be easier. I just slid them into place and secured them with the screws to the rack.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Synology’s “Disk Station Manager” (DSM) is the software which controls the unit. At the time of this review the last stable version was 2.2. I just inserted the CD and the installation process more or less took care of itself.

The system is accessed through a browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc ). The first window is the “Writing-desk” which has icons for all the main applications.

The first thing to do is of course to format the installed drives. This is done by following a guide which carefully explains the different options available to us. One of the most important things to decide is whether to run a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration. For you who don’t know what that means I can tell you that RAID 0 means that the disks are run in “parallel” mode which will theoretically almost double the performance. In RAID 1 mode, the disks are “mirrored” which means that exactly the same info is stored on both drives, so if one breaks you will always have all info secured on the remaining drive.

Once the volume has been created, the next step is to go through all the configuration options. When I did this I noticed that there was an overall update available (DSM 2.3 beta). I didn’t hesitate to install it once I had read all the new features it included.

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION WITH DSM 2.3

The menu looks quite different in DSM 2.3 compared to DSM 2.2. The start icons are; Management; File Station; Audio Station; Surveillance Station; Web Station; Photo Station and Online Resources.

If you are interested I really urge you to check out the demo version of the DSM 2.3 software running live over at Synology’s website.

When you click one of the icons, the sublevel of that icon opens up with a myriad of setting to consider. There is really an incredible amount of useful options and features. I am truly impressed with how they have managed to squeeze in so much in this program. I will only be able to present a few things that I used myself but believe me, there is much more.

You can turn on a log over who has been connected to the system and it even logs which actions the user took while connected. For instance, you can see which files where copied or moved from and to which location on the disk.

Another great feature is that you can setup the system so that it sends you a text message to your mobile phone or an email when it is triggered by an event of your choice, for instance if one of the disks is failing.

There are also the options to make updates of the software, reset to factory defaults, install external modules like an e-mail server, web statistics server and there’s even a small phpMyAdmin module which means you can install MySql and run this unit as a small web server with a database.

The installation process of any of these applications is as easy as with the basic program. All you have to do is start the process and the rest takes care of itself.

There is an extensive menu for setting user privileges for internet access which is great if you want to use is in an office environment.

DSM 2.3 enables us to create up to 512 users in a total of 128 different groups. The system is very flexible, it not only lets you set user privileges on us group level but also on different users within the same group.

Furthermore it is possible to setup up to 256 shared archives to which you can assign different user rights.

You can also setup the unit as a FTP server, a media server and it’s possible to connect it through SSH (putty). Note that you don’t have to choose which function to use, you may use them all at the same time.

Synology has also done a lot of thinking about the security. For instance, you can limit the number of simultaneous connections; limit the maximum use of total bandwidth; only allow https connections; setup firewall restrictions etc…

The Internet connection setup menu is especially interesting for more advanced users who want to be able to access the unit from any computer on the internet. A good way to do this is if you have a dynamic DNS which most of us normal users do, is to use the DDNS setting in conjunction with a service like dyndns.org.

Another very interesting addition by Synology is the option to install MySQL databases, which conjugated with phpMyAdmin gives us an excellent platform to create a small web server by also installing a CMS. Officially Synology offers compatibility with the following systems:

The application menu is also very interesting since it is really here the real use of the unit comes to life. Synology has done a lot of good updates with their own systems for storing, downloading and handling media content like movies and music. They have also extended the support for third party applications.

In the menu there is not much to do of course but to choose from a myriad of options to activate or deactivate (again). For instance you can active the DLNA and or DMA functions which makes the unit compatible with other media units supporting those formats. I’ll get back to this further on in this never ending review…

I haven’t yet said much about what should be considered to be the main function of any NAS; the backup function.

Considering what I have written so far about this unit, it will surely not come as a surprise that Synology has integrated a lot of features for performing this task as well. It is possible to make backup of selected folders on different computers on the network, databases etc. Again the flexibility is impressive.

There is also a menu for making backups of selected folders on the units we have connected to the 3 USB ports.

APPLICATIONS IN DSM 2.3

As I said above the real usage with the DiskStation DS210j comes to life with its applications for music, photos, blogging, downloads, FTP, web cam surveillance etc.

“Audio Station” lets us organize the household’s music in one single unit, yet access it from all computers in the network and replaying it without needing to do anything else but connecting to the NAS. No external players are needed or anything. It is also possible to access music on other computer’s hard drives and replay it through the user interface of the NAS. More importantly, Synology has added the functionality to connect and listen to music from Internet radio stations like SHOUTcast.

“Download Station” could work as a substitute for all people who have a server running at home 24/7 downloading stuff from the Internet. It supports well know technologies like; BitTorrent, FTP, emulate, RapidShare, Megaupload etc. During my test I had no problems what so ever with “Download Station”, the interface is intuitive and it works like it’s supposed to.

“Photo Station” is basically a photo gallery program which enables us to organize our photographs into folders and make neat looking presentations. The only thing which I must object to here is that I couldn’t find out how to view the photos in full screen format. I don’t know if it’s at all possible, what I do know is that I couldn’t find out how to do so.

TESTING

So far I have only studied the software for the DS210j. Now it’s time to dig a little deeper and check out important features like the units data transfer speeds and its power consumption.

I tested the data transfer speed both over the USB 2 ports and over the network. Sadly, I only had access to 100Mbps hardware which must be remembered when you analyze the test results below. To be clear, this NAS unit supports gigabit LAN. I used 2 Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard drives with 16MB cache in RAID 1 mode.

The obtained results are illustrated in the graphs below:

I think the results are very good indeed, especially considering that I used a 100Mbps network. The transfer rates were considerably lower when transferring many smaller archives but this is normal with mechanical hard drives.

I was less impressed by the numbers I reached when doing file transfers over the USB 2.0 ports. The theoretical transfer speed is around 30MB/s but I didn’t reach levels anywhere near that. I was somewhat surprised by this and redid the test but got the same result.

In order to test the power consumption of the Synology Disk Station DS210j, I used an ordinary watt meter. Here are the results:

The medium power consumption was around 30 Watts which should be considered OK. However I think that the 7 Watts are quite high for the idle mode. This should probably be due to that the hard drives are really never completely turned off, but only set to “hibernation”. Overall I think these numbers should interest people who are running servers at their homes. Maybe it’s time to throw out the server and replace it with a NAS?

The noise level of the fan is not by any means disturbing although you can still hear it even when you are two or even three meters from the NAS.

CONCLUSIONS

Impressive. That is the word I would choose to sum up the DiskStation DS210j. It is a product of great quality, with excellent characteristics and a great functionality.

Some things which I would like to see improved is the detail in Photo Station that you cannot see the images in full screen mode. Secondly, an even quieter fan would have been nice. Other stuff on the wish list would be a greater USB transfer speed and lower power consumption.

The unit goes for around $200 – $250 on the internet but then it’s a diskless system which means you will have to put up some more for the disks. Considering everything it incorporates, I think it’s a bargain.

All in all, I will have to recommend this product to everyone looking for a NAS for your home.

Pros:

• Nice looking design
• 3 USB 2 ports
• Great software
• Good overall transfer speeds
• Nice price

Cons:

• Nothing serious

The final score is 95 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Synology DiskStation DS210j″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Synology for letting me review this cooler.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

Summary: Many of us are glad to see another contender in the gaming mice market. This time I will be taking a closer look at the Revoltec FightMouse Pro which has nice looking specifications and some extra features which will be very interesting to explore.

INTRODUCTION

Revoltec started out their business in Germany back in 2003. The products from Revoltec are generally characterized by their originality. They often carry innovations which you will not find elsewhere. Revoltec’s main business area has up till recently been their case modding products, but things are changing and they now have a respectable setup of input devices in their catalog.

The FightMouse Pro and FightMouse Advance are new products in their lineup and they are the company’s first entry in the gaming mice market. Previously I have tested their FightMouse Precision which is an optical mouse which has a sampling rate of 1000dpi.

Revoltec’s new mice for gamers are called FightMouse Advanced and FightMouse PRO. The biggest difference between the models is the resolution of the laser sensor. The Pro has a resolution of 3600dpi whereas the Advanced has a sensor resolution of 2400dpi. Another difference is the lower reaction time of the Pro (1ms compared to 2ms for the Advanced). These very impressive specifications of the Pro and the fact that it has an advanced weight distribution system make it one of the more complete gaming laser mice of the market.

Here are the specifications of the FightMouse Pro:

At TestSeek, the current expert review average of the FightMouse Pro is 87% and it has won 4 awards.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The packaging of the mouse looks good with its black and lime green colors. The box is a regular cardboard box. In the front part, a picture of the product is clearly visible together with the outstanding features of the mouse. You can remove the front cover and see the mice through see through plastic. The plastic casing also protects the mouse from bumps and hits during freight.

The backside of the box focuses on the special features of the mouse and explains some of the features in different languages.

When I opened the box I found the mouse itself and a smaller box which contained seven small weights, the drivers CD and the manual.

IN DETAIL: REVOLTEC FIGHTMOUSE PRO

The Revoltec Fight Mouse PRO looks really high end with its carbon fiber and matte black finish.

The mouse’s ergonomic design adapts to the contour of my hand perfectly. The FightMouse PRO has two regular mouse buttons and a scroll wheel. The extra buttons on the top surface of the mouse are a button marked “DPI” and another one marked “M”. I will get back to their functions later in this review.

The sides of the mouse are made of rubber to give the user a better grip.

The scrolling wheel of the Fight Mouse PRO is nothing like I am used to from other gaming mice. Normally, the scrolling wheel effects the scrolling in two directions: up or down, along the Y-axel.  Some mice have added an X-axis scrolling function and this is available with the FightMouse Pro, provided that you install the drivers. Apart from this the scroll wheel changes color depending on the DPI settings of the mouse.  When the light of the scroll wheel is red, we are at the maximum level of sensitivity.

The “M” button I mentioned above is really a quick touch button for switching between the modes you have preset in the software. The preset modes are stored in the 8kb internal memory of the mouse. As with the scrolling wheel the M-button changes color depending on what preset mode you are using:

Turning the mouse over I found the laser sensor (surprise!) and a plastic cover for the weight distribution system. As you can see from the image below, the system lets us place a maximum of seven weights in it. Each weight weighs 20 grams which means the maximum extra weight we can give the mouse through this system is 140 grams.

The USB cable is lengthy enough for using the mouse with a desktop system. The really interesting thing about the USB connection of this mouse is the fact that it uses up to 1000 Hz to allow it an “access time” of ultra low 1ms.

INSTALLATION AND TESTS

Below you can see the first window the opens when inserting the drivers and software CD provided with the bundle.

The provided software is called “Gaming Mouse 2.0.8” when you have installed it. The software lets us change a variety of settings of the mouse and save the settings in preset modes which we can the fast and easily switch between using the M-button.

Revoltec’s software is very basic unlike other gaming mouse software I have tried. That doesn’t mean that it’s bad or incomplete, quite the opposite, it fulfills all the needs I have. It’s basic in the meaning that it doesn’t include anything unnecessary.

In order to evaluate the performance of the mouse I used it in everyday Windows use, including Internet browsing and office automation software. Of course, the main testing took place while playing the latest FPS games. I tried it with Far Cry 2 and Call of Duty: World at War. I tested the mouse on different surfaces including wood, plastic and glass and of different gaming mouse pads.

In common applications, the performance of the mouse is exceptional. It has a very smooth feel to it and the mouse cursor moves exactly as I want it to. The M-button comes very much in handy when switching between different modes. For instance I used different modes for editing images in Photoshop and for general use such as Internet browsing. The multidirectional scrolling wheel is enormously practical when browsing the Internet.

The Revoltec FightMouse PRO is made for satisfying the gamers’ every need and this clearly shows when using it in games. The possibility of changing the resolution of the laser sensor though just a click on the M-button is very practical indeed.

The FightMouse Pro has no problems with non typical gaming surfaces such as the ones I mentioned above. I really didn’t note too much difference compared to using it with a good mouse pad. However it remains clear that this mouse should be used together with a suitable gaming mouse pad to take advantage of its super high resolution.

The ergonomics of the mouse takes some time to get used to. It’s a big mouse and the design is not typical in any way with its rubber sides and. However, once you become accustomed to it you won’t be tempted to return to your old mouse.

CONCLUSIONS

Revoltec didn’t hold back when creating the FightMouse Pro with a sensor resolution up to 3200dpi, a multidirectional scrolling wheel, weight distribution system, ultra low reaction time and excellent ergonomics, design and finish. This mouse really is exceptional.

All of the above are truly great features but what about the price? This is where I was really blown away; the price of the Fight Mouse Pro is around 35 Euros ($45). That my friends is what in the end makes it so easy to give the FightMouse Pro our Editor’s Choice award.

Pros:

• Sensor capable of up to 3200DPI
• Quality and ergonomics are exceptional
• Multidirectional Scroll
• Weight distribution system
• Software and button configuration

Cons:

• Wireless would have been even better

The final score is 90 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Revoltec Fight Mouse Pro” our Editor’s Choice Award.

As you know, TestSeek collects all expert reviews of many different product types. Head over to our Mice category to find all expert reviews of alternatives to the Revoltec FightMouse Pro.

Thanks goes out to Revoltec for letting me review this mouse.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson