How would you support a greener world? As a geek, we have the ability to do the most. We come up with the technology. We come up with the ideas. And we know how to efficiently recycle our used hardware and electronics. So when you upgrade the hard drive on your laptop, the best thing to do with the old one is just slap it in an enclosure and use it for storage. Very eco-friendly.
Eagle has brought us a new enclosure just begging for your old hardware. Or new hardware. It doesn’t care. Enclosure don’t discriminate. Except when they only take SATA, like this one. Then it discriminates quite a bit. The Eagle L-Series can hold 2.5” SATA drives up to 250GB with a max of 7200RPM. I don’t think that’s too bad. That’s more than enough storage for all your music, video, games, and all that other stuff you downloaded illegal while connected to your neighbor’s wireless network.
Features:
- Works with 2.5″ hard drives up to 250GB
- Great for business travelers (gotta store those stolen company secrets somewhere)
- Reinforced chassis is practically torsion free
- Supple fine grain leather (so much for eco-friendly. Nice knowing you, cows)
- Nickel plated for enhanced wearability
- USB powered (no bulky AC adapter)
- Integrated USB cable (no messy wires)
Specs:
- SATA to USB 2.0
- Up to 480 Mbps via USB 2.0
- Support SATA 2.5″ hard drives up to 7200RPM and 250GB
- Certification: FCC, CE Certified
- Microsoft O.S. Support: Win98SE/Vista/ME/2000/XP
- Others O.S. Support: Mac OS 9.0 or higher Linux
- Dimension: Dimension: 5.1″(L) x 3.5″(W) x 0.6″(H)
So now you know what the L-Series offers. Now I’ll put it to the test. Here’s what I know so far. It’s nickel plated, which will resist corrosion for friggin’ years. It’s covered in leather. I don’t know why, other than to impress the other skiers at the lodge. It’s made out of steel and it would probably take a damned Army tank to destroy it. I’m sure I can find a way to do it without a tank, but then how could I impress my friends at the lodge?
In the box, I found the unit itself. Looking good with all that nickel and leather. What a dirty, dirty little enclosure you are. Um… then you find the USB 2.0 Certified extension cable, a CD with some drivers and what-not on it, and an instruction manual. Very nice. I like it when they keep it simple. Every now and then I’ll get a product that comes with so many ridiculous and needless add-ons that soon my whole desk is cluttered with stuff I’ll never need nor use. Looking at it from a consumer’s point of view, this is very bothersome. The L-Series is very basic, made to do the job and call it a day. That’s something we can all appreciate.
I dug around in my desk until I found the HD I used in my last enclosure test. A Western Digital 120GB that has gotten me through hundreds of hours of movies and music without a single crash.
Why only a 120GB for the test when it supports up to 250? The answer is simple. I’m recycling an HD I no longer use.
Installing the HD in the enclosure is rather straight-forward. The leather flap that snaps on the front of the casing is held on by two screws at the back. Keep the snap on the front snapped and unscrew the two screws, and viola!
The back comes right off and you have total access for all your connecting needs. I put my HD in and replaced the backing. There are two tabs at the bottom which have to be aligned before the screw holes will line up properly.
Once everything was back together, I unsnapped the leather flap and pulled the USB connector out to hook it up to my computer. It’s rather short, around 1 ½ “ long, but with the extension I was able to bring the enclosure around to the side of my laptop where I have more access to it.
I installed all the necessary drivers and set HDTach to check out what the enclosure is capable of. I let HDT do its thing and I went to the kitchen to reheat last night’s spinach pizza.
I came back to some very nice numbers on the final screen. I saw that I was getting an average of 32MBS transfer rate. I love that kind of number. That means I can access my much needed files when I want, using an HD that has been lying in a drawer for months with no purpose. I felt bad for it, really. It’s sad for hardware when it doesn’t get used.
My final conclusion is this: While it’s a very nice looking case in itself, it is a little much for your average nerd. The more futuristic, the better. And the leather is something that will probably piss off some of those animal worshipers up at PETA.
I really can’t stand that bitch that runs it, so who cares about that one. Oh well, nix my opinion of the leather. I like animals, it’s people like her that I’m not fond of. And then there is the lack of alternative power for the enclosure.
If you are on the go and want to access your files this could easily suck the power out of your laptop in no time. All in all, it’s a very nice enclosure, with a killer transfer rate for USB.
I am all for the nickel-plating. The steel construction is always a plus. I could do without the leather… although it will probably be a hit with consumers in San Francisco.
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