SuperSpeed USB emerged onto the scene as an answer to the limited bandwidth of today’s current popular connectivity interface. The additional throughput is a boon for external hard drives, but most other devices aren’t fast enough to take advantage of it. With USB 3.0 external drives, you can now realistically perform intensive data transfer tasks that were previously only feasible with SATA, such as video and audio editing.
An external hard drive enclosure is very handy for several different types of people. Some like to have additional storage for their laptops, while others use their unit as a truly portable device for transporting files between home and work. With SuperSpeed USB you don’t have to sacrifice performance to have the convenience of a portable device.
Vantec has once again stepped in with a slick-looking external hard drive enclosure with the NexStar 3 SuperSpeed. It’s thin, shiny, and most importantly now supports the new USB 3.0 standard to unleash your hard drive’s true potential.
Vantec NST-380S3-BK NexStar 3 SuperSpeed Hard Drive Enclosure
Form and functionality collide with style in the Vantec NST-380S3-BK NexStar 3 SuperSpeed Hard Drive Enclosure. With its mirror finish and sleek curves, the Vantec NST-380S3-BK NexStar 3 SuperSpeed Hard Drive Enclosure stands out from the crowd. The sturdy drive cage protects your hard drive while the aluminum case effectively draws away the heat, protecting your drive from overheating. Integrated with the latest USB 3.0 technology, performance is increased by 10 fold offering maximum speeds of up to 5 Gbps. Quickly store and back-up your data with the Vantec NST-380S3-BK NexStar 3 SuperSpeed Hard Drive Enclosure.
What it is and Why You Need it:
- Attractive Mirror Finish Design
- Aluminum Casing Cools Down Your Hard Drive
- Maximum Transfer Rates Up to 5 Gbps w/USB 3.0
- Maximum Transfer Rates Up to 480 Mbps w/USB 2.0
- Easily Add Storage to Any System with USB 1.1/2.0 or 3.0
- Backwards-Compatible with USB 2.0 or 1.1
- Hi-Quality Shielded USB 3.0 Cable Ensures Data Integrity and Speed
- Supports ALL 2.5″ Hard Drives (7mm, 9.5mm, 12.5mm, SSD)
- Hot-Swappable: Plug & Play Without Rebooting
- Attractive Blue LED Indicates Power & HDD Activity
Specifications
| Model: | NST-280S3-BK |
| Device Support: | SATA I/II Hard Drive |
| Device Size: | 2.5″ |
| Internal Interface: | SATA |
| External Interface: | USB 3.0 (Backwards Compatible With USB 2.0 & 1.1) |
| HD Capacity: | Up to 1TB* |
| Material: | Aluminum |
| Dimension: | 141 x 82 x 18mm |
On the next page we take a peek under her dress…
Once you open the box you are met with the drive enclosure itself. Underneath a layer of cardboard are the additional accessories: a shiny plastic vertical stand, black USB 3.0 cable, AC power adapter, a small bag of screws and a small manual. The exterior of the drive enclosure is made of aluminum, which has been painted black and given a shiny topcoat.. The trim of the unit is plastic, but has been given a faux chrome finish. The power adapter breaks off 5v and 12v leads at the plug, rather than using a simple 12v DC adapter.
Pulling out the drive tray and fitting a hard drive
The front of the unit has a Ventec logo with a vertical line running down its length, which is actually transparent to allow the blue activity LED to shine though. The back of the unit has a power switch, blue USB 3.0 connector, custom power adapter (5V + 12V), a power switch, and screw holes to secure the assembly together.
Installing a hard drive into the NexStar 3 SuperSpeed
The hard drive tray has been slid inside the enclosure, and slides out easily by pulling on the back of the unit. Tethered to the controller board is a small cable that attaches to the front LED. The controller board is screwed into a small steel drive tray. The hard drive is secured at the bottom using standard drive screws, and the tray is then inserted into slots on the inside of the main chassis. The front LED plug is reconnected and the assembly fits together. Two screws at the back secure the tray within the aluminum case.
We tested this enclosure with a Seagate 7200.10 250GB SATA Hard Disk Drive. The enclosure was connected to our Vantec SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Host Controller (reviewed here). We used the included USB 3.0 cable, as well as a standard USB cable to test USB 2.0 throughput. Below are the specifications on our test machine:
- Intel Q6600 Core 2 Processor (review here)
- Seagate 7200.10 250GB SATA HDD
- Vantec SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Host Controller (review here)
- Rosewill USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure (read our review here)
- Asus P5W-Deluxe motherboard
- 8GB OCZ DDR2-1000 memory
- Sapphire Radeon ATI 4870 Toxic Video Card (read our review here)
- Asus Xonar PCIe sound card
- Windows 7 (64-bit)
Our Seagate drive was tested in the Vantec NexStar 3 and a Rosewill RX358 USB 3.0 enclosure, which were both tested against USB 3.0 and 2.0. We have previously tested this same drive against our motherboard’s SATA, only to conclude that USB 3.0 performs very similarly. Although the Seagate hard drive is only 250GB, the 7200.10 series uses perpendicular technology, which packs more bits into the same amount of space, which translates into higher throughput per platter spin. Just for kicks and giggles we tried other hard drives we had laying around, but the 7200.10 drive provided the best output in these tests. Any hard drive can easily saturate the bandwidth of USB 2.0, so we used the fastest drive we could to demonstrate if there was a limit to what USB 3.0 could provide.
NexStar3 has higher write speeds
We used the ATTO becnhmark as well as Simpli Software’s HDTach 3.0.1. ATTO shows how the drive performs with different file sizes, and HDTach has a good picture of the drive speed with the platter. Once we powered on the drive, Windows 7 immediately recognized it and assigned a drive letter, just as you expect with any USB drive.
Rosewill has slightly higher performance under USB 2.0
We measured the drive’s temperature with a thermal probe to see how effectively the fan works at cooling your drive. Since the Vantex NexStar 3 is passively cooled (i.e. it has no cooling fan) we were very curious how well the aluminum chassis would work. During installation we noticed that the hard drive does not actually come into contact with any aluminum, only the steel mounting plate, which itself makes minimal contact with the aluminum. Using a thermal probe, our hard drive reached a maximum temperature of 103° F, which is one degree higher than the Rosewill enclosure with its fan off. The ambient room temperature was 76 degrees.
Left: Vantec NexStar3. Right: Rosewill RX358
When we used HDTach we could see how the drive performs as the head moves across the platters. It doesn’t take much to saturate USB 2.0’s bandwidth, so nearly every hard drive should max out anywhere between 25 to 30MB a second, which is what we see when we run the enclosure on USB 2.0. When we run the drive on USB 3.0 we can see that the drive does not max out the bandwidth, as the transfer rates have a natural curve as the head moves across the platter. The drive has a slightly less average transfer rate under the SuperSpeed interface than on SATA, but it appears that the drive does not max out the bandwidth and therefore there is room to spare.
The ASMedia ASM1081 USB 3.0 controller chip
Our tests show that both enclosures perform pretty much the same, although the Vantec NexStar had a major advantage in write speeds with files larger than 32 Kbytes, which are most types of data today. HDTach’s results showed the throughput to be about the same with both enclosures, with a slight (1MB/sec) advantage to the RX368. The fact that there is any variation at all frankly surprises us, as both enclosures use the same ASMedia ASM1081 USB 3.0 controller chip.
This enclosure uses the same controller chip as found in the Rosewill USB 3.0 enclosure (review here), but yet performs differently using the same hard drive. Using synthetic benchmarks, the read speeds were slightly lower using the Vantec, but write speeds were slightly higher. In the real world I doubt you’ll notice a difference at all, as HDTach’s results are way too close to each other. The difference that really matter is the cooling performance, and since there is no active cooling on the NexStar you’ll see hard drive temps reaching into the low-100s.
The issue that prevents this unit being a complete slam-dunk is the lack of active cooling. The unit is thinner (and slightly quieter) without an additional fan, but the option of keeping your drive around the same as room temperature always alleviates worry about premature hardware failure.
The Vantec NexStar3 SuperSpeed HDD Enclosure has the same slick design and craftmanship you’ve come to expect from Vantec. Like all things shiny, it tends to attract a lot of fingerprints, but is rather scratch-resistant. The unit can be positioned horizontally or vertically, and has guards to help prevent scratching. Not only does it perform well, but it looks really good while doing it. A lot more spit and polish has gone into this unit than with other enclosures we’ve tested, from the aesthetics to considerations during installation.
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2 Comment
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When you states "all" hard drive, you mean IDE drives are included? Some reviewers are
not clear. They states sata-drives for this 3.0 usb super speed enclosure.