MUKii TransImp X3 Drive Enclosure Review

Data storage is a big part of our daily lives now.  I have a vast majority of my movie and television series collection backed up onto external storage.  I transfer data from my laptop to USB flash drives several times per day.  I use an encrypted flash drive to keep backups of my manuscripts, articles, and reviews.  And family videos and pictures take more than anything.  I recently had to purchase a new 1TB drive just for that purpose.

When I moved to California in 2006, I went with only my crappy ZE4400 laptop and an external HDD that I put together myself.  My mentor had given me a 40GB PATA laptop drive, and I had purchased an enclosure at the excellent price of $25.00.  It was small, aluminum, and had only a USB port on it.  You can get ones similar to it today on eBay for ninety-nine cents.  Since it had no vent holes for heat to escape, I drilled intake holes on the flat end and drilled holes in the side to mount a USB-powered fan, which I epoxied on.  The whole thing was jerry-rigged to the eighteenth power.

Now, 40GB is what it takes to back up just one of my Blu-ray movies.  I couldn’t imagine having an external storage drive that small.  So what better way to make sure there’s enough space for my home HD videos and movie backups than to put my own HDD in a custom enclosure?

Introducing the TransImp X3 Plus from Mukii.  And it’s a lot better than a hollow chunk of aluminum with a fan glued to it.  Check out the specs:

Features/Specifications

• MUKii TransImp X3-Plus USB 3.0 3.5″ External SATA Aluminum HDD Enclosure
• General Features:
• Black color
• Aluminum enclosure
• SATA and SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interfaces
• Supports single SATA drive up to 2 TB (Terabyte) total
• Up to 5.0 Gbit/s data transfer rate for USB 3.0
• Hot swappable, plug and play setup
• Transmission Speed LCD
• Backwards compatible with USB 2.0
• Lead-free components (RoHS compliant)
• Unit Dimensions:
• 5 x 3 x 7.5-inches (H x W x D, approximate)
• Regulatory Approvals:
• FCC
• CE
• WEEE

Package includes:

• MUKii TransImp X3-Plus USB 3.0 3.5″ External SATA Aluminum HDD Enclosure
• Vertical Stand
• USB 3.0 Cable
• Screw Pack
• AC Power Adapter (Input: 100 – 240V, 50/60Hz, 1.5A, Output: 12V, 4.24A)
• Software CD ROM
• User Manual

On the next page we install a shiny new drive.

I slid the plastic casing off the cardboard and pulled the X3 out.  The aesthetics were nice, a glossy black over brushed aluminum.  It had the product name printed on the side in boxy letters.  Very professional and straight-forward, not a lot of graphics and details.  There was a chrome band that went around the front where the LCD panel is and one at the back where the enclosure comes apart to insert the HDD.  The front is also reflective, but not chrome.  I would call say it’s more like a dark mirror.  The small LCD is right near the top.  The rear of the enclosure has a 12V power port, a USB 3.0 port, and the power switch.  Once thing I noticed, and was very disappointed about, was that there is no cooling whatsoever.  Not even ventilation for heat.  I’ve had hard drives fail inside enclosures due to this.

I put the enclosure aside to see what else the box contained.  I dug out the package of screws, the power cord, the software CD, the stand, USB 3.0 cable, and the user manual.  Nothing more, nothing less.  At least they didn’t throw in a bunch of stickers or something.  I hate that.  Why do companies think we are going to stick their stickers all over our stuff?  We’re not that proud of owning your products, people.  Stuff your stickers.

On the next page we test the enclosure with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0.

I took the 500GB Seagate I use for extra storage and put it inside the X3.  Installation is fairly easy; you pull the tray out, connect the hard drive, and push it back in.  Screw in the front screws to keep the thing from coming apart and voila.  Ready to accept data.  I plugged it into my laptop to test its connection on a USB 2.0 interface.  I benchmarked it against four other similar drives.  As you can see from the screenshot, it averaged around 32MB/s.  About average for an external SATA HDD on a USB 2.0 connection.

Next I plugged it into my desktop computer for the same test with a USB 3.0 interface and ran the same test with SiSandra.  For some reason I couldn’t get the software to compare it to any other hard drives on that computer, but I did get a speed test on it.  It averaged out at 73MB/s with speeds reaching 79MB/s.  Even at the lowest speed it’s still twice as fast as the USB 2.0 test.  That’s a pretty nice speed for an external drive.

 
USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 benchmarks

I installed the software that was included with the enclosure.  It was supposed to boost the transfer speed using Turbo Technology.  However, I saw no significant improvement over the stock transfer speed.  It could have been the hard drive I was using, but I honestly don’t think so.  Very rarely have I seen software that truly speeds up a USB connection.  USB is what it is, even the 3.0 version.  But I’m okay with 73MB/s for a transfer speed.  It’s nice not sitting and waiting for an hour to transfer a huge amount of data.

I believe that overall the X3 does what it says.  It offers high speed USB 3.0 data transfer rates with backwards compatibility for those who are still using 2.0 as their primary data connection.  It shows transfer rates in a digital display and has a very nice look.  I believe that for the money, you are getting what you pay for, and the software is an add-in that while useless for me, might have some purpose for others.