There isn’t any scarcity of exterior onerous drives and SSDs in the marketplace, however there’s little to distinguish them, enter the Dockcase good onerous drive enclosure. Whereas you must deliver your individual SSD or onerous drive, Dockcase takes that fundamental drive and supercharges it.
Probably the most notable addition is energy loss safety, which helps to stop knowledge loss and might lengthen the lifetime of your onerous drive or SSD. The built-in show is one other helpful improve that offers you a fast take a look at your drive’s standing, detailed disk info and even management over some drive settings straight by the enclosure. All of this and a twin USB-C design with a 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port and auxiliary 15W port that permits for protected direct use on a cellphone.
I spent every week with a prototype Dockcase good onerous drive enclosure and got here away totally impressed with its options and efficiency.
Value and availability
The Dockcase 2.5-inch Sensible Arduous Drive Enclosure is presently out there on Kickstarter beginning at $69. The bottom mannequin options 5 seconds of energy loss safety, whereas the Dockcase Professional boosts that to 10 seconds and is presently $89 on Kickstarter.
That is strictly for the enclosure, so understand that you will want to produce your individual 2.5-inch SSD or HDD.
Whereas the everyday caveats for Kickstarter or any crowdfunding challenge exist, that is the sixth Kickstarter from Dockcase and the staff has delivered on each earlier product, together with the Dockcase M.2 NVMe Sensible SSD enclosure, which is just a smaller model of the enclosure sized for M.2 NVMe SSDs.
As of this writing, the challenge has already surpassed its funding aim, and the projected delivery date for the enclosures is in November.
The Kickstarter closes on October 19 at 9 a.m. EDT and ordering now saves you roughly 30% off the projected retail value for every mannequin.
Specs
| Dockcase | Dockcase Professional | |
| Energy loss safety period | 5 seconds | 10 seconds |
| Max storage capability (2.5-inch) | 8TB SSD or 2TB HDD | 8TB SSD or 5TB HDD |
| Max HDD top | 7-9.5mm | 7-15mm |
| Show | 1.54 x 1.54 inch LCD | 1.54 x 1.54 inch LCD |
| Ports | USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C; 15W auxiliary USB-C | USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C; 15W auxiliary USB-C |
| Max switch pace | 6Gbps | 6Gbps |
| Dimension | 5 x 3.1 x 0.65 inches | 5 x 3.1 x 0.89 inches |
| Weight (Enclosure solely) | 5.29 ounces | 6.14 ounces |
Design
The Dockcase has an industrial look that offers you the sense of sturdiness that you really want from an exterior drive that’s going to be jostled across the within your laptop computer bag. The darkish gray aluminum casing that rings the enclosure matches the trendy design aesthetic of many laptops, whereas the black tempered glass entrance of the unit makes it appear to be the world’s thickest smartphone when it’s powered off.
The detachable cowl is that very same darkish gray however contains a ribbed design that can also be meant to assist dissipate warmth and 4 uncovered screws on the edges that contribute to that total industrial vibe. When you should not be swapping onerous drives or SSDs recurrently, it is value contemplating that you simply do want a screwdriver (included) to get that job finished.
Eradicating the quilt there’s not lots to see inside, you simply have the PCB board to plug your HDD or SDD into on one facet, and on the alternative facet you’ve got the purple battery which gives energy loss safety and the USB-C ports are uncovered. Dockcase gives you with a foam block to carry your SSD or HDD in place and extra foam with a sticky again for the highest of your drive.
Returning to the surface you’ve got a pair of USB-C ports on the backside, one is the complete USB 3.2 Gen 1 Kind-C port for knowledge switch and the opposite is a 15W auxiliary energy port if wanted to energy your drive. The latter is related in case you are utilizing the Dockcase to switch recordsdata to or from a cellphone over USB-C because the cellphone might not be capable of sufficiently energy the drive by itself.
Turning lastly to the built-in show, which is likely one of the extra distinctive options of the Dockcase, it is a 1.5-inch squareLCDy with a 240 x 240-pixel decision. It provides you glanceable data in your drive standing in real-time together with the SSD/HDD mannequin, capability, partitions, disk well being, energy loss safety standing, and extra. The show is managed utilizing three capacitive buttons on the entrance of the Dockcase and a single bodily button on prime of the enclosure.
Dockcase included the non-obligatory silicone case with my assessment unit, which provides you some shock, scratch, and drop safety if you’re going to be taking your exterior drive with you in all places. It is a $15 add-on for the Dockcase or $19 for the Dockcase Professional. It provides some bulk, however I want it have been included within the field because the safety of this drive is considered one of its massive promoting factors and it additionally protects the remainder of the contents of my bag from the naked aluminum body of the Dockcase.
Efficiency
The added value of the Dockcase or Dockcase Professional over a barebones enclosure principally comes right down to the facility loss safety and that inbuilt show, however notably in case you are a content material creator or anybody transferring giant recordsdata round you additionally wish to see quick transfers.
Dockcase boasts that the 10Gbps Kind-C port mixed with UASP and TRIM protocols delivers as much as 70% sooner speeds than a typical 5Gbps enclosure with a micro-B USB 3.0 port.
I carried out my testing with an older Samsung 840 Evo SSD, which presents a most of 540Mbps, and the Dockcase stayed near the bounds of my SSD at 480Mbps when transferring a 25GB assortment of blended media recordsdata backwards and forwards between the drive and my laptop computer. That is not as quick as the highest speeds we’re saying from the newest inner M.2 NVMe SSD drives, nevertheless it needs to be greater than sufficient pace for the overwhelming majority of duties.
Transferring to the facility loss safety, that is the most important differentiator between the Dockcase and Dockase Professional with the latter providing double the time at a most of 10 seconds versus 5. That is essential if energy is interrupted throughout a switch because it provides the drive time to put in writing the info within the cache to the drive. This could enhance the long-term well being of your SSD or HDD.
The Dockcase additionally helps firmware upgrades to enhance performance over time.
Backside line
The Dockcase good onerous drive enclosure delivers on the fundamentals that you really want from a tough drive enclosure with a sturdy construct, stable thermal efficiency, and quick switch speeds. It then goes on to earn its barely elevated price ticket with wonderful drive assist, energy loss safety, and its distinctive built-in show.
Now in case you are somebody that hardly ever makes use of an exterior drive and goes to toss it in your bag and neglect about it then you may in all probability go on the Dockcase for both an exterior SSD or a less expensive generic drive enclosure. Nonetheless, for the data-hungry or drive safety aware, the Dockcase good onerous drive enclosure could also be an ideal match with glanceable data at your fingertips and peace of thoughts that your knowledge is protected.
