ICY DOCK MB559US-1SMB: eSATA Enclosure with Pizzazz
by Gary Key and Dave Robinet on July 11, 2007 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
ICY DOCK Specifications
The ICY DOCK MB559US-1SMB provides full support for current eSATA and USB 2.0 specifications along with a case design that features horizontal or vertical positioning. If your system does not natively provide eSATA connections, no worry as ICY DOCK provides an adapter bracket that converts an internal SATA header into an eSATA header that is mounted in an open slot. A USB 2.0 connection is also included for those systems that do not support eSATA or for people on the go who can use this almost universal interface.
ICY DOCK Feature Set
The MB559US features two different color schemes at this time. Not pictured is a brushed silver design with off-white plastic trim that would remind one of the latest Apple designs. Our review sample is the recently released glossy piano black design that looks stunning. Well, at least until it spent a few days in the lab being handled several dozen times and ended up looking like a finger print collection unit. A buffing cloth and a small dab of auto polish brought the unit's glossy black shine back in no time.
The MB559US enclosure does not include a cooling fan and instead relies on a combination of convection cooling and chassis conduction to cool the enclosed hard drive. It can be positioned either horizontally or vertically, but we found the vertical position to offer less noise, vibration, and heat.
The connections on the back panel are common for this type of enclosure: a power plug that attaches to the external power brick, USB 2.0 and eSATA connections, a button to release the four plastic feet for vertical operation, and a power switch. Interestingly enough, the power switch refused to operate when both of the USB and eSATA connections were filled.
The process of removing the drive the caddy is straightforward. One press of the front button is all that is needed to release the drive, which then slides out easily. Reinserting the drive is just as simple with the only caveat being the lever should be fully extended before pushing the caddy back into place. Once this is done then you close and lock the lever arm.
ICY DOCK has made it easy to swap drives as the caddy utilized is compatible with other enclosures manufactured by them. Besides making the swappable drive process very easy, it also simplifies drive installation since it can be installed in a caddy ahead of time before going in the enclosure. Additional caddy units are available for sale and range in price from around $16 for the silver/white unit to $19 for the black unit.
A quick look at the inside of the unit reveals a spartan PCB layout containing the controller chipset along with the standard SATA data and power connectors.
The accessory kit has everything you need to attach the unit to a system with an eSATA or high-speed USB 2.0 port. If your motherboard does not have an eSATA port, you can use the included bracket for attachment to the motherboard's SATA connector. We did not notice any performance or compatibility issues utilizing this method with our test system.
However, if your motherboard's controller chipset does not fully support the eSATA protocol there might be issues using the SATA to eSATA bracket. If this is the case, there might be data corruption if the error correction algorithms do not properly address the communication signal synchronization between the two standards. We have also seen on older controllers like the Intel ICH6 or early VIA chipsets without eSATA support that enabling write-back caching for the drive within Windows will cause data corruption or a locked drive.
| ICY DOCK MB559US-1SMB Specifications | |
| Host Interface | eSATA + USB 2.0 Combination |
| Drive Type | 3.5" SATA 1.5Gb/s or 3Gb/s Interface |
| Drive Position | Vertical or Horizontal |
| Transfer Rates | Up to 3Gb/s per eSATA specs Up to 480Mb/s per USB 2.0 specs |
| Connection Type | SATA |
| Structure Type | Aluminum Body with Plastic Trim |
| Drive Cooling | Passive via Aluminum frame heat dispersion with ventilation ports |
| Activity Indicators | Device Power and Drive Activity via LED |
| OS Support | Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9.0 or higher |
| Power Draw | 2W |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 194 x 142.6 x 42.6 mm |
| Weight | 1.10 lbs. |
The ICY DOCK MB559US-1SMB provides full support for current eSATA and USB 2.0 specifications along with a case design that features horizontal or vertical positioning. If your system does not natively provide eSATA connections, no worry as ICY DOCK provides an adapter bracket that converts an internal SATA header into an eSATA header that is mounted in an open slot. A USB 2.0 connection is also included for those systems that do not support eSATA or for people on the go who can use this almost universal interface.
ICY DOCK Feature Set
The MB559US features two different color schemes at this time. Not pictured is a brushed silver design with off-white plastic trim that would remind one of the latest Apple designs. Our review sample is the recently released glossy piano black design that looks stunning. Well, at least until it spent a few days in the lab being handled several dozen times and ended up looking like a finger print collection unit. A buffing cloth and a small dab of auto polish brought the unit's glossy black shine back in no time.
The MB559US enclosure does not include a cooling fan and instead relies on a combination of convection cooling and chassis conduction to cool the enclosed hard drive. It can be positioned either horizontally or vertically, but we found the vertical position to offer less noise, vibration, and heat.
The connections on the back panel are common for this type of enclosure: a power plug that attaches to the external power brick, USB 2.0 and eSATA connections, a button to release the four plastic feet for vertical operation, and a power switch. Interestingly enough, the power switch refused to operate when both of the USB and eSATA connections were filled.
The process of removing the drive the caddy is straightforward. One press of the front button is all that is needed to release the drive, which then slides out easily. Reinserting the drive is just as simple with the only caveat being the lever should be fully extended before pushing the caddy back into place. Once this is done then you close and lock the lever arm.
ICY DOCK has made it easy to swap drives as the caddy utilized is compatible with other enclosures manufactured by them. Besides making the swappable drive process very easy, it also simplifies drive installation since it can be installed in a caddy ahead of time before going in the enclosure. Additional caddy units are available for sale and range in price from around $16 for the silver/white unit to $19 for the black unit.
A quick look at the inside of the unit reveals a spartan PCB layout containing the controller chipset along with the standard SATA data and power connectors.
The accessory kit has everything you need to attach the unit to a system with an eSATA or high-speed USB 2.0 port. If your motherboard does not have an eSATA port, you can use the included bracket for attachment to the motherboard's SATA connector. We did not notice any performance or compatibility issues utilizing this method with our test system.
However, if your motherboard's controller chipset does not fully support the eSATA protocol there might be issues using the SATA to eSATA bracket. If this is the case, there might be data corruption if the error correction algorithms do not properly address the communication signal synchronization between the two standards. We have also seen on older controllers like the Intel ICH6 or early VIA chipsets without eSATA support that enabling write-back caching for the drive within Windows will cause data corruption or a locked drive.
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Gary Key - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
We discovered an issue with the Intel Matrix Storage driver version 7.0.0.1020 and our ICY DOCK review unit that prevented true SATA 3Gb/s operation. An update to version 7.5.0.1017 did not work, even after an uninstall of the 7.0.0.1020 driver. However, after reinstalling Windows XP-SP2 and installing driver 7.5.0.1017, the unit performed as advertised. This was repeatable on our DFI P965 board with the ICH8R.We are still looking into why this occurred as it was not repeatable on our P35 board with the ICH9R nor the Intel BadAxe 2 board with the ICH7R. We will publish updated HDTach results shortly. There were not any differences in our actual benchmarks other than the normal variance between benchmark runs that is typically +/- .05%.
Stan11003 - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
I think I could buy a 250GB drive for the cost of this enclosure....JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - link
Which would work great as an internal-only HDD.