Nice product and nice review as always. If I decide to get an extra drive, I think this would be my choice for it.

"Aside from the slight discrepancy in dBA numbers (22 vs. 20), there's nothing askance here."

Interesting use of the word "Askance", it also seems to be an interesting word whose meaning and use seems to vary hugely, I cant say that I disaprove, but it certainly is a word with a dozen meanings, well discovered

http://www.wordreference.com/definition/askance
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=askance

I read the word, and thought that you meant "askew", I had to look it up as I had never heard it before.

Anyway, the designer of the MX-1 is obviously perspicacious, Antec need just a little more work on the MX-1 to remove the only impurity - the added noise caused by vibration, if that can be reduced to equal the vibrational noise casused by the bare drive this product would get a 10/10 from the purest of noise fanatics. Then again there is always the option of suspending the whole unit inside a PC


Andy

Seventy bucks, though.

But Google that price, you can pre-order at closer to $50.00+ship=$60.00

"Veris" is Antec's name for their new line of media-centric products. The MX-1 and the A/V Cooler they dislayed at CES are to be among to the first Veris products to be released.

I'm glad to see that MX-1 held up to the high hopes we had for it when we first saw it. Kinda nice when something actually manages to live up to its marketing promises. Holding it in my hands I thought that it would have had more dampening effect on the HDD noise than the testing showed though. Its a heavy little sucker. Might be intersting to test it with the internal fan disabled for a few minutes, to hear just the effects of the enclosure itself on the hdd noise. Since it does not rely on conduction through the shell for cooling there is always the possibility to adding mass to the exterior to improve its performance, I suppose.

I was surprised by the $70 price tag though. That's a bit steep, even for a really good enclosure. But that is just the MSRP...hopefully its selling price will drop to the 70-75% of MSRP that Antec products typically sell for once they're in wide distribution.

The price does seem a steep considering you can find eSATA/USB enclosures for as little as $15. I have no idea how the electronics in them differ. However, I see that the Icy Dock eSATA/USB enclosure we reviewed last year sells for around $55, which is probably going to be close to where the MX-1 sells for if the $70 MSRP is for real. Antec scrambled to get the price up to me just a few minutes before the review was posted. They had not expected any reviewers to get on it so quick, so perhaps this price will change before it gets official -- I see there is no price at Antec's site..

At least one shop in Finland has it listed for 45.80€. So I think 40-50$ might be quite close to the truth.

I would be wary to place a HDD in this device, because the 30 degrees operating temperature might be TOO LOW, as some new HDD reliability statistics have shown.
I believe HDDs are manufactured assuming that they will live their life at over 40 degrees, so they simply aren't tested for reliability at 30.
What about using larger silicone gaskets to dampen vibration, like several people use (two stock ones actually) in their P150 / Solo's?

This really is not a problem, as the Google HDD statistics showed, low operating temps ONLY affected HDD's below 6-months, and even then they were at or below standard room temp - way below 31C. I would have no reason not to use this product because its temp is too low.


Andy

I've been using an MX-1 for about a week now and agree 100% with MikeC's assessment of it. I've used it with a couple of different drives than the WD that Mike used. Here's my quick take on it:

So far, I've used both a brand-new Seagate 300Gb SATA (model #ST3300622AS-RK) and a Samsung 501LJ in the MX-1. Both have been run exactly as they were right out of the box, with no AAM programming done to them.

With the Seagate drive you can hear it's muffled seeks and the entire case has a very quite HDD hum transmitted through it. MX-1 fan is extremely quiet, I'd guess around 22-23dB.

The Samsung 501LJ setup has no seek noises but does have the noticeable "Sumsung hum". 1/2" thick Sorbothane feet under drive case and a dampening weight on top of the MX-1 cuts hum by around 70%, but it's still there. There is plenty of room in the case for dampening material though. I haven't tried yet, but I suspect with a little work, and better placement, the hum could be nearly eliminated.

Even though a bit of hum is still present, this is the best fan-cooled external case I've ever used. It's fan keeps drive temp to 30-35C under heavy load, at an ambient temp of 22-23C. Samsung temp reads 2-4C less than Seagate temp, FWIW. Fan noise is too quite for me to hear at 1 meter. To me, this is exceptional performance and makes the MX-1 worth the price of admission, no matter what other issues it may have.

Important points for an external enclosure for me are #1) Keeping the drive cool, #2)Doing it quietly (something that I have never seen happen with the ubiquitous 40mm cooling fans typically used in those infernal external drive cases). The MX-1 excels at both and I highly recommend it.

Nice review and good performance. While reading, the placement of the intake and exhaust vents led me to think it would be recycling hot air but eventually I was wrong.

The exterior doesn't look very appealing though, it makes me think of a soapbox: take off the lid and wash your hands

For this price, I find it unacceptable that the device does not offer a 1394A interface; not for performance reasons, but for power: On both Windows and Macintosh computers, firewire devices are shut off in standby or hibernation to save power (and the drive!). USB does not allow this, and eSATA is NOT a common peripheral interface.

Plus bear in mind: $70 can get you a 250GB hard drive, or an Athlon X2 3600+ dual core processor! Just a little price perspective

I love the design. It's shape is non-obtrusive and it's color is a semi-matte charcoal gray that sort of disappears into the background. Even the blue Power/Activity LED is very muted. This seems to be exactly what you'd want in a quiet, external HDD case. Just forget it's even there.

Looks like a very nice enclosure to me. It keeps the drive cool while keeping the noise to a minimum, it also looks nice, not in a "in your face trendy" nice, but in a quiet look, the semi-rounded shapes and color tone are easy on the eyes. My only wish is for a lower price as $70 is ridiculous to ask for any enclosure, and for better hard drive mounting as well as addition of soft silicone feet to the enclosure itself so that vibrations from the enclosure are not transmitted to the table.

The unit comes with an eSATA/SATA adapter interface and the eSATA cable as well. All you need in your PC is a spare PCI slot cover and standard SATA port.

As for price.... yeah, I agree, but the marketplace will dictate.

There are however not many notebooks today with eSATA, and I guess they will be a bigger market than stationary computers that can accomodate internal drives.

I have an Iomega Desktop storage 500GB USB hard drive with a Seagate hard drive inside. It is very loud, both the hollow-sounding woosh and the really loud seeks. It does however shut itself down when my notebook is put under hibernation. You can hear the hard drive shutting down.

For a notebook user, a 2.5" mobile drive that's powered directly from the USB plug makes more sense. I use one of these on my travels... as the main storage for photos, all of SPCR, etc. Works great. No way I would tether myself to yet another AC cable or anything so big as a 3.5" external. Works fine at home too.

Very helpful review and forum discussion. Sounds like the MX-1 would work very well with a 150gb Raptor.

Sounds (or rather, doesn't) pretty awesome...especially compared to my plastic external enclosure with 40mm buzzsaw fan in it.

Realistic price I would pay for it...$40. Roughly double standard enclosures. Should be interesting to see what kind of actual pricing it ends up at.

Nice review too

It is seventy bucks plus 6 bucks shipping from NewEgg. Still, perhaps you get what you pay for and this unit is very good.

I always wonder if these enclosures are able to put the drive to sleep after a certain period of inactivity. Clearly, this is not a problem for ESATA where the computer actually controllers the drive, but what about USB? I've read conflicting reports. Anyone have some insight?

So this device keeps the HD running when the computer is off? Couldn't find any definite answer in the review. The WD "My Book" external USB enclosure turns off by itself when the computer is shut down. Running all the time is not acceptable for me.....no way. My NAS external drive shuts down after about 10 minutes of inactivity.

The temps of the drive are remarkable, considering the low-airflow fan. But I would be concerned about dust build-up inside the unit, with the drive running all the time. The small airflow paths through the unit could collect dust easily, and could be neglected. I'd also like a temperature display on the unit, and some way to add heatsinks to the drive.

This is a device someone could duplicate with a few DIY skills......I'd power mine off the computer's PSU however.....

Yes, drive continues to run.



Easy enough maintenance issue. Keep an eye on the case until you get a handle on how fast (or not) any dust builds up, then blow it out. Unscrew one screw to slide the cover off and you've got easy access to the entire case. A few blasts of canned air later and you're good-to-go.





e-SATA/SATA interface is recognized as a regular drive and drive temps will show up in any supported application. Mine works fine with MBM for instance.

I noticed one disparity with my experience of external enclosures:

'The typical HDD enclosure is made of two pieces of extruded aluminum that close like a clamshell. '

The three I have are made differently - a metal sled that slides into a 'flattened tube' for lack of a better term.

Why anyone would want to use an external Raptor is beyond me...

Okay, now pics of my external enclosure. I photographed a 2.5" one, but my 3.5's are constructed similarly.

http://anapnea.net/~crazytales/PHOT0138.JPG
http://anapnea.net/~crazytales/PHOT0137.JPG

I guess for the reason given in the review: "It is possible to boot from an eSATA drive, which means the main PC can be completely free of any HDD noise, and the OS drive could be remotely located in an acoustically isolated position. The speed of eSATA is essentially identical to SATA, which makes this a no-compromise from a performance perspective."

I suppose it might be tricky finding an "acoustically isolated position" that allows good airflow, within the range of an eSATA cable. It's an interesting thought though.

One meter is not much, you might aswell put the whole enclosure inside the computer case then. Raptor is not that loud when it's idle, but the seeks are really sharp. My 150 Raptor is enclosed in Scythe Quiet Drive and it's placed on foam. I have also blocked my front intake with foam, to reduce the noise leaks, but the seeks are still clearly audible. If you are going through the trouble of putting Raptor inside this enclose and then moving it 1 meter away to put in inside of some DIY box, you might just save 70$ and make a better DIY-box. Because I'm telling you, enclosed Raptor resting on foam, inside a damped computer case is still audible 1 meter away, if rest of the computer is up to SPCR standards.

That goes then similar price range with regular passively cooled aluminium HDD enclosures range. If I would have to choose betweenr "regular" and MX-1, I would probably choose MX-1... Actually I am not looking it around finnish stores now that Erssa mentioned some place had it already ^^