Having owned one of the Thermaltake BlackX versions of these type of docking solutions before, I was eager to try one of these new dual unit stations.
These are a pretty solid product and I found them much cheaper (by about 25% or so) on Amazon than Newegg. The only negative I have in comparing this to my last docking station is that the Thermaltake was a snug fit. The 3.5" drive felt very secure and stable in it. There was no room for wiggling.
This docking station is not as snug. In fact, once you've docked your drives in it, they can still wiggle if you nudge them. These do not detract significantly from the quality, but I would be more careful with placing them in an undisturbed area than before. If I had paid the full price Newegg and others were charging, it might be enough to make me return it and look for something with a tighter fit.
I would absolutely not hesitate to recommend this to someone looking to attach extra storage, backup drives, or even someone like myself who has a shelf full of 3.5" drives that they only occasionally need to retrieve something from. It beats the solution I had years ago with two or three dozen large isolated external cases with power adapters, fans, ribbons, USB cables...
Now... when does the triple and quadruple dock arrive? Startech eSATA USB to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station for Dual 2.5 or 3.5-Inch HDD SATADOCK22UE
Pros:
-works great as plug and play with Win7
-comes with 2 SATA cables and 1 USB Cable (only one needed for both HDD's)
-AC cable comes with a brick
-individual power buttons for each bay
Cons:
-a tad large in size
-power cable is a bit short
I wanted a dock with separate eSATA connectors for each drive rather than what I found in most docks--one eSATA connector with an internal port multiplier. With this dock I can connect each drive to a different computer, or use an operating system that doesn't support multipliers. Each drive gets the full available throughput with its dedicated connection. If you use USB, then both drives show up separately via the single USB connection. Drive performance using eSATA is not at all degraded, resulting in the same speed as my internal drives.
I expected the drives to be a bit wobbly or insecure, but even newer shallow 3.5" drives fit well, as do 2.5" drives. I've been completely satisfied with this unit. It is larger than I expected having not carefully read the dimensions, but that lends to its stability. I still would have bought it.
The drive power buttons are right to left (drive 1=right button, drive 2=left button), probably because of its country of origin. Not a problem. The eSATA connectors are solid, and the cables haven't given me a single problem. This is a great product for versatility without the need for trays.
** Update after 1+ years
Still an awesome unit, and I noticed the comment made regarding my review. The review is on the correct product--see the photo for the dual power buttons, and I rechecked the part number. Sounds like Amazon sent at least one person the wrong product.
I have owned this product for about a year, and it has been absolutely perfect over that time. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who manages a collection of external hard drives.
I'll try to explain the use of this device, so that the many misconceptions posted here can be cleared up.
This device is for attaching one or two external hard drives to your computer, keeping each drive separate, both physically and how they appear to your operating system. The thing has two slots simply because many people want to attach more than one drive to their PC -- not because it somehow merges the hard drive space between the two drives.
If attaching the device to your PC via USB, both drives will be recognized by your PC using one USB cable. You cannot use the eSATA connection if you are using USB. In other words, you can't have a scenario where one drive is connected via USB and the other connected via eSATA.
If you are doing something like occasional backups or other tasks that don't require the drive to read and write quickly, USB will work very well, and is certainly the easiest way to get things connected. However, if you find yourself transferring huge files or needing better performance, eSATA is the only way to go.
If you want to use eSATA, you'll need to use two separate eSATA cables. The unit does come with two eSATA cables, but they are only about 3 feet long each, so you may want to get some longer cables if you want to put some distance between your PC and the unit. I personally think 6-foot cables are the perfect length.
Although USB connects both drive slots using one cable, the eSATA connection does not work that way. You need to connect one cable for each slot.
Some reviewers have mentioned port replicators. If the unit itself had a port replicator built into it, then yes, you could use one eSATA cable to connect both drives. However, having a port replicator in your PC does not eliminate the need for two cables. In fact, it would do nothing to help your situation here. So please ignore the reviewers who say, "beware: you need a port replicator." That's bunk.
You do, in fact, need two separate eSATA ports on your PC if you want to connect this unit via eSATA. (Unless you are only using one slot, in which case you could connect just one of the eSATA ports -- but then why are you buying a 2-slot device?)
So, if your computer only has one eSATA port on the back, you'll need to invest in an eSATA add-on card. There are many available for both PCI and PCIe slots.
If for some reason you want to set up RAID across two disks, be sure to buy an eSATA card with RAID functionality built in. But why in the world someone would want to do that with this kind of unit is beyond me. So, assuming you want to keep the drives appearing as two separate drives to your operating system, buy a cheap eSATA add-on card with at least two external eSATA ports. The only real requirement would be to make sure the card has drivers available for your operating system (and of course you're buying the right connection for your PC -- PCI or PCIe). Other than that, it really doesn't matter. Don't worry about port replicators or anything like that.
The eSATA function works very well and is very fast. If you read reviews here saying that eSATA is flakey or slow or only works some of the time, then the reviewer has something hooked up wrong, or else does not have the correct drivers for their eSATA cards.
BTW, I use Windows 7 64-bit. - Hard Drive Dock - External Hard Drive - Esata - Usb'
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