Review: JJ-23VSUES SATA to USB2/eSATA enclosure
in [Storage]
|
Prev: Q about the location of the My Documents folder
Next: Freecom Hard Drive Pro 500Gb - eSATA Card Info
From: Arno Wagner on 27 Dec 2007 14:06 Published in the hopes that it is useful to somebody. The Jou Jye JJ-23VSUES is an external 3.5" enclosure for SATA drives. It has both an USB2.0 and an eSATA connector. Tested with a 1TB Samsung HD103UJ SATA drive. Other interface variants are available and should have similar mechanical and thermal characteristics. Construction: The enclosure is made of plastic. It looks good from a distance, and acceptable close up. It is sturdy enough for normal operation, but will probably not survive a fall from desk hight. Given that much sturdier looking aluminium enclosures do also not survive such a fall, this is not a real disadvantage. In addition, such a fall will likely kill your disk anyways. (Side note: I had one Revoltec Alu Book 2 slip through my fingers. As it turns out, the disk is held in place by two flimsy metal pieces, which bend easily and the front side is plastic that can break break on such an impact. The disk was damaged enough that I just managed to pull the files off before it died.) Disk mounting is by 4 screws and adequate. Mounting the disk is easy. The foot stand for vertical positioning is not attached to the case, but stability is good and it has 4 rubber feet. The disk cannot be stacked when horizontal. In principle it should be possible by adding 4 rubber feet about 5mm tall, but as it is, the decoration on one side prevents stacking. Operating a single enclosure horizontally is possible, as the air-inlets are on the front and side and the exhaust is on the back. However, there are no rubber feet and it may slide around. Cooling and Power: This enclosure features a 80mm fan with two speed settings, selectable by a switch on the back. With a Samsung 1TB drive, the low setting was inaudible, the high setting was audible over the disk, but not dominant. This is a relatively quiet disk drive. Airflow is from the sides and front to under the disk and out the back. With low speed setting, the Samsung operates at 9C over ambient temperature when idle and goes up to 14C over ambient during a long SMART self-test. Copying a lot of files to the disk with rsync brought it up to 13C over ambient temperature, while overwriting the disk sequentially resulted in 15C over ambient temperature. (Side note: For this disk, the average write speed over the whole surface is 78MB/s, which I think is pretty impressive.) I did not measure temperatures for the high fan speed setting. All temperatures measured with the disk-integrated temperature sensor. Ambient temperature measured with a +/- 1C IR thermometer. For use with a different disk, I advise to monitor temperatures under load for some time (connect with eSATA for that and use a SMART monitor, e.g. SpeedFan), and select low or high fan speed as needed. If you do not mind the fan noise, select high fan speed. The power adapter is a standard 12V/2A brick type with a hollow plug, 5.5mm on the outside and 2.5mm on the inside. Plus is on the inside and minus in the outside of the plug. Several other enclosures use the same power plug and rating, e.g. the 3.5" enclosures by Agrosy. Mains connection is a wide-range 100-240V with an fixedly attached euro-plug power cord, but that may vary depending on where you buy it. The enclosure has its own 5V switching regulator, of standard design using quality components. Interfaces and Speed: The interface chip is a JM20336. USB2.0 gives the customary 25MB/s for reading and writing, same as all other USB 2.0 enclosures I ever used. eSATA gives full SATA speeds. BTW, there is some garbled info on the carton that seems to indicate it does not supports Linux. This enclosure works fine with Linux, both for USB2.0 and for eSATA. One eSATA cable and one USB cable is included. There is no eSATA slot-cover adapter to use an internal SATA connector as eSATA. If you do not already have an eSATA connector in your PC, you may want to get one of these adapters to benefit from faster transfer speeds and full access to SMART data. Verdict: While some aluminium enclosures may look better, the design is acceptable. Construction is reasonable. The cooling solution is good and should, on high setting, keep even power-hungry disks at acceptable temperatures. The price is at the same level as aluminium enclosures, which I think it is justified. (c) 2007 Arno Wagner, permission to reproduce in full or in parts is hereby granted, provided that this notice is included.
From: Timothy Daniels on 27 Dec 2007 16:12 "Arno Wagner" wrote: > Published in the hopes that it is useful to somebody. > > The Jou Jye JJ-23VSUES is an external 3.5" enclosure for SATA > drives. It has both an USB2.0 and an eSATA connector. Tested > with a 1TB Samsung HD103UJ SATA drive. Other interface > variants are available and should have similar mechanical and > thermal characteristics. > > > Construction: > > The enclosure is made of plastic. It looks good from a distance, > and acceptable close up. It is sturdy enough for normal operation, > but will probably not survive a fall from desk hight. Given that > much sturdier looking aluminium enclosures do also not survive > such a fall, this is not a real disadvantage. In addition, such a fall > will likely kill your disk anyways. (Side note: I had one Revoltec > Alu Book 2 slip through my fingers. As it turns out, the disk is held > in place by two flimsy metal pieces, which bend easily and the > front side is plastic that can break break on such an impact. The > disk was damaged enough that I just managed to pull the files off > before it died.) > > Disk mounting is by 4 screws and adequate. Mounting the disk is > easy. The foot stand for vertical positioning is not attached to the > case, but stability is good and it has 4 rubber feet. The disk cannot > be stacked when horizontal. In principle it should be possible by > adding 4 rubber feet about 5mm tall, but as it is, the decoration on > one side prevents stacking. Operating a single enclosure horizontally > is possible, as the air-inlets are on the front and side and the > exhaust is on the back. However, there are no rubber feet and it > may slide around. > > > Cooling and Power: > > This enclosure features a 80mm fan with two speed settings, > selectable by a switch on the back. With a Samsung 1TB drive, > the low setting was inaudible, the high setting was audible over > the disk, but not dominant. This is a relatively quiet disk drive. > Airflow is from the sides and front to under the disk and out the > back. With low speed setting, the Samsung operates at 9C over > ambient temperature when idle and goes up to 14C over ambient > during a long SMART self-test. Copying a lot of files to the disk > with rsync brought it up to 13C over ambient temperature, while > overwriting the disk sequentially resulted in 15C over ambient > temperature. (Side note: For this disk, the average write speed > over the whole surface is 78MB/s, which I think is pretty impressive.) > I did not measure temperatures for the high fan speed setting. All > temperatures measured with the disk-integrated temperature sensor. > Ambient temperature measured with a +/- 1C IR thermometer. > > For use with a different disk, I advise to monitor temperatures > under load for some time (connect with eSATA for that and use > a SMART monitor, e.g. SpeedFan), and select low or high fan > speed as needed. If you do not mind the fan noise, select high fan > speed. > > The power adapter is a standard 12V/2A brick type with a > hollow plug, 5.5mm on the outside and 2.5mm on the inside. Plus > is on the inside and minus in the outside of the plug. Several other > enclosures use the same power plug and rating, e.g. the 3.5" > enclosures by Agrosy. Mains connection is a wide-range >100-240V with an fixedly attached euro-plug power cord, but > that may vary depending on where you buy it. The enclosure has > its own 5V switching regulator, of standard design using quality > components. > > > Interfaces and Speed: > > The interface chip is a JM20336. USB2.0 gives the customary > 25MB/s for reading and writing, same as all other USB 2.0 > enclosures I ever used. eSATA gives full SATA speeds. BTW, > there is some garbled info on the carton that seems to indicate it > does not supports Linux. This enclosure works fine with Linux, > both for USB2.0 and for eSATA. > > One eSATA cable and one USB cable is included. There is no > eSATA slot-cover adapter to use an internal SATA connector > as eSATA. If you do not already have an eSATA connector in > your PC, you may want to get one of these adapters to benefit > from faster transfer speeds and full access to SMART data. > > > Verdict: > > While some aluminium enclosures may look better, the design is > acceptable. Construction is reasonable. The cooling solution is > good and should, on high setting, keep even power-hungry disks > at acceptable temperatures. The price is at the same level as > aluminium enclosures, which I think it is justified. > > > > (c) 2007 Arno Wagner, permission to reproduce in full or in parts > is hereby granted, provided that this notice is included. > Here's the Jou Jye webpage on it: http://www.joujye-computer.com/external_jj-23vsuEs.htm That fan orientation, BTW, I find very effective for cooling on my Kingwin slid-in mobile HD rack. Prices vary considerably for Jou Jye unit: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=570811 http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/storage-adapters-cables/jou-jye-venussues-jj-23vsues/prices/ http://www.digitalo.de/shop/microsoft_dd_sql-36.html Since Jou Jye seems to be sold primarily in Europe and the UK, New World readers might be interested in Kingwin's similar offerings: http://kingwin.com/product_pages/z135eu_bk.asp Prices seem to run between $25 and $30: http://www.censuspc.com/product-pr-7030.html http://computers.pricegrabber.com/enclosures/m/52143523/ Back panel SATA/eSATA adapters that Arno mentions can be bought here: http://www.firewire-1394.com/external-sata-solutions.htm If you lack a SATA port, various makers offer eSATA PCIe or PCI cards: http://siig.com/ViewProductList.aspx?catid=250 http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=168 Google for prices. If you need more eSATA cables: http://www.firewire-1394.com/sata-cables-shielded.htm http://www.svc.com/esata-cable.html *TimDaniels*
From: John Turco on 31 Dec 2007 23:35
Arno Wagner wrote: > > Published in the hopes that it is useful to somebody. > > The Jou Jye JJ-23VSUES is an external 3.5" enclosure for SATA > drives. It has both an USB2.0 and an eSATA connector. Tested with a > 1TB Samsung HD103UJ SATA drive. Other interface variants are available > and should have similar mechanical and thermal characteristics. <heavily edited for brevity> > While some aluminium enclosures may look better, the design is > acceptable. Construction is reasonable. The cooling solution is good > and should, on high setting, keep even power-hungry disks at > acceptable temperatures. The price is at the same level as > aluminium enclosures, which I think it is justified. > > (c) 2007 Arno Wagner, permission to reproduce in full or in parts > is hereby granted, provided that this notice is included. Hello, Arno: Very thorough! However, to reach a much wider audience for future reviews of this type, I would suggest investigating the following Web site: Epinions.com <http://www.epinions.com> Good luck and Happy New Year! Cordially, John Turco <jtur(a)concentric.net> |