Startech InfoSafe 4x 3.5″ (RAID) External Hard Drive Enclosure Review

1. Introduction2. The Startech InfoSafe Enclosure3. Software and Installation4. Performance5. Closing Thoughts6. View All Pages

The InfoSafe's packaging doesn't exactly infuse us with excitement as Startech have opted for a simple plain white box which is decorated only by a description of the contents.  The box does seem very robust, though and there is also foam padding to provide an extra level of protection for the enclosure inside.

Startech include a plentiful selection of accessories within the box which include a power supply, an eSATA cable, and a software CD.  They also include power leads for Europe and the USA along with the standard UK adapter.  We also find a PCI Express x1 eSATA card for those who don't have one built into their machine.

It's clear that Startech have opted for functionality rather than concentrating on the aesthetics of the enclosure.  The front of the unit contains four drive bays which can be easily ejected using the buttons on each bay.  To give the enclosure a little substance, they have used aluminum for the top, bottom and sides of the unit which should prove durable in the long run.  This does add significantly to the weight which is 3.4kg in total, but it's form factor doesn't exactly lend itself well to portability anyway considering it measures 170 x 230 x 149 mm.

To the right of the four drive bays we find the power button accompanied by five LED indicators.  The front doesn't carry any Startech branding.  In fact the only branding on the unit is located on the right hand side of the enclosure, consisting of a small Startech.com logo and an InfoSafe logo in the top left corner.  Around the rear of the machine there is an 80mm fan vent, a DC input, an eSATA connection, a reset button and a fan on / off switch.

We found the fan noise from the enclosure quite intrusive during operation so having the ability to turn the fan off is very important in our opinion.  It would have been nice, however, if Startech had opted for a higher quality, quieter fan that is more tolerable for extended periods of usage.

The enclosure's power supply also has a small fan inside which can be a little annoying if you plan to use it in a quiet environment.  Overall, the noise of the InfoSafe makes it quite inappropriate for media storage as the fan emissions are louder than they should be.

Startech say the InfoSafe supports up to 8TB of storage, comprising of four 2TB SATA drives.  There is a possibility that you could achieve 12TB of storage using four 3TB drives but this hasn't been tested by Startech and we don't have the drives at hand to test this ourselves.

Startech are using the JMicron JMB393 SATA RAID controller in the InfoSafe alongside a Silicon Image SIL3531.  The unit supports all the RAID options we could possibly require including JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), meaning you can use disks of differing sizes as a single volume.

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