| Thermaltake Muse OTB2.5 eSATA Enclosure Review |
| Written by Maxit | ||||
Page 2 of 2 Installation
The installation is fairly straight forward but does require the use of tools. If you want to plug-in your hard disk into the enclosure permanently (for long time use), you have to put in a little effort to get the job done. First, the hard disk goes onto the PCB. The SATA interface docks cleanly with the PCB to make the necessary connections. The HDD needs to be screwed onto the PCB using the screws provided, before the PCB goes back into the enclosure. That's it, you are done. There are four tiny screws to keep the enclosure ends tight and fixing these screws takes a little extra care. It's all a little fiddly but perhaps unavoidable given the compact size of the unit. Connecting the enclosure to the PC is a piece of cake. The enclosure uses the USB Y-cable instead of a power adapter to power the hard disk inside the enclosure. So, first connect the USB Y-cable to the enclosure and then plug the other end into an empty USB port on your PC. The Software
The installation of the bundled OTB software is a walkthrough process and painless. The software comes with a well-written manual (included on the MiniCD), and is worth a read before starting.  The OTB software provides a lot of advanced options like Compression with and without Encryption. Users are provided the option to schedule backups which is a welcome addition. The backup process is relatively slow especially if you enable compression but does save lots of space. At the moment, the OTB function works only for the USB2.0 interface. SATA support is not yet implemented which is a little frustrating as you cannot use the high speed interface for the main feature of the unit. In The Labs
We ran a few tests on the Muse OTB2.5 enclosure using both the USB2.0 and the SATA interfaces. First, we tried to backup a few large files with and without compression. The times for backup without compression and encryption are far better than those with compression. Unless you really need it, we recommend you don't bother with these options to save some time.
The compression is good and does save lots of space but you need a really fast system to backup large volumes with this feature turned on. Next, we compared the transfer rates with both USB2.0 and SATA interfaces. The Muse OTB2.5 failed to impress in this area. The SATA interface being around 3 times faster on paper than the USB2.0 interface, our test results showed only a 15% improvement in the transfer rates using the HD Tach benchmark. Still any performance is a plus but we can't help feeling most people will just use this device with USB2.0 for convenience of OTB. ConclusionThe Thermaltake Muse OTB2.5 eSATA enclosure does a decent job backing up your valuable data and restoring it at a later time. One touch backup is a joy to use and takes a lot of hassle out of securing data on the go. The included software supports all the basic backup functions you'll need and throws in data protection by password and compression utilities. Okay they are a little slow in use for large files but it's always nice to have the option. The eSATA aspect is a little disappointing offering only small increases in performance and limited functionality. We can't help thinking if you want eSATA support in an external hard drive enclosure you'd be better off buying one of Thermaltake's 3.5" solutions.The Thermaltake Muse OTB2.5 wins lots of plus points for its striking design and compact size. If you fancy a One Touch Backup solution that'll fit in your pocket, it's hard not to recommend the Muse. Just don't expect stella eSATA performance out of the box.   PROS
CONS
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