| Thermaltake Muse OTB2.5 eSATA Enclosure Review |
| Written by Maxit | ||||
Price: £33 (Inc vat)
Supplier: Thermaltake Manufacturer: Thermaltake 2.5" Notebook SATA Hard Drives are becoming more common nowadays and hard disk enclosures supporting these high speed drives are already hitting the market. The only drawback is with these enclosures is that SATA Hard Disks normally support data transfer rates of 1.5Gbps but the enclosures, which use the USB2.0 interface, limit this to a maximum speed of 480Mbps. Enter the worlds 1st one touch 2.5" eSATA backup solution from Thermaltake. The Muse OTB2.5 hard disk enclosure with eSATA and USB2.0 is capable of supporting fast SATA transfer speeds for speedy data backups at the touch of a button. Professional backup software with basic backup, scheduling backup and advance settings allows the easy protection of valuable data on and off site. The Muse is a great looking device with a brushed blue aluminum finish or a choice of black if you prefer. It's lightweight too coming in at only 110g - perfect for laptop road warriors who need added data security on the move.      Features
The enclosure is being advertised as the World's first One Touch Backup 2.5 eSATA & USB combo enclosure. However, the OTB feature works only with the USB2.0 interface. The enclosure doesn't require power adapter for drives below 100GB. This is a pretty interesting feature and will no doubt prove useful for laptop users and photographers who need storage on exotic locations. Here is a full listing of its features:
Specifications
Design
The Muse OTB2.5 comes packaged in a simple cardboard box, which contains the cables, manual, software CD - basically everything you need to get up and running. There is a USB Y-cable which connects the enclosure to the USB port and also acts as a power adapter that supplies power to the unit. The eSATA cable can be used to connect the to an eSATA port to attain 1.5Gbps transfer speeds. The One Touch Backup software comes on a MiniCD. There is also a portable pack pouch provided to protect the enclosure from scratches. The enclosure itself looks pretty sleek and stylish unlike most of the enclosures available in the market today. The enclosure comes in two colours - blue and black. The OTB button on the enclosure is made of shiny chrome finished plastic. It's ends are made of black plastic. At one end, there are two indicators - blue light for power on status red flashing light when accessing data.  On the other end, there are three ports, a USB2.0 port, a eSATA port and finally the DC 5V port. 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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