Product: Thermaltake BlacX Duet
Supplier: Thermaltake
MSRP: $69.99     Find Lowest Price @ PriceGrabber
Author: Bill
Date: February 2, 2010

I have been familiar with Thermaltake products for years, having built my first custom computer using one of their Xaser-II cases. I’m also familiar with their typical over-engineering. In the case of the Xaser-II, the front door was made of ¼-inch cold-rolled steel, and weighed close to five pounds. Throughout the years, that case has served many purposes and held together perfectly due to its stellar build quality. Up now is the BlacX Duet, an external hard drive dock for internal SATA hard drives. The “Duet” is for two drives being simultaneously accessible by eSATA and USB with this product.

Packaging

The BlacX Duet, requisite cables, and documentation are neatly packaged in a cardboard box that was simple to use and recycle.

Use

Both drive slots are controlled by a single power button which includes usage LED indicators. Unfortunately, there is no way to have a drive in the dock be in use while another is disconnected. Drives slide into their bays cleanly, and are “ejected” with an internal lever. Connections are snug for both 2.5” and 3.5” drives. Drives connected to the dock are available to the computer through either eSATA or USB 2.0 buses.

Testing

I benchmarked two drives in the BlacX Duet over USB 2.0 and found the dock to be a good performer in comparison to other devices. More likely than not, your computer’s performance will be the bottleneck with this product. The appeal of this product as opposed to a complete enclosure is the convenience of quickly interchanging internal drives at desk-level. While the time this takes is not usually an issue with me, The BlacX Duet would be the proper companion to a high-speed workflow.

The dock feels solidly built, and the drive slots are mechanically sound. It has enough heft to stay in place while inserting/removing drives, but isn’t prohibitively heavy to travel with.

Conclusions

Thermaltake’s product is a viable solution for anyone using the cheaper internal drives as external storage. It offers two slots in a neat package that is well-built. eSATA connectivity should satisfy performance-oriented users while the USB bus offers a convenient solution for those without eSATA ports.

Pros

+ Solid build-quality
+ Two drive bays
+ Handsome design
+ eSATA and USB connectivity

Cons

- No independent power control for bays

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Tags: BlacX, dock, Duet, eSATA, hard drive, hdd, Thermaltake, USB