Akasa DuoDock 2S USB 3.0 Docking Station

Performance Test Results
Akasa DuoDock 2S
Read USB 3.0 = 74.1 MB/s
Write USB 3.0 = 73.9 MB/s
Read USB 2.0 = 29.5 MB/s
Write USB 2.0 = 28.1 MB/s

Internal:
SATA II (Internal) Read = 74.2 MB/s
SATA II (Internal) Write = 74.0 MB/s

This shows that not only is the USB 3.0 interface well over 2 times faster, it is limited by the hard drive used and not the speed of USB 3.0. This can be deduced as the internal read/write speeds are effectively the same as the USB 3.0 interface speeds. Without having access to an ultra fast SSD we would not be able to test this dock to the extreme; however it is fair to say that the speeds will match that of SATA II as it is limited by the SATA 2 interface between the hard drive and the dock.

We must also add that on the box the quoted speed under USB 2.0 is 25.9 MB/s and under all of our repeated tests it exceeded this. Unfortunately we were not able to reach the quoted USB 3.0 speeds although I have confidence that it is possible with this Dock and for it to in fact exceed its quoted figures.

Features
[HR][/HR] This device doesn’t exactly have the longest lists of features but what do you expect from a USB dock. I am glad that it has a button to turn off the quite frankly annoying LED ring at the bottom of the device. However, that said, the USB 3.0 speed is of course pretty blinding and makes USB 2.0 feel very slow indeed. The ability to add two hard drives and both being hot-swappable is nice.

Functionality
[HR][/HR] This is certainly very functional; it allows easy access to plug in hard drives of both sizes. The speed of the device is certainly very very quick and in fact has more head room if used with standard SATA II hard drives. It is therefore quite future-proof as it can be used with the latest SSD’s and not limit the connection speeds. The DuoDock is also plug and play in all terms of the phrase and as such is brilliant for use with a laptop as a back-up device and of course it is pretty useful for a main desktop computer, the speed at which it is detected by Windows is also quicker than any other USB device I own. The only drawback is that as there is no casing around the hard drives the mechanical drives used are surprisingly loud using this dock. Obviously SSDs will be quieter as expected. The dock doesn’t spin the drive(s) down when not in use which is a feature that could have been added.

Design
[HR][/HR] I have already touched on this; the bottom LED ring is not needed. The LED’s on the top indicating HDD activity are also really bright which is good in daylight but a bit bright at night if you’re trying to watch a movie in the dark for instance. The rest of the design is pretty good, it is very rugged and feels like it would take a lot to break it (excluding sledge hammers and such like), the only thing that feels a bit weak is the release mechanism for the hard drives. It just has a bit too much play and does require a lot more force than expected as the SATA connections lock in quite well. On a brighter note, it does look good and certainly doesn’t look out of place on any desk. The USB 3.0 cable is also a nice length and doesn’t restrict where you locate it too much.