Enermax EMK3104 Hybrid 2.5-inch Docking Station Review

Introduction

There are many types of drive enclosures on the market; some are internal, some are external and some are hybrids. The Enermax EMK3104 Mobile Rack is a hybrid solution and a smart one at that.

The enclosure can take 2.5-inch hard disk and solid state drives and convert them into a 3.5-inch standard sized drive. This allows the easy use of a smaller 2.5″ drive in a 3.5″ drive bay that otherwise wouldn’t allow the use of them.

But it does more than that, it also allows easy front access to switch and replace the drive, or just remove it. It also allows you to lock the drive to both prevent tampering with your drive as well as accidental ejection.

On the inside, it uses a patented non-scratch SATA connector to guarantee a maximum life span with up to 50.000 drive insertions and it can handle both SATA III and SAS drives.

The Enermax EMK3104 doubles as a mobile disk rack and allows you to connect it via USB 3.0 instead of using the normal SATA connectors on the rear. To the rear of the enclosure, you’ll find a micro USB 3 connector and the cable needed is included with the drive array.

If it was to be docked in a 3.5-inch drive bay, you could just eject it and take it with you as USB 3.0 portable drive.

The hot-swap system allows you to quickly change the HDD or SSD when you need another one. Inside is a simple mechanism that will eject the drive when opened and automatically retracted it when closed.

When enclosing a drive in such a small space, you’ll need to make sure that it stays cool. To aid this, the EMK3104 has an aluminum cover on the top and ventilation holes on the bottom. This should provide the best passive cooling capability.