SilverStone DS222 External Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure Review

Bohs Hansen / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

At the time of writing, the SilverStone DS222 can be found on Amazon in the US for $54.99 and Amazon UK for £50.60. German readers can find it at Caseking for €69.90.

Conclusion

Taking a redundant disk array with you is as easy as doing so with any other external drive, at least when you’re using SilverStone’s DS222 portable RAID enclosure. Whether you want to create a redundant and fast SSD setup or a capacity based HDD setup, the DS222 has it covered.

Everything is handled by the hardware itself, which makes the enclosure entirely plug and play. The drives can be hot-swapped and the entire installation is tool-less for your convenience. The DS222 can be powered completely from the USB connection if you’re using a USB 3.0 host. SilverStone also covered the scenarios where you only have USB 2.0 or 1.1 at your disposal by adding a Y-cable as well as an extra dedicated 5V micro USB port.

We saw a great performance from the RAID controller during our benchmarks. When comparing single drive results with the redundant and performance improved settings, we saw great results. The performance both scales well for the RAID 0 performance and stays level for the RAID 1 and BIG modes.

I’ve also really fallen in love with the design. The DS222 resembles a tiny NAS that you just want to pick up and put in your pocket. At the same time, it’s cleverly designed with an aluminum body that aids cooling. Even the controller got its own tiny heatsink which isn’t something that we usually see in external enclosures.

Pros

Great performance
Tool-Less and Plug-and-Play
Adorable design
Quality and smart build
USB 3.0 with UASP support

Cons

none

Neutral

Not the cheapest enclosure, but well worth it.

“The adorably designed DS222 from SilverStone doesn’t just perform great, you’ll also want to adopt the tiny unit and take it home at first sight.”