Thermaltake BlacX Duet HDD Docking Station Review

We’ve taken a look at a number of external hard drive enclosures as of late and we’ve also had a look at Thermaltake’s BlacX 5G external hard drive dock, which allows for quick hot-swap access to a SATA bay on virtually any computer with a USB port. Whilst there isn’t the same huge demand for drive docks as there is enclosures, there is still a market none the less and therefore it is always good to have a range of products that offer advantages over each other to suit a users particular needs.

The BlacX Duet that we are going to take a look at today is one such example of a product that differs from the rest and this is noticeably with its capability to dock two drives at once allowing for simultaneous connectivity rather than having two separate docks. A device like this may be particularly useful for cloning drives and copying data, so performance from this product is going to be important and we will take a particular look at this later on in one of our benchmarking suites.

As always, we’ll start by having a look from the outside of the box to get our first impressions, then delve inside to see what’s included. After this we’ll get a disk installed and see how the dock performs on our test system.

The Duet’s packaging is very similar to what we saw in the BlacX 5G not to long ago with product images and highlights printed with a glossy finish. The only difference we find mainly between the two is that the box here comes in white.

On the back of the box there is a list of product features and specifications, with some images below the list of features. We do note that there are a couple of spelling mistakes on the box that will need to be seen to as this can lead to a sense of poor quality control in the long run.

Removing the dock from the box and placing it aside, we find a USB2.0, eSATA cable and mains AC adaptor along with a manual and English warranty leaflet.

Also in the box we find two silicon jackets that cover either a 2.5″ or 3.5″ when installed in the dock to keep it protected from knocks.

Moving on to the dock, we find a design that is very similar to the 5G model that we looked at previously. Where this differs is the obvious dual docking design, where either two 3.5″, two 2.5″ or a mixture of both size drives can be docked at the same time and accessed simultaneously.

Both of the docks have a dust cover that wraps around a 2.5″ drive and folds down completely when a 3.5″ drive is inserted. Each dock has its own eject button to the right and to the front left of the dock there are individual access lights for each bay which are set into the docks power button.

Connection wise, we have an eSATA & USB2.0 port and a DC jack. Whether or not the lack of USB3.0 is going to be noticed or not, we will see during our testing.

Test system:

• Gigabyte Z77-UD5H
• Intel Core i5 3750k
• Kingston HyperX 2133MHz 16GB
• Gigabyte GTX 580 SOC
• Antec Kuhler 620
• Antec Hich Current Pro 1200W
• Seagate Barracuda 3TB
• 3 x AOC E2795VH

We would like to thank AOC, Gigabyte, Antec and Kingston for supplying us with our test system components. Many different software applications are also used to gain the broadest spectrum of results, which allows for the fairest testing possible. Software used:

• AIDA 64 Extreme Edition

AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Benching our Seagate Barracuda drive on its own gives us a baseline performance that we will use to compare linear (sequential) read speeds.

Starting off with the dock connected via eSATA, we do notice a slight dip in performance with linear speeds topping out at 156.6MB/s.

Whilst eSATA saw some drops in peformance, the story sadly for USB was even worse, with speeds topping out at a mere 43MB/s, we experienced a whopping 79% loss in linear read speed, which does make us wonder why USB2.0 was chosen over the faster USB3.0 interface.

Following our review on the BlacX 5G not too long ago, I had good hopes for the BlacX Duet. Sadly this wasn’t to live through and this purely comes down to performance. When we consider that the vast majority of end users are likely to be using the USB interface over eSATA, it does make us ask questions as to why USB3.0 was not chosen over USB2.0 – especially for a device with a dual docking capability. Whilst there is a better level of performance from the eSATA port on dock over the USB2.0, what Thermaltake really need to take this item back and swap out the USB, then there should be a marked improvement in performance.

Looking more at the product itself. Lets start from the box and work in. Like I have said many times before in other reviews, its natural to see manufacturers using similar designs for their packaging and even the products inside, but one thing needs to be controlled and this is quality and more so proof reading. I would have expected to have seen better quality control and the two or three spelling mistakes that I noted would not have slipped out under the radar. For people who may have not heard of Thermaltake before, seeing such a simple mistake may give the impression that the product is inside follows a similar trail.

I totally get where Thermaltake are coming from with the concept of a twin dock design, however as I’ve highlighted, there are a few areas that could do with some care and attention to improve its value and performance. This means that whilst the dock is on the market for around the £35 mark at this current moment, I would seriously recommend in getting the cheaper & faster single dock BlacX 5G model that we looked at instead.