Good day to you all!
After many days of vacation, I return, but this time with a different review: a HDD Enclosure.
Orico is a Shenzhen (China) based company which was founded in 2009, and focuses on USB devices and accessories, such as USB 3.0 storage (Multi-bay HDD Enclosures), USB Hubs, USB+Power hubs, Power banks, USB Flash drives (OTG and others), USB Fans, USB adapters, SATA power cables, and others.
Orico 2588C3 USB 3.0 Type C HDD Enclosure was sent to me courtesy of the good people at Orico, so thank you all, and especially Shirley, for the good response and helpfulness.
What’s in the Box?
The box contents, as can be seen in both the unboxing video and the items photo below, are quite basic. The include: 2588C3 HDD Dock/Enclosure, a piece of foam for thinner hard drives, a Type C male to Type A male USB 3.0 cable, Service card, User manual, and a QC note. It’s not a lot, but it’s sufficient for most users purpose. These 2.5″ enclosures do not require an additional power source (unlike 3.5″ enclosures), making them much more portable and easy to use.
Looks
The Orico 2588C3 is made of sturdy black plastic (mostly) and an aluminum plate on the top, where the Orico Logo, website and slogan are printed. It opens with a simple sliding of the cover – without any need for tools. All that needs to be done is slide the 2.5 Hard drive or SSD in and make sure it locks into the SATA and power connectors. Then you carefully slide the cover back on till it closes firmly.
The front includes the USB 3.0 Type C connector, and a color changing LED light to indicate when the enclosure is getting power and when reading/writing occurs.
Specifications
- Compatible HDD Type: 2.5 inch HDD / SSD
- Interface: Type-C + SATA
- Installation: Tool Free
- Dimensions: 129.6 x 83.9 x 12.8mm
- Driver: Driver Not Required
- Supported Systems: Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP, Mac OS v9.0 or above
Orico 2588C3 uses ASMedia’s ASM1153E Superspeed USB controller. This is a third generation single chip solution, bridging the USB 3.0 to Serial SATA host interface with highly integrated SuperSpeed USB 3.0, High Speed USB 2.0 and SATA1.5 / 3.0 / 6.0 Gbps.
Benchmarks and Testing
As can be observed, using a Western Digital scorpio blue 750GB SATA 2.5″ mechanical Hard Drive, both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 testing yielded respectable results. With about 32 MB/s Read and 10 MB/s Write speeds using a USB 2.0 connection, and almost 80 MB/s Read and close to 63 MB/s Write speeds when connected to a USB 3.0 port. The drive is formatted in NTFS and includes several partitions.
I am testing this enclosure against two other USB 3.0 enclosures, with the same Hard Drive and the same benchmark program (FDBench):
Orico came in last on the USB 2.0 benchmark, and second on the USB 3.0 benchmark. On the USB 2.0 test, Read speed was average at 32.272 MB/s and Write speed was poor at 10.813 MB/s.
On the USB 3.0 test, Orico came second overall, both on the read speed (77.989 MB/s) and the write speed (62.976 MB/s).
And with CrystalDiskMark, the benchmark de-facto for disk speeds:
Results were almost identical in terms of placement for the Orico enclosure. Only in USB 3.0 testing, Orico came last on the write speeds with 51.67 MB/s. (and 83.61 MB/s in read speed. results are better across the board to all the enclosures tested with CrystalDiskMark)
Usage and Performance
In preparation for this review, I purchased a Type C female to Type A male USB adapter. When I opened the box, I found that I don’t really need it.
This 2.5″ HDD Enclosure is a brand new device for USB 3.0 and makes use of the Type C double sided connector. The use of this Type C connector is somewhat confusing, as the connector in question is on the enclosure itself, and not on the cable side that connects to the PC (I refer to the included cable – a Type C to Type C cable would work fine). That means that the advantages of Type C connector are not really utilized (i.e. double sided, and USB 3.1 speeds).
The enclosure was detected fast under windows 10 and performed flawlessly. USB eject info shown the USB controller to be ASMedia ASM1153E as mentioned above.
Bugs & Issues
- Type C connector on the enclosure itself and not on the PC connecting side of the cable.
- USB 3.0 and not the faster USB 3.1 standard.
Orico 2588C3 Conclusions
Did I like it? Yes, even though the Type C connector is less relevant here as it’s on the enclosure side, and USB 3.1 is not supported. Speeds are similar between all 3 enclosures tested in most scenarios, and the tool-less handling makes handling quite easy.
Would I recommend it? Yes. Performance could be a bit better, but you still get adequate results, and a sturdy, tool-less build.
If you like to buy this nifty new enclosure, head here: ORICO 2588C3-BK ABS 2.5 SATA3.0 USB3.0 HDD Enclosure Type-c Hard Disk Box Support 9.5mm Hard Drive-Black and you can get it for a mere 20 USD.
Comments
No Trackbacks.