The MB664US-1SB provides a tool-free method of installing a hard drive in an enclosure, and is packed with both eSATA and USB ports. Second, "The Hybrid" adds both an eSATA and a 12 volt power connection to a PCI slot. Easy external storage, here I come.

Hitachi was the first company to release a one terabyte hard drive, and they've sent us the DeskStar 7K1000 model for review. The DeskStar 7K1000 features SATA II compatibility, 8.5ms seek time, and 7,200RPM rotational speed.

As an owner of two fresh new 500 Gigabyte HDDs, At the time I was lacking a second SATA cable to hook up the second drive, so I found this a perfect opportunity to try out the ThermalTake BlacX Hard Disk Drive Dock. ThermalTake has been manufacturer of reliable case equipment for years.

StarTech.com sent us the SATABAY425BK, a Serial ATA (SATA) / Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) backplane that fits in a single 5.25" drive bay and can hold up to four 2.5" hard drives in hot swap trays. The backplane supports both SAS and SATA's 3Gbps transfer rates, and utilizes a pair of 40mm fans in the rear to cool the drives.

Normally, when I hear the name Vantec, I think of PC thermal solutions. This is because it had one of the fastest 80mm fans on the market several years ago, the Vantec Tornado. Nowadays, however, Vantec maintains a wide range of peripherals offering the best in terms of thermal cooling. Today, we're going to be looking at the NexStar 3, their hybrid eSATA/USB2.0 hard drive enclosure.