Introduction

Thermaltake recently released the Vi-ON 3.5-inch External Hard Drive Enclosure, which has many innovative features. Thermaltake designed the world's first hard disk drive suspension system that helps reduce vibration noise. It also includes an Active SMART Cooling System which keeps the hard drive cool with a temperature sensing fan. This simple, yet elegant design is available in both black and white and has models that support both USB and USB + e-SATA. Read on further to see how it works.

Features

- Active SMART Cooling System incorporates an auto temperature sensing fan that reacts to hard drive temperature change in real-time for utmost efficient thermal management.
- Hard Drive Suspension system minimizes hard drive vibration to eliminate operating noise.
- All around metal mesh opening provide unobstructed airflow intake ensuring proper cooling.
- Stable detachable base unit allows for easy transportation and mobility when needed.
- Elegant glossy black finish.
- Supports SATA to Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface.
- Supports SATA to eSATA interface.
- Supports Hard Drive capacity up to 1 TB (1,000GB)
- Plug & Play

Specifications

Enclosure Interface: eSATA & Hi-Speed USB 2.0
Transfer Rate:
- USB 2.0: up to 480 Mbps
- eSATA: up to 3.0 Gbps
HDD Compatible: SATA I & SATA II
HDD Capacity: 3.5" SATA up to 1TB
OS Compatible: Windows XP & Vista / Mac OS 9.04+
Material: SECC Steel & ABS Plastic
Power:
-External Universal Switching Power Adapter
-UL, FCC, CE, CSA Certified
Dimension: 255 x 70 x 205 mm, 10.04" x 2.76" x 8.07"
Accessory: - Hi-Speed 2.0 Cable
- eSATA Cable
- Full-Range A/C Power Adapter
- Dust Cloth
Fan: Active SMART Cooling 40mm Fan
Fan Current: 0.06Amp (Max)
Fan Power: 0.76W
Fan Speed: 1000 ~ 4800 RPM (thermally controlled)
Rated Voltage: 12 VDC
Fan Noise: 27 dBA @ Max
Weight: 480 g
Special Features: -Embedded Disk Drive Suspension System eliminates most of vibrating noise from HDD.
-Active SMART Cooling System effectively manages the thermal efficiency to maximize cooling and minimize noise.

Packaging

The Thermaltake VI-ON comes packaged in a retail box of which is larger than most external HDD enclosures. The front of the package displays an image the VI-ON on its stand and provides a short summary of what the enclosure is. Also displayed is the connection, in our case USB + eSATA, and that it has a three year warranty. The back of the box goes a little more in depth about the features of the enclosure and even shows an image of the cooling flow inside of the device.

The enclosure is nicely protected by two pieces of soft foam. Also protected are the rest of the contents of the package.