VPN: MX-1
Product ReviewsAntec MX-1 External Enclosure
|
75%
14%
0%
8%
3%
|
 Rating: Review Date: 10/23/10  |
Cons:
You can clearly hear the HDD
Pros: Keeps my HDD coolComes with good cables with good length |
|
Rating: Review Date: 09/04/10 |
Cons:
None
Pros: -Quiet-Looks Great-Nice subtle LED-eSATA Comment:
Got this with a 2TB hard drive, keeps it nice and cool, looks great and love the subtle LED, hate it when enclosures have blinding, distracting LED lights. Don't cheap out on your enclosure, spend another 20 bucks and get this, it's very high quality and you'll be glad you got it over a cheaper one. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 06/11/10 |
Cons:
big
Pros: active cool, fast Comment:
It is one of the best enclosures you can find for esata. It is actively cool so you don't need to worry about the temp of your hard drives. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 05/25/10 |
Cons:
not much i can think of. I had to enable AHCI because it was not a plug and play enclosure.
Pros: looks nice, very stylish and very solidly built. got it on sale as well, good price. Comment:
When I first got it, eSata only worked when I had the drive on when i turned on my computer. After some googling, I found out that AHCI needed to be enabled, and now it works flawlessly. I get around 110 MB/s write speed, it runs cool, very quiet as well. Good purchase. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 03/21/10 |
Cons: none
Pros: well designed, cool, quiet Comment:
it works very well, using it with a 1.5tb hd, its quiet and cool. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/04/10 |
Cons: Esata port doesn't work.
Pros: Looks decent Comment:
Bought this to swap my current internal drive to. It comes with an adapter that connects the Esata cable from the case to a sata port on your motherboard; great for motherboards with no esata port. I'm not sure if it was the enclosure itself or the adapter that was defective, but while USB worked fine esata didn't work at all.Also, the fan is not the quietest even out of the box, and I could see it getting noisy in time. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 01/06/10 |
Cons: Build quality isn't the greatest (but not too bad)Fairly expensive
Pros: Fairly quietI'm assuming it's cooling wellNice simple designNice cooling designActivity LED not overly brightPlug doesn't take up 2-3 spots on your outletseSATASilicone washers to reduce noise Comment:
Bought this for my 1TB WD Black and so far so good. Currently transferring some videos onto it and it doesn't even feel warm. The fan is audible but it's pretty quiet and barely noticeable. I also like how the LED isn't annoyingly bright like other enclosures I've owned.Mine came with very minor problem that is construction related. The bottom aluminum plate was not adhered very well to the plastic so it comes up over the feet. Other than that, the enclosure feels pretty solid.The cooling design seems to be well thought out. It's similar to how a videocard exhaust fan would work and that it sucks cool air from the top/rear, circulates the HDD inside, then blows it out the rear/bottom. Seems like dust will be less of an issue compared to other enclosures I've seen.Overall, great enclosure, highly recommended. I give it a 4.5/5. This review was modfied by poster @ 01-06-10 08:31 PM |
|
Rating: Review Date: 12/15/09 |
Cons: Install is over complicated
Pros: Quite faneSataaccessories (cables and whatnot) Comment:
Good drive enclosure for the price. The fan is quite (might be the revision) The led light is not noticeable. The package contains all cables and estata back-plates. It does seem a bit cheap when putting the drive in but overall it looks pretty decent compared to the other enclosures on the market.Would buy again. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 12/05/09 |
Cons: - If I had to find something I don't like about it is that the power supply is seperate so you need to lug it around with the case.
Pros: - Active Cooling- eSATA and USB - comes with everything you need like cables and even a bracket for an eSATA connector for the desktop Comment:
Great enclosure, surprisingly quiet considering it has a fan on it, I use it with a 500GB HDD on my Shaw HD PVR and it works no problem, even the blue LED light in the front is barely noticable unless you are looking for it |
|
Rating: Review Date: 10/05/09 |
Cons: A bit difficult to assemble and a little big but that's to be expected with active cooling
Pros: slick polished look, runs very cool, and surprisingly very quiet, solid casing Comment:
This enclosure runs surprisingly quiet. You can't hear the fan at all, but you can feel the air circulating through the enclosure with your hand. Good polished looks.It was a little hard to assemble especially when trying to put the screws back in on the set with the fan and had to be careful getting the sata port in place with the weight of the hard drive weighing on it.Once I got it assembled, no problem getting it up and running with the WD caviar black drive. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 09/27/09 |
Cons: Size
Pros: QuietKeeps the HDD CoolGood performance Comment:
A bit big for an external closure, however the peace of mind knowing the drive is being cooled does add a lot, especially if you are looking for something that needs to stay on 24/7. The fan is quite small, I was first unsure weather it was going to make a noticeable difference, however you can actually feel the cold air coming in and going out when it is active, which was impressive. All in all a good enclosure with active cooling. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 09/23/09 |
Cons: Wish the USB plug was Mini-B instead of Fullsized B. Just another cable to carry around
Pros: Quiet, Cool, Easy Install, Fully loaded accessories Comment:
Solid product. Would recomend to anyone looking for an Actively cooled e-SATA/USB case.They even threw in the e-SATA backplate. In this day and age, that impressed me. Most motherboard makers don't even include the backplates for what's on their boards. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 09/19/09 |
Cons: incompatible with Samsung 750GB HDD, power adapter makes some high pitch sound when the hard drive is not on/sleeping, flimsy and cheap power switch button, noisy, overall feels cheaply made, noisy,no firewire.
Pros: maybe the cooling is OK, but maybehas eSata, but who doesn't have it now Comment:
All in all, awful product. Made of plastic, not too difficult to install a hard drive, but definitely a time-consuming job- incompatible with Samsung 750GB HDD - hard drive won't always start- power adapter makes some high pitch sound when the hard drive is not on/sleeping- flimsy and cheap power switch button- noisy- overall feels cheaply madeI wouldn't trust this for anything even remotely important. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 08/18/09 |
Cons: - Loud
Pros: + Cool+ Nice Looking+ Good Accessories Comment:
What an enclosure. It looks very stylish and is very cool for the hard drive. The accessories it comes with is exceptional. However, the fan is a bit loud for my preference but that's due to everything else being quiet in my system. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 08/17/09 |
Cons: The installation was a little annoying...Nothing that takes away the great points of this enclosure...You have to remove the plastic rest that houses the fan, as well as the back I/O, to install the drive. It only takes one screw to remove the top cover and two more screws to remove the hard drive rest. The problem, was getting those two small screws back on. There's only a 5-10mm space so it was a little iffy aligning the screws back on the unit. Other than though, I can't think of anything that takes away from the Antec MX-1.
Pros: Amazingly cool and quiet enclosure. I have it constantly connected to my noisy old desktop so I can never hear it, as when using it with my laptop. The build quality is top-notch, it's extremely sturdy and well made. Where the hard drive sits, they included a silicon rest which absorbs a lot of the vibration from the drive so I can only feel a extremely gentle vibration when in use. I paired this enclosure with a Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB and has been working flawlessly (both USB and eSATA). Comment:
The eSATA connection is flawless. It's light-years quicker than USB when copying large amounts of data. I've heard of other enclosures having problems getting eSATA to work...I've successfully used it in both Windows XP and Windows 7 without issue. They also include an eSATA-to-SATA bracket that can be installed in an expansion slot. This was the biggest selling point for me, as my XP machine didn't have any eSATA ports. All in all, if you want a fully featured, quiet and efficiently-cooled enclosure, the Antec MX-1 is the best.Note: I price-matched this for about $10 cheaper. Don't be put off by the price, I've heard of people who've purchased cheaper enclosures where the eSATA interface didn't work, along with a slew of other problems (heat, etc.). I would recommend an active cooling enclosure over a passive cooled one any day of the week. Treat your drives well and they'll last!For those who are curious:Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2Antec Veris MX-1 Actively Cooled External 3.5IN Enclosure This review was modfied by poster @ 08-17-09 05:44 PM |
|
Rating: Review Date: 04/11/09 |
Cons: Some fan noise, but that's expected so may not be a weakness.
Pros: Actively Cooled.eSATA.Solid construction. Comment:
I'm using this with my Bell HD receiver, so it runs 24/7. Combined with a WD 640 Black it handles the Bell receiver requirements perfectly. Attached to a running computer you would never hear this enclosure running, but in my TV room and the TV off, I can hear the fan operating standing anywhere in the room, so it's not silent. It's not loud or irritating but you can hear it. I have two other HDD enclosures (Vantec) and running them 24/7 results in a very hot HDD. This Antec enclosure doesn't even get slightly warm, so the HDD is running much cooler than in the other enclosures. I deem this worth the extra cost for this enclosure over the cheaper enclosures without a fan. This thing is built like a high quality Antec case, very solid. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 03/02/09 |
Cons: A bit bigger, less portable than cheap enclosures.
Pros: Great cooling. Has never overheated. Comment:
I have now purchased 3 of these drives to replace external backup drives on 3 separate systems. They have been running constantly and flawlessly for months doing regular backups of 1 server and 2 desktop systems. I had previously used cheap external enclosures and had three overheat over the past few years. The Antec enclosure is much better quality and much more suited to heavy-duty use. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/14/09 |
Cons: None exept do not loose the long screw !!!
Pros: Silente , keeps cool , no vibrations Comment:
Great product !!!Had allot of enclosers but this one rocks ! With my Vantec i got temps as high as 55 !! With the Antec MX-1 , i get 30 tops . You cant even ear the MX-1 and i dont feel my desk vibrating like hell anymore .5 stars , if you can put a bit more cash , get this one , great product ! |
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/13/09 |
Cons: a little tricky to install drive, price.
Pros: Quiet, looks good, works great Comment:
great enclosure, works great. was a little tricky to figure out how to install the HD, but once I did it was easy. Is very quiet, and has been running great so far. eSata connection is a plus. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 08/25/08 |
Cons: None.
Pros: QuietKeeps the hard drives coolesata ! Comment:
My motherboard is a 2005-vintage, so to use esata the MX-1 must be powered on during boot-up to recognize it, but that is more a function of the age of my motherboard. My next MOB will have hot-swappable esata.The enclosure itself it quiet and you really have to make a point of listening to hear the internal fan. I have tried several drives in it and they all idle at around 30C.Like others may have mentioned, a magnetic-tipped screwdriver will make things go a lot easier when trying to insert some of the screws that keep the tray connected to the casing. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 07/17/08 |
Cons: -Mounting instructions not the best-Power adapter seems a bit flimsy
Pros: +Cool+Silent+Accessories Comment:
Coolest and most silent running external I've ever owned. I can't hear the fan over the sound of my idling laptop. The top seems to be anodized aluminum, yet it hasn't scratched despite all the times I've moved it.The only time I turn it off is when I'm transporting it, yet the fan still runs like the day I bought it (no 'grinding' noises like some people are reporting). The fan draws in air from the top of the unit and pushes it out the bottom, which cuts down on the dust that gets sucked in. I typically have it sitting on a carpetted floor in my room and it still looks completely clear of dust.Installation wasn't the easiest with the instructions provided, but the silence from the snug fit of the components and padded screws (though hard to get at) more than makes up for the ~3 minutes of headache trying to figure out how the top comes off once you take it out of the box.The power adapter does seem a bit flimsy, and the connector itself could easily be mistaken for an S-video cable. I've had similar power cables where the pins got bent easily, but that's the user's fault, not any defect in hardware. So as long as you take the time and look to see which way is up before trying to jam in the power cable you should be fine. The good news is that it comes with power cable, USB cable, ESATA cable and internal to external SATA bracket so it has everything you could possibly need. I'm buying a second one today to house my second external terabyte hard drive. This review was modfied by poster q 07-17-08 07:31 PM This review was modfied by poster @ 07-17-08 07:37 PM |
|
Rating: Review Date: 04/01/08 |
Cons: Nothing
Pros: Quiet, keeps hard drive cool, easy to setup. Comment:
This hard drive enclosure is great! The install was very easy and I love the fact that the hard drive sits on this gel that minimizes the vibrations. The 500GB drive I put in the enclosure does not overheat. I bought this hard drive enclosure to attach to my 8300HD PVR and it worked great. It was recognized by the PVR on first boot. I wanted to get a enclosure with a fan as it will be on 24/7 |
|
Rating: Review Date: 03/12/08 |
Cons: Fan died after a few months.
Pros: Looks nice, eSata. Comment:
Enclosure worked well (if a bit loud) until recently, now the fan makes a horrible grinding sound when you turn it on. I expected higher build quality from Antec. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/09/08 |
Cons: case is a little bigger than the Vantec ones (because of teh included fan)
Pros: Runs very quietly, eSata feature really nice, has a quiet fan, hard drive runs very cool inside the case. Comment:
Best enclosure I have ever used, have a 500 gig WD drive in there and it runs cool even after hours of continuous use.Would buy this enclosure again. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 01/31/08 |
Cons: disassembly
Pros: Antec quality Comment:
Antec quality which includes a cooling fan. Although the disassembly process to install a hard drive in the case is a bit more involved that other cases but how often do you change hard drives? |
A very good exclosure, but was hoping for some sound dampening. The HDD stays very cool, which was my reason for buying this. It also comes with good cables/accessories, which are long enough. I'm very happy with this purchase.