ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Sabrent USB SSD 4-bay docking station is out there now on Amazon for $80.
- This docking station makes including exterior drives to your system a complete plug-and-play affair.
- The case is plastic, so it feels a bit low cost however that does not get in the best way of efficiency.
At Amazon, the Sabrent USB SSD docking station is on sale for $80 proper now, a 11% low cost.
It appears I am all the time working out of room on my iMac drives. Why? Video recordsdata. You see, I movie many movies in 4K ProRes, which implies the recordsdata can get very giant. Simply yesterday, I filmed a video for my YouTube channel, and the file from the digital camera was over 100GB.
These add up quick.
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Clearly, issues come up while you frequently should cope with recordsdata that enormous on restricted house. I all the time deleted recordsdata to make room for brand spanking new ones, and that carousel by no means appeared to cease turning.
Till I bought the Sabrent USB SSD docking station.
This little piece of tech has actually saved me from having to delete recordsdata I would fairly preserve, simply to make room for brand spanking new video clips. And since it is a 4-bay dock, I can preserve slapping in drives (it helps as much as 16TB arduous drives) to make sure I all the time have house. Even higher, the docking station has a fan to maintain these drives cooler. That is particularly vital when working with video, because the learn/write speeds shall be pushed to their limits, inflicting warmth to construct up.
My expertise
Fairly actually, there’s not a lot to say about this straightforward little bit of plastic and metallic. It is available in two items: the underside holds the drives, and the highest has the fan. An On/Off button and LED indicators additionally inform you which of them bays have drives.
You may discover a small magnet that retains the 2 items collectively, which makes it simple to pop off the highest and insert (or take away) a drive. Lastly, on the highest portion of the docking station, you may discover a button to show the fan on or off.
The Sabrent fan is silent sufficient that I can not hear it at my desk.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Once I acquired the Sabrent docking station, I ripped it open, related the underside half to my iMac with the included USB-A cable, and inserted a drive. The iMac instantly acknowledged the drive, and I used to be in a position to format it and begin utilizing it.
Over the previous few months, I’ve added two extra drives to the docking station, and each time, it went off and not using a hitch.
Speeds
This was a giant deal for me. I want to have the ability to copy these giant recordsdata to exterior drives with out ready hours. I’ve one exterior drive (that is not within the docking station), and its write occasions are so sluggish that it may well take over an hour to repeat an 80GB file.
That will not do.
The Sabrent docking station offers you switch speeds of as much as 5GB/s. You may be simply positive in the event you’re utilizing an SSD able to excessive learn/write speeds. I not too long ago bought yet one more SSD (this time a Crucial BX500) and was in a position to copy a 100GB file in roughly 4 minutes. That can do.
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The one method to enhance the velocity of this docking station would have been to make use of USB-C as an alternative of USB-A. USB-C can obtain knowledge switch speeds of as much as 10Gbps with USB 3.1, which is twice as quick as USB-A’s most velocity of 5Gbps with USB 3.0. So, yeah, USB-C would have been good, however the 5GB/s works positive for many use circumstances. And given the $89 price ticket, USB-A is simply positive.
Reliability
As I mentioned, I have been utilizing this docking station for just a few months now and haven’t had an issue but. It is as dependable as they arrive. Even after we had an influence outage, I rebooted my iMac, pressed the docking station’s ON button, and the drives instantly appeared in Finder.
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The fan works and has stored the drives comparatively cool, even when copying huge recordsdata. I can maintain my hand excessive opening and really feel a slight heat breeze lifting towards my palm.
It really works.
What extra can I say?
Significantly.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
Not everybody wants six or seven exterior drives hooked up to their laptop. When you do, the Sabrent USB 3.0 4-Bay docking station is a good choice. It is inexpensive, simple to make use of, and permits you to broaden your storage capability by a substantial quantity. If you wish to go actually loopy, add 4 16TB drives to offer you loads of storage.
This docking bay makes it simple for anybody to plug and play their strategy to further storage, so do not hesitate to purchase it if that feels like a necessity you might have.
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The specs
- As much as 4x 16TB arduous drives.
- Helps 2.5-inch SSD SATA drives (as much as a most thickness of 12.5mm/0.49 Inch (2.75 Inch x 3.93 Inch x 0.49 Inch) with LED indicator for energy and HDD entry.
- 5 Gbps Switch Speeds USB 3.0 tremendous velocity interface.
- Additionally appropriate with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1.
- Software-Free Set up.
- Constructed-in cooling fan that may be switched on and off as wanted.
