ADS LL5-DLX-185 Dual Link Drive Kit

Positive:

• Dual interface options, connect via Firewire (IEEE 1394) or USB 2.0.
• Solid retail package and bundled items, including all necessary cables.
• Rubber feet prevent slipping or movement of the enclosure.
• Removable front bezel with hard-drive activity LED indicator.
• Light-up on/off switch located on the rear of the Drive Kit.
• Two Firewire ports for daisy chaining IEEE 1394 devices.
• Easy to assemble/disassemble.
• No trouble with 48x speed CD-ROM reading via Firewire & USB 2.0 connections.
• No trouble with 48x speed CD-R writing via Firewire connection.
• Ok hard drive read speeds via Firewire & USB 2.0 connections.

Negative:

• Could not support 48x speed CD-R writing via USB 2.0 connection.
• Could not support full speed 16x DVD reading via Firewire.
• Could not support full speed 16x DVD reading via USB 2.0.
• Unstable / could not support faster than 8x DVDR writing via Firewire.
• Lowly 4x maximum DVDR writing speed via USB 2.0.

Conclusion:

 Now that we have completed testing the ADS Dual Link Drive Kit, let us run through the positive and negative points of this product:

The main positive points: The ADS Dual Link Drive Kit appears to be very impressive when you look at the advertised features and product specifications. The product bundle is very well stocked and contains all of the necessary cables and documentation needed for you to build a new external device. The enclosure itself has many useful features such as the dual connectivity option that supports both Firewire (IEEE 1394) & USB interfaces. Other useful features include the hard drive LED indicator, non-slip rubber feet and a pair of IEEE 1394 ports that can be used to daisy chain additional Firewire devices. The ADS Dual Link Drive Kit performed pretty well in our CD reading and writing tests. It had no trouble reading & writing CD discs at 48x speed when connected via Firewire. The hard drive read performance was also ok, achieving stable constant data transfer rates up to 29.3 MB/s via Firewire. Hard drive read performance was also ok when the Kit was connected via USB 2.0.

The main negative points: The ADS Dual Link Drive Kit had some serious issues with our optical drives. It could not support full speed 16x DVD reading via Firewire. It had even more trouble attempting full speed 16x DVD reading via USB 2.0. It could not support a stable DVDR writing process at faster than 8x speed, via Firewire connection. We were also very disappointed to see that USB 2.0 DVDR writing speed topped out at a measly 4x! The ADS Dual Link Drive Kit does not come anywhere near the advertised 35 MB/s sustained data transfer rates with an optical CD/DVD drive installed inside of it.

The product can be found priced as low as $ 76.56 USD (Price from http://pricegrabber.com per 01.20.2005).

To sum it all up, this is the best we could say: ‘Good enclosure for CD-Writing or an external Hard-drive, but look elsewhere if you are looking for full speed DVD Reading & Writing support” . ADS Tech needs to fix the issues with the very low data transfer rates that occur when an optical drive is installed. If this Drive Kit actually supported full speed DVD reading & writing, we would have considered bringing out an award due to the nice selection of features & solid bundle.

You may discuss/comment this review in this forum thread. This forum thread may also be used to ask questions about this drive or request additional tests.

Thanks to:

 For providing the  Memorex media used in this review.  Memorex is one of the largest providers of all types of media for larger parts of the world.

 For providing the Verbatim media used in this review. Verbatim provides high quality media all over the world and strives to be the standard for DVD hardware reviewing.

 For providing the Fujifilm media used in this review. Fujifilm makes high-performance media for video and storage applications.