StarTech.com SATA to mSATA Enclosure Review

 

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Review: StarTech.com mSATA to SATA enclosure
Reviewed by: Wendy
Robertson

Provided by:  StarTech.com
Model: SAT2MSAT25

Have you ever had a piece of computer equipment that was
designed for a small form factor computer, such as an Ultrabook or laptop, and
wished there was a way to install it and use it in your main PC? StarTech.com
is a company that specialise in making this possible. In fact their slogan is
"Hard to find made easy".

In this article I'm going to be taking a look at the
StarTech.com SATA to mSATA enclosure. The SAT2MSAT25 is a 2.5 inch 8.9mm SSD
enclosure designed to allow an mSATA SSD, to be easily installed in a desktop
or laptop that doesn't have an mSATA connector already provided.

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The packaging 


Box top

Enclosure


Enclosure top


Enclosure bottom

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The enclosure, which is made from aluminium, is designed to
fit in a 2.5 inch drive bay, and is 8.9mm thick. It is well constructed, and
should provide good screening capabilities.

Inside the enclosure


Enclosure unpopulated

Inside the enclosure we can see a printed circuit board
(PCB), with the connection to the outside world, which is a standard SATA power
and data connector. I can also see that the PCB does not contain many
components. I can see what looks like a power regulator and its support
components, and that's about it.

We can also see the mSATA power and data connector, and an
isolator sheet to prevent any components in the mSATA SSD shorting on the metal
case of the enclosure. Finally there are two screw fixings for securing the
mSATA SSD. There is no bridging chipset, and this is a good thing in my
opinion. Bridging chips usually slow performance down substantially, are
operating system dependant, and require system drivers. The StarTech.com
SAT2MSAT25 requires no system drivers and is therefore operating system
independent.


Enclosure populated

In the above screenshot you can see that I have installed a
Samsung 840 EVO mSATA 1000GB SSD in the StarTech.com SAT2MSAT25 enclosure.
Fitting the mSATA SSD is simply a matter of removing four small screws to gain
entry to the enclosure. You then simply insert the mSATA SSD into the mSATA
slot, and secure the SSD with the two fixing screws which are provided. Once
this is done, you just fix the lid back onto the enclosure with the four screws,
and then the enclosure looks just like a normal 2.5 inch SSD. Connect the
enclosure to your PC's SATA interface, and the enclosed mSATA SSD behaves just
like a normal SSD.

Note: Samsung has not yet endorsed the StarTech.com SAT2MSAT25
enclosure, but I can state that the 840 EVO mSATA 1TB SSD worked when installed
in this enclosure without any issues whatsoever.

So how does it perform?

In fact it performs just like a normal SATA SSD. It's
compatible with SATA 3Gbps, and SATA 6Gbps controllers.

I have included a couple of benchmarks of the StarTech.com
SAT2MSAT25 with the Samsung 840 EVO mSATA 1TB SSD installed. If you wish to see
a full range of tests using this enclosure, then please view the Samsung 840
EVO mSATA 1TB SSD review which you can find here.

Benchmarks


ATTO benchmark

As you can see, the StarTech.com SAT2MSAT25 doesn't hold
back performance in the slightest, with the Samsung 840 EVO mSATA 1TB SSD able
to reach nearly 557 MB/s reading speeds, and 535 MB/S writing speeds.


AS SSD benchmark

From the AS SSD benchmark result, you can also see that the
StarTech.com SAT2MSAT25, also supports native command queuing (NCQ) and with
that, queue depth scaling, which is a must for SSDs.

Conclusion

The StarTech.com SAT2MSAT25 enclosure is a low cost, simple
device, which is well made, and does exactly what it's supposed to do with no
fuss. The enclosure also comes with a two year warranty.

Price

You should be able to find the StarTech.com SAT2MSAT25 in
most good online retailers for around £22.50.

The parting sentence is:

“The StarTech.com SAT2MSAT25 enclosure is a low cost
device which is well made, and does exactly what it's supposed to do”.

Rating system

The editor rating is based on the following key factors.

  • Performance
  • Stability (is the device stable?)
  • Price
  • Warranty
  • Supplied accessories (what is included in the package)

 

 

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