Icy Dock

[MindoverMaster]

I've recently purchased a Icy Dock MB668 2.5" SATA external enclosure. Sleek and small are the few words I'd start it out with.

The Icy Dock, a reputable company in external enclosures, single or dual, pulled out a great enclosure to store your old laptop HDD or SSD. Being tool-less, it only requires one hand, two if you want to get picky. It comes with a manual, CD (for One Touch Backup software), Mini-USB cable, DC5V power to USB cable, a little pouch for carrying it on the go and of course the Icy Dock itself.

As you can see above, it has a standard SATA connector. On the opposite side, there is a Mini-USB port, DC power port and OTB (One Touch Backup). eSATA is only available on the MB668US-1S series.

In it, I put my OCZ Vertex 30GB SSD, that I previously used as a OS drive. Being tool-less, it fits pretty snug in there, while still breathing. I took a good shake on it and didn't hear anything banging around. I assumed that the extra power USB cord was for 7200RPM 2.5" drives. And I was right, just with the Mini-USB connected, it purred like a kitty on steroids. OK, maybe that was a bad analogy. It being a SSD, it didn't make much noise, but in Windows 7, it found the drive pretty darn quick. Didn't annoyingly ask me to format or do a check on it. I also tried it on my netbook, which ran Ubuntu, and it found it easy just as well. I formatted it on the Ubuntu end with the Disk Utility. Had my previous 7 OS on there, that I don't need any longer. Read/write speeds are as you expect with USB devices. Nothing fancy there.


Pros:
-Small size
-Light weight
-Dumb proof
-Tool-less
-No need for extra power (mostly)

Cons:
-No eSATA

Final Thoughts:
If you want something simple, yet can pack a punch, go for it. At $20@Newegg, and a SSD or 2.5" HDD, you wouldn't need a WD mini external, that go for ~$150. Would be something more sturdy for me, then carrying around a flash drive that I can lose, or easily damage. This thing stays where it's at, and can take quite a beating.

4.9/5 - If it included eSATA, it'd be a solid 5.