Introduction

I was having a conversation with an Asian friend of mine and we discussing what we would do if we were designing a computer case for sale to public and what the number one feature of this computer case would be. I said the number one thing I would want in a case that I had designed would be that was 100% Aluminum, I then in turn asked him what his number one requirement would be and he told me "just because it is a hardware, does not mean it has to look like hardware." I asked to explain this a bit more me, he explained that if the case is designed to look like a piece of art or fine furniture it will have balance in almost any room you install it in. After hearing that short explanation it became a lot clearer what he meant.

So as I look at the In Win 'NA that we are reviewing today I keep remembering what he said to me about. Just because it is hardware does not mean it has to look like hardware."

Features

Specifications

Packaging

When you look at the front the 'NA's shipping carton the picture on the it may confuse you a bit until you get the package opened and look inside to what what makes up the contents. The 'NA has a unique top assembly that you can place on top of the 'NA should you choose to do so. What it is a porcelain dish which you can see in the picture below this one.

With the porcelain dish setting on top of the drawing it will make a bit more since. What In Win has done is used the same philosophy that we mentioned earlier that just because it is a 3.5" eSATA/USB Hard drive enclosure, doesn't mean it has to look like one. In reality what you end up with is a very handsome oriental dish with a raised stand.

Like any good manufacturer should do, the rear of the carton lists all of the important features along with the entire specification for 'NA as well.

All of the components were individually wrapped and placed into separate slot in the packaging to insure that they did not move during their shipment from the factory to your home. Also included is a very nice set of explanations which will aid you in assembly and disassembly of the 'NA.

Parts and Accessories

You have two choices by which you can connect the 'NA to your system. The first being eSATA which is becoming more and more common on average priced motherboards each day.

The second choice is to connect the 'NA to your system via a USB cable, this will be the slowest of the two methods, but is likely to be the more readily available.

Al os include with the 'NA hard drive enclosure is a 12-volt 2 amp wall-wart power transformer which will supply power to you motherboard in the event you motherboard is over-taxed from to many other USB devices.

What makes this power transformer so unusual is the fact that it has a push button on the back-side of the plug-in that when pushed allows you to remove the protective cover and slide the two male plugs on the transformer prior to use.

The largest part of the 'NA is made from plastic and it also holds the hard drive cage which will hold the drive securely in place. In this picture you can also see what looks like a nylon handle sticking up above the edge of plastic lower portion of the In Win 'NA Hard drive enclosure, It actually is a handle that is used to left the inner portion of the assembly out of the lower portion.

Turning the lower portion on to its side you can now see that the instructions have been place on the top of the inner portion so you will always have your instruction at hand. To remove the inner portion it is a simple matter of removing three small screws and then grabbing the nylon hand and pulling it apart so that you can now install the 3.5" hard drive and connect either the USB or eSATA cable along with the power cable.

Looking at the end of the hard drive enclosure you can see that it has a notch and a slot cut out of the plastic. Common sense tells you that this is where the data cables and power cord will exit the unit. You more than likely see that neither one of the cables will pass through the small openings that are placed on the end of the device.

With the inner portion of the unit removed we can see that enclosure has a push button on the left hand side of the unit and a raised portion on the end where the data cables and power cables with attach to the unit. On the bottom of the unit you can also see the opening that has been made in it to allow warm air to be blown out of the unit by the fan that is attached to drive bay.

With the cover removed from the bottom of the unit you can now see the USB connector, eSATA connector and the power connector for the power supply. Once you have made your connection just replace the cover and hook the connecting cables to you system and plug in the power supply.

With the drive cage turned upside down you can see the connection piont for all of the cables as well as the connector for the power source. Visible on the bottom of the unit (remember is upside down in the picture) you can see the fan that will match up with the openings in the bottom of the assembly.

In this picture we have installed the hard drive and pushed the drive into the unit whereby the data cable connector and power connection points made contact with the hard drive. Then the hard drive is held in place by 4 - small screws that are supplied with the unit.

To cut down on the vibration that hard drives generally produce In Win placed anti-vibration bushing on on each of the connection points on the hard drive cage. There is nothing worse than have a hard drive enclosure setting on your desk and the minute you press the power button you see it start to jiiter its way off your desk... definetly not cool.

Here we have the the other end of the drive cage the one thing that we want to pay special attention to is small black thing in the middle of the picture. What this is is the micro power switch for the 'NA.

Finally we have the unit fully assembled sans the power cord. We have also affixed the porcelan platter to the top of it since it will now become the resting place for my card keys, since I am forever looking them in all the wrong places. This will be a very conveniet place for me to place them and it might teach me to become somewhat organized.

Conclusion

While the In Win 'NA 3.5" USB/eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure may not be everyone's cup of tea, I like the fact that it is a fully functional hard drive enclosure as well as being a very handsome piece of decorative furniture for my desk. We didn't bother to show you how fast the 'NA is since you can easily find the speed of USB 2.0 and eSATA on the Internet ,but you will also have to figure in the speed of your hard drive as well.

Pro

• Very attractive looking
• Easy to configure
• Fan is very quite and there is no vibration
• USB 2.0 or eSATA connections

Cons

• Dish if very fragile
• May require power transformer