SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure Review

SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 3.5

SUNBEAMTECH was founded in 2000 and specialized in the development of cold cathode fluorescent lamps. Later they started expanding into the DIY market and focusing on stylish and high performing products. SUNBEAMTECH had a mission to satisfy computer “DIYers” who were bored with traditional designs. Their product line includes everything from acrylic cases, fans, power supplies and much more. Today we are going to take a look at one of SUNBEAMTECH’s more recent products, the SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 3.5″ External Enclosure.

The SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 3.5″ External Enclosure’s housing is built almost exclusively of aluminum. The only portion of the housing that is plastic is the front and back panels, as well as the thermal relief holes. The all aluminum housing will help keep your data safe from physical damage if you transport your data to and from the office (or you have a small child that likes to grab anything he thinks would be fun to play with).

The aluminum construction of the SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 3.5″ External Enclosure isn’t the only feature worth mentioning. As the name states it is a USB3.0 compliant external enclosure. This provides you with lighting fast file transfers. This would be perfect for those that want to stream videos from your computer to a high definition T.V. but don’t want to put massive amounts of drive space into your HTPC. Just unplug the drive from one computer and into another and you can stream your digital media quickly and easily!

Part number	EN-AIR-USB3.0-BK EN-AIR-USB3.0-EU-BK
Color:	Black
Interface	USB3.0
Supported drive size	3.5 SATA I/II
Material	Aluminum (except the front / back panels and thermal relief holes)
Maximum transfer rate	USB3.0: 5Gbps
Fan Speed	1600RPM +/- 10%
Front Indicator Light	Power On: steady blue light Disk Access: flashing blue light
Back Indicator Light	Fan state
Power Supply	100V-240V
Dimensions	203(L) x 126(W) x 44(H)mm
Weight:	435g
Supported OS	Windows 2000(SP4)/ME(SP2)/XP/VISTA/Win7 Linux 2.4.1.0 or higher MAC OS 8.6 or higher

Fresh air is pulled in through the fan, and blown through the SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 3.5″ External Enclosure. The fresh airflow will keep your drive cooler and help ensure a longer life. The fan is rated for 1600 RPM +/-10%. I was unable to locate any audio specifications on the fan, though it was whisper quiet during the testing. I had an easier time hearing the Western Digital 640Gb Black hard drive spin up than the cooling fan.

$55.99 shipped is a great price for the convenience and portability that a fast external enclosure provides. Not to mention using an external enclosure allows you swap drives to a larger/different drive if/when needed as opposed to having multiple enclosures lying around that are no longer needed.