StarTech UNIDOCK3U Hard Drive Dock Review

Closer Look Continued & Test System

StarTech.Com USB 3.0 to SATA/IDE HDD Docking Station Closer Look (continued):

Around the back we find the remaining main features of the dock. The IDE and power connector reside along the top of the panel with a rubber cap for keeping dust and debris out when not in use. The USB 3.0 connector is on the bottom left and over to the bottom right is the DC power input port. Curiously, there’s what appears to be a cutout for an eSATA port. Likely they use the dock housing for different models or maybe a hint at future connection possibilities upon the next iteration of the dock. There’s also a round cutout near the DC input that has also has no function.

Looking down into the dock bays, you can see the front has the necessary SATA data and power ports and the rear bay is simply a holder for the drive as the IDE cable plugs in manually.

The configurations with drives in the bays are as shown above. Absent are any cooling mechanisms, active or passive, but with the openness of the dock, ambient airflow should be sufficient for cooling hard drives placed within and SSDs really don’t generate enough heat to be a problem regardless.

When a drive is connected, the power switch glows blue around the perimeter and red appears upon drive activity. Use is straightforward once the power and USB 3.0 cables are connected. Literally, plug in a drive, turn on the power and the drive should appear as available in Windows just as a thumb drive would.

Legit Reviews Test System

All tests were performed on a fresh and up-to-date install of Windows 7 Pro x64 with no other applications running while using AHCI mode set through the BIOS. Synthetic Benchmarks were run with the OS loaded on a 40GB Corsair Force SSD. All components were set to their default speeds and are listed below.

P67 Test Bench

Intel LGA 1155 Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model	Live Pricing
Processor	Core i5 2500k	Click Here
Motherboard	ASUS P8P67 Deluxe	Click Here
Memory	Crucial 2 x 2GB PC3-10600	Click Here
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce GT 430	Click Here
OS Drive	Corsair Force 40GB	Click Here
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000	Click Here
Operating System	Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit	Click Here

We’ll have a look at performance next but we should mention that we used the Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB drive to test as it it outperform the capabilities of the dock and present an artificial bottleneck and showcase the true potential speed the dock will support.