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Installation
The installation section of this review will not
only demonstrate just how easy it is to mount a drive, but will also
appropriately cover its cooling features in greater detail.
**click to enlarge**
Before I continue, it is important to note that
this enclosure does fully support hard drives up to 1TB in size. With
that said, this enclosure was properly tested with a Samsung 1TB hard drive
with 32MB cache. This is just one of many excellent drives the company
has to offer.
**click to enlarge**
You'll have to remove some screws from the bottom plate to gain access to the
interior. However, once you lay eyes on it, you'll appreciate its
design. While not entirely tool-less, installing the drive is.
Absolutely no screws or even cables are needed. Why? Well, both
the power and interface SATA connectors are built into the circuit board
itself. Just slide the drive in and you're done! You're probably
wondering just how secure the drive would be without some screws in place.
Well, part of its unique design is based on noise dampening. You
probably already noticed this right away by the foam lining on the outer
panel in the picture above. However, it takes noise reduction to the
next level by allowing not only a very secure fit of the drive, but laying
it on top of a number key rest areas consisting of both springs and shock
absorbing sponges.
**click to enlarge**
The result is a drive that fits nicely in place
without the need for tools, screws or even cables that can eventually get
lost. I was seriously impressed with the inner design of this
enclosure.
**click to enlarge**
To be quite frank, I tend to ignore all the
gimmicky approaches manufacturers take to make such a product as one that
provides high thermal efficiency. From fancy names for these features
to other marketing techniques, all seem to be less likely to be as
impressive when you actually have one on hand to play with. After all,
the only way currently to dissipate heat efficiently is by adding a fan and
ensuring maximum air circulation. That's where I will make an
exception and say that the VI-ON is well designed enough to truly keep your
drive running cool. Yes, they also use a fancy name for this feature
called an "Active SMART Cooling System", but is the overall the design of
the enclosure itself that ultimately plays a role in cooling performance,
something I will cover in the next section. From the surrounding
steel mesh to the base itself, it does provide excellent air circulation
that is aided by the low noise 40mm fan located near the bottom rear of of
the enclosure.
**click to enlarge**
One final note in regards to the hardware
install is the embedded status/activity LED the enclosure features.
Based on a number of pictures such as
this one, you'll get
the impression that the blue LED is bright enough or placed close enough to
the outer steel mesh to emanate this brightly. That is not the case at
all. In fact, unless you are directly in front of it, you won't even
notice the LED at all. Now this may be a good or bad thing for many.
However, for HTPC use, it is perfect actually. Not only does the
enclosure blend in well with modern components, but you won't even see the
blue LED, even in a low-lit room. It's a great enclosure for this type
of use.
As far as the software installation goes, it is
pretty straightforward. In a Vista PC, your drive should be quickly
identified and listed under Disk drives in Device Manager.
**click to enlarge**
However, note that if you choose to connect it
via the eSATA interface, it won't be available for use right away without
first configuring and formatting the drive for use. This is easily
done via Disk Management in Windows and I will say that I did not encounter
any issues at all when connected to a eSATA controller card.
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