hard drive dock

Hi All,
Just a quick request. I have just got my new i7 iMac and whilst I am aiming to get a Lacie 2 drive thunderbolt raid, however as an interim solution I am looking for a good USB3 dock. My research has led me too Thermaltake BlacX Duet 5G USB2.5" & 3.5" SATA HDD Dock ST0022A as a reasonable solution. Could I get some comments especially if you have had direct experience of this dock or has colleagues who have used it . It seems that not all usb3.0 docks are born equal or even near equal.

Ian

You may want to look into G-Tech's new EV drive eco system. Thunderbolt, but the swappable drives are USB3 and IMO the whole thing is pretty expandable, fast, and sweet.

I've been using the Seagate Backup drives with the USB 3.0 and the optional thunderbolt dock. The drives that ship inside aren't the greatest (you can remove/upgrade them pretty easy) but it's been more than adequate for H.264 video editing and when you do finally upgrade, I find the large capacity and cheap cost of drives makes for a great short term archival solution.

Ian,
I have a "NewerTechnology" Voyager Q dock. Outputs include, esata, USB3, FW400 & FW800. I also have a 4 bay box and some other misc external drives. I actually like the fact that I can easily swap drives in and out. Use it more than my other drives. I have several computers so I also need to switch between them.
Only issue I had was upgrading firmware required using a Windows computer.
USB3, not 2, is really faster than any drive you can stick in there.
Hope this helps, Greg

Look in to OtherWorldComputing USB 3.0 drives. Very nice and reliable hardware.

If budget allows, I would look into a Thunderbolt Adapter instead. There are two from Seagate. I'm using the latter. amzn.com/B009HQCARY = $90 or amzn.com/B009HQCAPQ = $150. You can get near 150 MB/s throughput on 7200rpm harddrives and more with SSD drives.

Cinemaloha
For a single drive, USB3 and TB will deliver the same speeds. Both I/O's are faster than what the drives can read write. This is true for HDD or SSD. Only where you raid several drives will you saturate the bus. Save your $$.

Liztek HDD Docking Station 4TB Support and Compatible with: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Mac OS X and Linux with USB Port.

HDD Dock