Spire – CF107-NEB – External HDD Enclosure

The back of the unit is your connection center. This is where you find the power connection, audio connection, and your USB connection. The first thing I took notice of was the power adapter. The unit uses a STANDARD ATX power connection! This, to me, is the greatest thing in the world. Now, you don’t have to go fumbling around with manufacturers if you lose it because you can go to Staples and pick up another cable. Being that this is an external unit, and travel is to be expected, so is loss of accessories. Thank you Spire for thinking ahead! The audio and USB connections are standard and really need no introduction. If you don’t know what the USB connection is for, then you have no reason for using a device such as this.

When you flip the unit over, you are greeted with some holes on the bottom; these are for mounting your drives in place. This is very important! Although, if you are me, then the only time you mount the drive in place is when you are doing a drop test – um, yeah, a drop test. I will get to that later though, ugh. There are mounting options for 5.25″ drives and 3.5″ drives. I am a little disappointed that there is no way to mount a 2.5″ drive though. Understand that this wouldn’t be too common, but the option would be nice.

Ok, I have had enough with the silly stuff; I want to get to the meat and potatoes here. The guts and function! The first thing I like to do when I get a new toy to destroy is to rip it apart. So, to stay true to my roots, I did just that. I ripped it apart. Being that this is an external enclosure, you kind of have to do this anyway to put a drive in there. After you play with the outside for a while, it is time to play with the inside. Now, when they say, aluminum and plastic construction; technically they aren’t lying. It is construction of aluminum and plastic, but the aluminum is so thin, it makes me wonder why it is even there in the first place. In fact, it is somewhat of a problem in ways. Example: The glue used to keep the activity light in place actually came loose; this is the same for the glue used throughout.