Silverstone is best known for their contemporary designs and use of brushed aluminum. In the case of the DS221 Silverstone carried on the trend while creating what may be the most versatile dual hard disk enclosure on the market. As the title insinuates the product can support two 2.5 inch hard drives in Raid 0, 1, and JBOD modes. We’ll take a closer look at the enclosure and analyze the performance benefits of Raid 0 as well as data security 1 and all the other features provided.

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Specifications

Silverstone DS221 (SST-DS221B)

Dimensions 6.61 x 4.72 x 1.14 Inches (LWH)
Weight: 370g±10g (without HDDs)
Material: Aluminum
External Interface: USB 2.0 and eSATA
Color: Black

Form Factor: 2.5”
Number of Drives Supported: 2
Supported HDD Height: 9.5mm
Supported OS: Windows 2000 and newer / Mac OSX 9.X and up

Price: $70

A Closer Look

Business experts have always pushed the importance of packaging; it is said that “packaging identifies your brand” and Silverstone successfully accomplished this task. The box was as solid as it can be and coated in a matte black finish resembling the aesthetics of the actual product. Along with the enclosure Silverstone provided a stand, an USB to Mini USB cable, an eSATA cable, a DC to AC 5V wall adapter and a user manual.

Sifting through the user manual we quickly appreciated its contents. Not only did it come in several languages and provides detailed specifications but it also explains the installation and set up of the enclosure. Since the enclosure supports multiple raid settings that novice users and some experienced users alike may struggle to understand, the explanations of each setting and to the actual set up process are beneficial and welcome.

Immediately we noticed that the enclosure is in effect an aluminum brick. Although we use the word “brick” the footprint of the enclosure is rather petit. It is only about 150% larger than an average 2.5” external hard drive enclosure. As for the body it is made out of solid aluminum with exception to the ends which are made out of ridged plastic. Along the narrow sides of the aluminum, there are nearly 200 holes designated for ventilation to ensure the thermal integrity of the two hard drives inside. Fortunately those holes are not only well integrated into the aesthetics of the DS221 but also accent it.

The enclosure is entirely brushed aluminum and coated in a beautiful black coating which a photo cannot do justice for. Similar to the ventilation holes the plastic “chromed” parts of the enclosure add an exquisite feeling to it. Whether used on the stand provided or not the hard drive should blend into most office and personal setups.

As for the rear of the enclosure, it plays host to various ports and a switch. From the bottom to the top there is a switch to control the mode of the enclosure, a USB 2.0 mini port, an eSATA port, and a DC5V port to provide enough power to sustain the two hard disks.

Installation

Neglecting the two shiny strips, the front of the enclosure pertains specifically to installation and setup. Opening up the enclosure is simple: by pulling down the silver square the latch will pop open. Inside it is evident that the drive is designed to last. It is framed with thin sheets of metal with holes punched in to lighten the product and provide more passive cooling.

Installing the hard drives could not be any simpler. The design is completely tool free: open the latch, peek into the enclosure to align the hard disk, and then close the latch. The hard disk will automatically sink into the SATA adapter when the latch is closed. If a hard drive is inserted in the wrong direction it will only go half way in and the latch will not close.

The only regret we found in relation to the hard disks is that you cannot use a 125mm tall hard drive. Both drives must be 95mm or they will not fit.

Setup

Setting up the DS221 for computer usage, is just as simple.

First choose the mode that you would like to use:

1. Jbod
Jbod mode is not raid but is similar to Raid 0 without the performance benefits. Both drives are read as one large drive but performance is not increased.

2, Raid 0
Raid 0 is performance oriented. The two hard drives are read as one large hard drive. For example if you have two 1Tb hard drives it will read them as one 2TB hard drive while at the same time providing higher performance.

3. Raid 1
This final mode is optimized for data security. Each disk mirrors each other, and, therefore all data is saved on Disk A as well as on Disk B. In other words, if one of the hard drives fails no data will be lost.

After switching to the mode of your preference and/or needs, press the reset button. The reset button is located in the front of the enclosure. It must be pushed every time the mode is changed.

For initial setup and after each mode switch, the enclosure should be connected to a computer via USB 2.0. After it is recognized, it is safe to switch to eSATA and unleash its high speeds.

To indicate when the disks are active or powered there are blue and red lights adjacent to the reset button and when activated in tandem they offer a sparkling soft purple glow.

Performance

With its ability to run in Raid 0 we expected higher than average performance from the SilverStone DS221 and it didn’t disappoint. We ran several benchmarks in each mode using both connection options to ensure accurate test results.

We used two 500Gb 5400 RPM hard disks manufactured by two separate companies to conduct the tests.

ALL NUMBERS IN THE GRAPHS BELOW ARE MEASURED IN MB/s

As displayed in the graph above, USB 2.0 benchmarks are fairly similar.  This is due to the speed limits of USB 2.0.  Both Raid modes hit the speed cap whilst JBOD showed lower performance.

eSATA is where we really saw the enclosure shine.  Heck in Raid 0 mode it spanked all the other benchmarks we have ran in the past year.  We expected to see performance gain but boy were we surprised to see it excel to this point.

From a performance standpoint we simply did not expect this much out of it and were pleasantly surprised.

Conclusion

Being an aesthetic delight for most tastes and accomplishing the difficult task of simplifying complicated and powerful settings, makes the DS221 attractive to anyone who is in need of extreme performance, data security and/or capacity. Without any doubt the SilverStone DS221 is a class of its own!