BlacX 5G HDD Dock Specs and Pictures

The box is a nice black affair, with a pleasing combination of subtlety and feature awareness, it makes sure you know that it sports a USB3 connection to your PC, and will happily talk to SATA3.0 (6Gbps) hard drives at their native speed.  Beyond that it will work nicely with 2.5" and 3.5" drives and has a three year warranty.

Looking at the Specifications panel it gives you the dimensions and weight and such, goes into more detail on the SATA interface (supports 1/2/3, not surprising as SATA is backwards compatible), gives some certifications for the power supply, it also tells you that the power supply is included as well as a USB 3.0 cable and some silicone protective jackets for 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives.  I was very happy to see that it included a USB3 cable, they're rather different than USB2 cables and it would have posed a problem for me if it didn't come with one.

Inside the box is the BlacX 5G itself, with some protective foam and a box with the protective silicone jackets, under a cardboard partition lurk the USB3 cable and power supply.  Slipped in next to all this is the user's manual and warranty information pamphlet.

Installation is mind numbingly simple, but I'll detail it anyway just for fun. 

1. Remove BlacX 5G and accessories from box.
2. Plug power supply into a surge protector (always use a surge protector)
3. Plug USB3 cable into computer.
4. Plug USB3 cable and power supply cable into BlacX 5G.
5. Place BlacX 5G somewhere it won't get knocked over.
6. Insert hard drive into BlacX 5G and put the silicone protective jacket on the HDD.
7. Push large power button, enjoy nice blue LED power light.
8. Wait for windows to figure itself out, and enjoy having access to your hard drive without opening your case!

(Cables installed, it really is quite easy!)

It really is that simple, plug it in, stuff a hard drive or SSD in it, and push the power button.  That's it. As a note, you can do this with your computer turned on!  If you want to remove a drive have windows "eject" it, hit the power button on the BlacX 5G, wait for the HDD to spin down, then hit the eject button on the BlacX 5G, pull the drive out, and plug the next one in!

I tested to make sure the BlacX 5G is backwards compatible with USB2 ports as well, and not only is it compatible, it easily maxes them out at 35MB/second transfer rates even with my mechanical hard drive.

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