SilverStone Raven RVS02 External USB 3.0 HDD / SSD Enclosure Review

SilverStone SST-RVS02 External HDD Enclosure

A perennial favorite, SilverStone continues to meet the expectations of the PC enthusiast crowd with its innovative and well-crafted products. Since 2003, SilverStone has built a reputation for offering solid product lines and pioneering new PC accessories and peripherals. Catering to enthusiasts and professionals alike, SilverStone continues to grow in the PC industry, dominating the market with their innovative cases, power supplies and other accessories.

Road warriors are a tough crowd to please: they want the best of both worlds – portability and performance. In many instances, the dichotomy of these traits can be extremely tough to incorporate into a single product. Many manufacturers have tried to blend these attributes into the perfect PC accessory, only to fail miserably. Certainly, external hard drive enclosures are not exempt from this, especially those enclosures which harbor 2.5″ storage devices.

Small, portable 2.5″ external enclosures have always seemed to get a bad rap. While diminutive in size, these enclosures were powered solely by USB 2.0 and data transfer speeds suffered for it. eSATA tried to fix this, which improved data transfer speeds in these devices, but the cost was high as eSATA required two cables (data and power) instead of one. Enthusiasts cried out for a solution to the problem, and thus was borne the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 specification.

Today, SilverStone introduces its first USB 3.0 capable 2.5″ external hard drive enclosure, the SST-RVS02. Hailing from the famous Raven product line, the SST-RVS02 puts an end to the USB 2.0 and eSATA debacle. Completely tool-less and sporting a faux-carbon fiber exterior, the SST-RVS02 is hell bent on changing the rules. Attractively priced at $25.99 at Amazon, the SST-RVS02 is backed by SilverStone’s 1-year warranty.

SilverStone SST-RVS02 External HDD Enclosure Specifications:

Model No.	SST-RVS02
Enclosure material	In mold decoration Plastic
Color	black with carbon fiber styling
Power requirement	5Vdc from USB port
Operating system support	Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS and Linux.
HDD size support	9.5mm thickness 2.5 hard drive or SSD (compatible with 6Gbit/s)
HDD interface support	Serial ATA
Minimum System Requirements	Windows XP, Vista and 7 Mac OS 9.x (Apple USB support 1.3.5 and greater) and Mac OS 10.x Linux Computer with USB 3.0 or USB 2.0/1.1 interface
Enclosure interface	USB 3.0 (Max. 5Gbit/s) interface. Compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1.
Net Weight	62 g
Dimension	127.9mm (D) x 75.1mm (W) x 18.5mm (H)

Will the SilverStone SST-RVS02 make road warriors proud? Can the SST-RVS02 succeed in blending both portability and performance into a single product? We’ll soon find out!