SilverStone SST-TS07B External USB 3.0 HDD Enclosure Review

Installation of a Hard Drive in the SilverStone SST-TS07B

With the tray removed from the SST-TS07B, we can see that the tray is made entirely of a tough plastic. Prepare the installation of a storage device by flipping the two orange mounting brackets up. Notice that each orange bracket includes two pre-set pins which correspond to the mounting holes found on the side of a hard drive. This design makes the installation of a hard drive nearly fool-proof since the hard drive can only be oriented one way. Rubber pads on the sides of the tray help eliminate unwanted hard drive vibration and noise.

With the hard drive placed in the tray, flip the orange mounting brackets down and gently wriggle the hard drive, if needed, to line up the pins so they secure the hard drive. The brackets should fold down flat once the pins have found the mounting holes in the hard drive, and once the brackets are in place, the hard drive is completely immobile.

This immobility has a tradeoff though, and that tradeoff rears its ugly head when it comes time to remove a hard drive from the tray. This undertaking can prove to be difficult as the tight tolerances of the tray prevent from the storage device from easily popping out. Hidden below the release latch mechanism is an open cutout for a hard drive’s SATA power and data connectors.

With the hard drive installed in the tray, and the tray inserted and latched securely in the SST-TS07B, there is no evidence of rattling or excess movement. Gently but firmly shaking the external enclosure revealed that the tray fits securely within the device and at no time was I given the impression that the SST-TS07B was flimsy or poorly-constructed.

With the SST-TS07B properly connected to a USB 3.0 capable system and powered on, Windows Vista and 7 users will be greeted with a dialogue box letting them know that the external enclosure was successfully found, configured and ready to be used. With the SST-TS07B ready to go, let’s put the SilverStone SST-TS07B through a couple of benchmarks.