Reviewed by: vws on 30-Jun-08 Rating:

Strengths:Good ventilation, sturdy build, complete accessories

Weaknesses:If you are the unlucky 20% you\'d get a very loud fan

Summary:For anyone who wants to buy this for quiet performance, I\'d suggest to buy it from a local store for easy return/exchange. I bought one from amazon 3 months ago and that one has a loose DC plug and the fan makes some whirling noise which can be easily heard within 10 feet in the night. A couple of months later, I bought two for my friends and I was quite surprised to witness a great variation between them. One enclosure has a dead silent fan plugged to a circuit board that\'s probably > 1 year old. It\'s DC plug is so loose that it comes off easy by itself! The other enclosure, however, has a fan that makes terribly loud noise like a diesel generator, yet the DC plug is tight and the circuit board is the latest version 2.x (black board with components facing up, very sleeky). BTW one of the boxes makes squeaky sound when I open/close the cover (can\'t remember which). I don\'t know what happened to Antec\'s QC for this model, but I bet if I bought 10 I\'d witness 10 different build quality.

For further elaboration, of all the MX-1 enclosures that I examined, none of them has any assembly issue such as fan blades touching the case/wires or misaligned ports missing the contacts, whatsoever. However, it\'s the individual parts that are not made to the same specs. In the loose DC plug case above, I noticed they actually soldered a different DC socket onboard - all the holes are way wider than the others (so it\'s actually a miracle that the plug pins would lodge in).

I\'ve owned plenty of Antec products and the level of manufacturing variation in this specific line of products is never seen. Although there are a few review sites that give great remarks about this product, people should not assume every box out there has the same excellent quality like what they received. Based on my stats I estimate there are about 1 in 5 enclosures that are poorly made.

Reviewed by: wsn97 on 21-Oct-07 Rating:

Strengths:works well, quiet

Weaknesses:none yet

Summary:I bought this sata external enclosure for my Seagate 7200.10 320G hard drive and it works perfectly. The USB function is OK, but what I like most is its esata connection. With the included esata bracket, I can connect the external hard drive through the sata port and the transferring speed is much faster. The fan of the enclosure is quiet and the built quality is good. Overall I would recommend this product.

Reviewed by: Adam99 on 21-Aug-07 Rating:

Strengths:e-sata and usb2.0, sturdy, good metal & fan cooling, includes all cables

Weaknesses:no ide, could be cheaper in price

Summary:i\'ve been buying antec products for years, and this one is a good example of clever design and good functions. It has e-sata and usb2.0 connectivity, an on-off switch and metal/carbon fiber body and a quiet fan for good cooling (antec says by 15degrees C on the box) includes all needed cables an a/c adapter. Will not work with IDE drives, only the newer SATA drives.

Reviewed by: imteddy on 30-Oct-07 Rating:

Strengths:Quiet, sturdy, well built, keeps hard drive cool

Weaknesses:Slightly Expensive, supports only USB, SATA only

Summary:I got this enclosure to replace my other cheaper enclosure. The one I had before was a screwless design and was easy to open. This Antec MX1 is not as easy to open and install the drive but its not very difficult either. As I mentioned, it is slightly expensive as well. Even after a discount, about $45 is a lot of money to pay for a HDD enclosure. However, I think you get what you pay for. This enclosure is well built, does not look clumsy or cheap. It keeps the drive running much cooler than my previous enclosure. It also comes with a eSATA bracket which is an added plus. I wish it had support for firewire as well and if it could support both SATA and IDE, it would be a really good unit. As SATA is becoming popular, I do not think that to be a drawback though.

Overall, its a good enclosure for a slightly more price and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to run their drives cooler.

Reviewed by: dblevitan on 13-Sep-07 Rating:

Strengths:Very solidly built, good cooling, good transfer speed

Weaknesses:Annoying installation, Loud, expensive

Summary:The enclosure is very well built and has great cooling, but that cooling comes with a price - noise. The fan is quiet, but not quiet enough for me. If you have a loud computer, then this is fine, but if you like silence and want to use this all day long, it gets annoying.

The installation was also annoying - it involves hard to remove screws , disconnecting wires, and takes way too long compared to other enclosures. Finally, the price is high.

Reviewed by: charleskimble on 07-Aug-07 Rating:

Strengths:Quiet, Cool, and Well Built

Weaknesses:eSATA Cable

Summary:The MX1 is another wonderful product built by Antec. Quality craftsmanship is evident all around. The drive stays cool with the built in fan that you have to press your ear against it to hear it. If your looking for an eSATA/USB2 enclosure, this is the one to buy.

The only problem I had, was with the included eSATA cable. Unfortunately, there is no standard on how deep the cable needs to plug into a eSATA socket. The included cable would not plug all the way in, so I had to purchase a replacement cable that had the rubber shielding further back from the tip.

Reviewed by: anewculture on 17-Nov-07 Rating:

Strengths:looks, cooling fan

Weaknesses:fan noise when the computer is off

Summary:Great construction, quality and looks. It actually looks much better than the image so don\'t worry you\'ll not get embarrassed to take this baby out from your bag.

The fan has an annoying buzz (like a tiny fly flying near my ear) which is ONLY audible in a silent room when the computer is off. But there\'s a on/off switch for the solution. At the end, the most important thing for me is the safety and lifespan of my harddrive which MX-1 will hopefully provide.

I was expecting a larger drop in the transfer speed but short tests showed that the external e-sata works only 5% slower than my internal sata drive.

The size of enclosure is not that bad for a 3.5\". But who wouldn\'t like a smaller enclosure which requires no AC adapter and extra cables to carry.

If ANTEC produces a 2.5\" \'mobile\' enclosure (with a 3.5\" bay for inserting it onto a desktop case) with \'active cooling\' and with a short (hidden) cable I\'ll be the first to buy.

Reviewed by: sfinley on 25-Aug-07 Rating:

Strengths:Design, e-sata/usb connections. Keeps drive cool.

Weaknesses:Price, I think it a little bit pricey for a hard drive enclosure.

Summary:This is a very well built external enclosure. I like the way you can choose which connection you wish to use. Active cooling is a plus as well. It works only with sata drives. Nice small footprint on desk. I would recommend this enclosure to anyone need a great external enclosure.

Reviewed by: hadjih on 18-Mar-08 Rating:

Strengths:runs cool

Weaknesses:none

Summary:I was looking for a cool quiet cas to slip my older 120gb hard drive in. The MX-1 fit the bill to a tee. I am currently using the USb connection, but the esata will make it future proof should I want to add more storage.

Reviewed by: slewis3 on 09-Nov-08 Rating:

Strengths:A quality product. Even though it is made of plastic, it feels very solid. Very quiet. All needed parts and cables came with it.

Weaknesses:It is not cheap. I got mine on sale for $49.99.

Summary:I bought two of these. I put Western Digital 500 GB drives in them. I hooked one to my cable box using the SATA interface and I use the other one for backups on my desktop computer using the USB interface. Both drives worked perfectly from the moment I turned them on. In this case you get what you pay for! This is a great enclosure.