Installation and Operation:
A 250GB Maxtor Maxline III SATA 3Gbps drive was installed for this review, as seen in the images below. The below left image shows where the screws hold the drive to the steel tray, attached securely on the SATA data and power connections. As you can see, the capacitors I mentioned previously are even slightly taller than the drive, but once you get the tray slid in part way you are in the clear.
 
Testing:
To test the Rosewill RX81-CW-US-SLV, HD Tach will be executed to gauge its basic performance profile, and the drive's temperature will be monitored using HWMonitor 1.06. As a point of reference, the 250GB Maxtor Maxline III SATA 3Gbps drive installed will be tested connected directly to a standard SATA 3Gbps connection, as well as to another eSATA and USB 2.0 enclosure from Rosewill (review link) and one from Kingwin (review link).
The chart below details the results from HD Tach 3.0.1.0 RW for the Maxtor drive connected via USB and eSATA in the three enclosures, as well as directly to a SATA header. The burst speed allowed by the Rosewill RX81-CW-US-SLV connected via eSATA is second only to the drive's performance when connected directly to a SATA header on the test system. The average read speed via eSATA was the best, and the other two test results were comparable to other enclosures. The results from testing via USB 2.0 were acceptable, and place the RX81-CW-US-SLV about in the middle of the other two enclosures.
Since there is no fan, noise is not an issue, but I was concerned that heat might be. With the drive under a load in open air, the temperature hovered around 34 degrees Celsius in a room with an air temperature of 21 degrees. Inside the other two enclosures the drive got to around 40 degrees, and with the RX81-CW-US-SLV the maximum hit 42 degrees. While it did allow the drive to get the warmest, the results were all very close and none were worth being concerned about. Good cooling is always a nice feature, but silence and high performance might be even better.
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