The face of the Icy Dock MB664US is nice and simple. The unit has clean lines, and no flashy LEDs to distract. The grey button slides up to allow the hard drive to be ejected, and doubles as the lock.

As you can see, the Serial ATA back plane supports a single Serial ATA/power connector which is physically compatible with every Serial ATA HDD on the market. Just slide in a 3.5" SATA hard drive and close the front panel.

We're not going to benchmark a SATA hard drive in the Icy Dock MB664US because serial ATA devices like this do not have any significant impact on data transfer speeds. When used in USB2.0 mode, data transfer speeds are a little slower.

Easy External Storage

The Icy Dock MB664US looks great, works with eSATA or USB2.0 data connections and supports one 3.5" SATA I or II hard drive without the need to fish out a single screw. A HDD is not included. The unit is well constructed, and we especially like the rubber vibration absorbing feet that support the MB664US in either orientation (lying flat or standing on its side).

Connecting the external hard drive up to a desktop computer or laptop is as easy as plugging in the Icy Dock MB664US's power cord and connecting the appropriate data cable. As with any external hard drive, theft can be a troublesome issue to circumvent. The Kensington lock may prevent the chassis from walking off but it does nothing to restrict the hard drive from being removed...

With a retail price of $50 CDN ($50 USD / £30GBP), the Icy Dock MB664US is a simple device which allows anyone to add a substantial amount of external storage to their desktop or laptop PC. Data transfer speeds on the eSATA cable are just as fast as internal SATA drives, which is the biggest attraction in our eyes. In this day and age we wouldn't recommend ANY external hard drive chassis lacking an eSATA option. The Icy Dock MB664US is a simple and versatile approach to anyone's burgeoning storage needs.

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