Hands-on with Spire's GigaPod VIII: Cheap Storage Space for Your PC

We came across Spire's GigaPod VIII SP105B hard-disk enclosure during one of our raids in the supermarket. The GigaPod enclosure is a budget solution that is heavily discounted these days. We managed to snatch a unit at just $25.08, which is quite a bargain if you have a spare ATA hard-disk drive.

Introduction

Spire is mostly known for its case and cooling products that are mostly designed by Ferrari's legendary designer Pinafarina. Although some of Spire's HDD enclosures are also signed by the famous designer, this is not the case with the SP105B, a simple yet efficient low-budget solution.

The Spire GigaPod VIII SP105B is an external enclosure for 3.5-inch hard-disk drives with an ATA-to-USB interface. It comes in a black aluminum case with a matte finish and is to be operated either horizontally or vertically, although it does not come with a stand. The unit inherits all the benefits of the USB 2.0 interface, such as convenient plug-and-play detection or hot-swapping features (the drive can be removed at any time from the system, without having to shut down the PC).


According to the manufacturer, the enclosure is able to work with any type of ATA hard-disk drive with a maximum storage capacity of 500 GB. The company does not say exactly what happens if the enclosure is paired with a larger hard-disk drive, but we'd expect it to work despite the warning. However, a large capacity hard-drive would radiate larger amounts of heat and the absence of a proper ventilation source could damage the drive.

Inside the Package

The GigaPod VIII SP105B hard-disk enclosure comes in a cardboard box with black and red color spots. Through the box the user can see the aluminum-brushed enclosure with the Spire white logo. The manufacturer split the cardboard box in two: the topmost layer holds the enclosure itself, while the bottom part accommodates the power adapter, the USB patch-cord, a brief user's manual, the driver CD, as well as a set of screws and a miniature screwdriver.



The box contains everything you need to start your two-step installation. Unfortunately, the unit itself is fastened with screws, rather than a facile clam-based safety mechanism, but the operation can be performed by any user with basic mechanics skills.

Installation

We found a 40 GB Seagate hard-disk drive lying around and we decided that it would be a good time to give it a new lease on life. The ancient ST340014 is a 5,400 RPM model and despite the fact that it would perform slower than a 7,200 part, it can be successfully used with notebooks at no battery penalty.

On each side of the enclosure there are two plastic strips that glide along the unit. Under each strip there are two screw holes that align with the fastening holes of the hard-drive inside. Before connecting the drive to the computer, it is recommended that you secure the hard-disk with all the four screws, in order to prevent the drive from moving or vibrating inside the enclosure.


Although Spire ships a screwdriver with each HDD enclosure, we used a slightly larger one during the assembly process, as a magnetic screwdriver head would ease up the alignment process and would dramatically decrease your frustration.

Once all the screws have been firmly fastened, the two plastic strips can be pushed back to hide them from the user. The final step involves connecting both the IDE and the power cables of the interface to the mounted drive, then securing the enclosure cap with the last two screws (they are the smallest in the pack).


Unfortunately, the HDD enclosure only relies on the aluminum shell to dissipate the residual heat produced by the 3.5-inch drive. A 5,400 RPM drive would do just fine, but a 7,200 counterpart would make the unit run hotter than usually.

The enclosure is ready to be connected to the computer. The unit ships with a USB patch-cord but it is extremely short, so if you don�t plan to keep the unit right next to the computer, you will have to purchase a longer USB cable. Next up, we connected the unit to the power grid using the bundled power adapter. Although most of the external HDD enclosures can draw their power from the USB bus, the GigaPod VIII SP105B won�t work until the external power source is connected and the rear switch of the enclosure has been turned on. Shortly put, you would have to carry the bulky power adapter with you - so long, portability!

Another important aspect you should pay extra attention to is the fact that the power connector is 100 percent identical with a PS/2 port. Be very careful when connecting the power source, in order not to connect the power adapter to the motherboard, as you�ll end up with toast.

Performance

The USB external enclosure is pretty decent in terms of performance. Although the overall performance is closely bound to the hard-disk drive inside it, we tested the unit by moving large amounts of data to and from the USB enclosure. After the tests concluded, we repeated them with the hard-disk drive attached directly to the IDE connector. The results were roughly the same, which means that the enclosure has little impact over the drive's performance.

Conclusions

Spire's external enclosure might not be able to compete with its siblings from Seagate, LaCie and the likes, but it will surely do its job if paired with a decent IDE-based hard-disk drive.

The good

The GigaPod VIII SP105B comes with an extremely low price tag, given the fact that it has a sleek design and comes with support for old IDE hard-disk drives. It allows you to re-use a discarded hard-disk drive that is still functional without punching a hole in your budget.

The bad

Its connector cap is exclusively made of plastic and the rear connectors are seated loosely; you can end up displacing the connector while seating the USB or the power cable in place. Moreover, the unit can't be powered via the computer's USB bus, not even when working with a 5,400 RPM drive, which dramatically cuts on portability.

The truth

The external enclosure offers minimal functionality to equip your PC with an extra hard-disk drive. It is mostly suitable for users who have no room to stuff another internal drive inside the computer case, as well as for home PC users who would need extra backup space for their applications.


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