14 DAY TRIAL // For quite a while now, Thermaltake has been making the day of consumers by periodically bringing out various computer enclosures and enthusiast-grade power supplies. The Toughpower Grand, Black Armor A90, V5 Black Edition and, of course, the Level 10 are some of the more noteworthy short term accomplishments that the company can brag about. As such, Thermaltake coming forth and presenting a hard drive dock might actually be seen as an unexpected development. Nevertheless, this is exactly what happened, though said dock is, fortunately, not entirely common.
The manufacturer of PC enclosures and other related hardware seems to share Sharkoon's enthusiasm for the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface standard. This is evident from the fact that the HDD dock is especially designed to enable SATA hard disk drives or solid state drives to communicate via said connection. The product goes by the name of BlacX 5G, where 5G obviously stands for the 5Gbps maximum theoretical rates that USB 3.0 is capable of.
The range of storage units compatible with Thermaltake's external docking station includes those designed with the 2.5 inch form factor, as well as the many 3.5 inch drives that the IT market is swarming with. The maximum storage space that can be handled is 2TB. Also, the product is fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports and USB 1.1 connectors, ensuring a wide compatibility with even older systems. Of course, in such instances, performance will be limited by the respective interface's bottleneck.
The Thermaltake Black 5G is compatible with both Windows operating systems as well as Mac OS and will ship bundled with the necessary USB 3.0 cable. It should be noted that this cable is equipped with corrosion resistant plating, which significantly enhances durability. Finally, the device is already shipping, carrying a price tag of $49.99.