New Technology Reviews!.: StarTech

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20246/PCF246.wired_flow.sata_espansion_1-200-200.jpg"/>This is where reviewing things in PCFormat can get a mite tricky. How does one review a 2.5" hard drive bracket? Well, to be honest it's my fault for thinking that StarTech's hot-swappable, rear-mounted hard-drive rack sounded interesting. And, to be honest, it kind of is interesting. But I'm still not entirely sure that it's that useful. If it was only a tenner, or if it came in a pack of two to allow seamless drive switching between two machines then I could get behind its rather niche usage model. But as it is, it's kind of only really relevant for someone regularly testing different laptop hard drives. In that situation it's incredibly useful. You mount the rack in a spare expansion slot on the rear of your case, hook up the SATA info and power leads, and you can drop in 2.5-inch drives on the fly. It could be handy for smaller chassis with fewer hard-drive mounts inside, and for those SSDs that come without mounting brackets to slot them into 3.5- inch bays. I've tested it with a couple of different SSDs and it didn't once have a problem with any of the extended casings around the SSD SATA points. In terms of security, you could secure your machine by having your boot drive in the bay at the back and remove it whenever you're not at your rig. Handy for the LAN party then. It's a well-made, smartly designed, and simple piece of tech. It's reassuringly solid, the drives fit snugly and it just works. There's really not a lot else you could ask of the StarTech bracket, apart from maybe a wee price cut. But then products in niche markets are always a little bit pricey…Related Links<ul><li><a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/techradar-s-reviews-guarantee-622749">TechRadar Reviews Guarantee</a></li><li><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage">Read more storage reviews</a></li></ul><img border="0" height="1" src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/9809/s/f3549f8/mf.gif" width="1"/><div class='mf-related'>

Review: StarTech 2.5" SATA HD rack

This is where reviewing things in PCFormat can get a mite tricky. How does one review a 2.5" hard drive bracket? Well, to be honest it...