External USB3 dual docking station

[rUmX]

Right now I have the dual slot USB2 BlacX and it works great. Just really slow when you have to move hundreds of gigs and are using both drives at the same time. I've looked at the USB3 version of the BlacX but there's 3 things wrong with it for me: a) it's single slot ... and b) it's too pricey (I paid $35 for mine!)... c) reviews are all over the place. The other docking stations are hit/miss with firmware issues or issues with marvell controller, or just simply complaints with bad build quality.

Does anyone have any experience with these USB3 docking stations?

 

[Abula]

I use Eagle Tech ET-CSKSU3-BK 2.5"/3.5" SATA to SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station, for 4 months and no issues, it doesnt have any issues with my Sabertooth X58 Renesas/Nec USB3 controller, nor with my Asus G73JW USB3 port. Its cheap and gets the job done, not sure how it compares with Thermaltake though. Heres a couple of tests i did a while back comparing it to my esata dock (the hdd is 2.5 5400rpm, but works great with 3.5 also),

 

[grambo]

I recently bought a Mediasonic 2-bay USB3/eSATA enclosure. So far I'm just using eSATA as I don't have USB3, it's very fast, both drives appear separately (although it can also do RAID0/1) and at full SATA speed. It did cost $99 though (due to the RAID functionality I guess).

http://ain.mediasonic.ca/store/product_info.php?cPath=26_55&products_id=242

 

[rUmX]

@Abula: Thanks for that. Those are very respectable numbers. Around the ballpark I was expecting. I'll take a look at that.

@grambo: I'm avoiding eSATA as I've not had a good experience with it. My BlacX supports eSATA and when I tried it I had issues recognizing drives and maybe some issue with port multipliers but only 1 of the 2 drives show up in windows. Even then it appears to stall and won't even display the contents of the drive in Windows Explorer.