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2nd Nov 10
Rodney
iT2DOCK 4TB Drive enclosure - Front View
One of our sponsors – iStorage Pro, provided an evaluation unit of their model iT2DOCK04T, a 4 TB (Terabyte), 2 bay 3.5″ Portable eSATA/Firewire 400/800, and USB2.0 based drive.
Diverse set of I/O
This is a very solid, aluminum finished drive enclosure with some of the fastest I/O choices on the market having the widest availability.
Using the eSATA interface, this allows the enclosure to reach up to 3GB per second via SATA II. The unit I evaluated unfortunately does not have the USB 3.0 interface (rated up to 4.8 GB per sec).
The unit is made up of two 3.5″ drives and weighs in a 9lbs. The drive supports both Mac and PC hosts with a 3 year warranty. For those of us that travel alot, the universal AC adapter is a nice touch as it can simply be adapted at the power connector for the local power in your country of choice.
In the box, the drive is securely stored in a form fitting foam enclosure. The box comes a power supply and a cable for each interface type (eSATA, USB and both Firewire 400 amd 800) nicely packed in a white box. Documentation is online and there are two quick start guides included. The drive supports both RAID 0 (Strip and Span modes) and RAID 1. It’s a nice touch that the dip switches controlling the drive mode is also printed on the rear so you can leave the documentation at home when on the road.
Performance:
This drive can write up to 80 MB per second per the website. Actual unit testing results below.
Is it ready for video capture and playback? YES
The drive supports the following formats: DVCPRO HD, HDV, DV and ProRes 422 and compressed HD Capture and playback modes. The unit has a passive heat sink which makes it a optimum choice for edit suites or anywhere there is a need for a quieter environment.
Raw Disk size: 4TB, formatted with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is 3.64TB
AJA Test Results:
- Video Frame Size: 1280 x 720, 8 bit
File Size: 128MB
Test: Read/Write
Results:
Read: 125.0 MB/s
Write: 97.2 MB/s
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Video Frame Size: 1280 x 720, 10 bit
File Size: 128MB
Test: Read/Write
Results:
Read: 126.2 MB/s
Write: 97.2 MB/s
-
Video Frame Size: 1920 x 1080, 8 bit
File Size: 128MB
Test: Read/Write
Results:
Read: 127.9 MB/s
Write: 97.8 MB/s
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Video Frame Size: 1920 x 1080, 10 bit
File Size: 128MB
Test: Read/Write
Results:
Read: 128.0 MB/s
Write: 98.0 MB/s
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Video Frame Size: DVCProHD 720p60
File Size: 128MB
Test: Read/Write
Results:
Read: 115.0 MB/s
Write: 92.0 MB/s
Final Thoughts:
Solid engineering, ready to store and play multiple, digital content!
I’ll give it a BUY rating.
All the best!
Rodney – DCFCPUG Leader
