Ocz Enyo USB 3.0 External Hard Drive
OCZ’s Enyo has managed to bring together two very interesting developments in the technology industry; the SSD and USB 3.0.
Design:
Sleek and Minimalistic:
The design is the area in which the Ocz Enyo external hard drive really shines, with tapered edges that lend it a sleek, minimalist aerodynamic design appeal. It is one of the great looking storage devices that we have come across. At (H x W x D) 5.6 x 12 x 1cm, the Enyo is longer and slimmer than a 2.5” drive in an enclosure, it is more the size of a slim phone.
Apple Inspired:
OCZ has managed to take further inspiration from Apple in the attractive packaging, and the provided data cable is also white rather than the more common black or blue. Well, it is ugly compared to the device, though, as the plastic plug at the Micro USB 3.0 side is actually taller than the drive you are actually hooking it up to. Ironically, as you can imagine, its aesthetics make it the ideal Mac partner, but we would not recommend purchasing the Enyo if you happen to be an Apple user as it will be limited to USB 2.0 speeds.
The cable:
You might notice the cable is unique to the Enyo drive; this is a part of the new USB 3.0 standard and will be seen on slim devices like the Enyo, as well as on cell phones, etc. So while cables like this might be common in the future, for now they definitely are not and that is one potential drawback to getting the Enyo today. You will always need to carry this cable with you and buying another or assuming others will have one for you to use is not likely at the moment.
Capacities available:
Enyo has incorporated wide range capacities of SSD, from 64GB to a whopping 256GB, into an anodised aluminium shell that is almost Apple like in its minimalist attractiveness. OCZ might produce larger capacity Enyo models in the future at correspondingly higher prices.
Features:
Indilinx controller:
The Ocz Enyo external hard drive’s 128GB of MLC flash and 64MB of DRAM cache are controlled by a Barefoot Indilinx controller. Though the recent SandForce SSD controller is the new industry darling and offers unrivalled performance, the Indilinx controller used by the OCZ Enyo is still one of the better controllers on the market. It seems to be consistent, proven operation and full TRIM support irrespective of if you are using Windows 7 or an older OS. So, it is essentially a last-gen OCZ Vertex or Agility or any other Barefoot drive and a SATA-to- Symwave USB 3.0 controller in a slightly different chassis.
Speed:
With about 64MB of cache on board, the Ocz Enyo range makes use of the MLC Flash and offers some good speeds, starting off at an impressive 225MB/s read and more pedestrian 135MB/s write for the 64GB model. The 128GB drive pushes this up to 260MB/s and 200MB/s respectively, which is quite good and beats any SSD we had previously looked at. The sustained write speeds also experience a dramatic difference, going from a pathetic 40MB/s on the smaller drive to 150MB/s on the 128GB drive. Speeds on the £570 256GB model are identical, so the 128GB model of the Enyo hits the sweet point between performance and value.
Performance:
With theoretical figures out of the way, let us see what the actual performance like. Taking into consideration this drive is most likely to be used as a glorified memory stick rather than a boot drive, though that might certainly be an option. With a single large file, this OCZ SSD showed off its strengths. Performance better than tripled from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0, and perhaps more importantly, it significantly outperformed OCZ’s own throttle over eSATA. Considering that, if anything, eSATA holds a very small bandwidth advantage over the USB 3.0, this superior performance is mainly due to the SSD compared to the Throttle’s ‘ordinary’ memory.
With a smaller selection of random files though, the Throttle just about piped the Enyo to the post. To be honest the difference is quite negligible, but considering the latter’s price it is slightly disappointing. Read performance with large files is where USB 3.0 really makes its advantages over its predecessor felt, and again the Enyo performs like a champion. OCZ’s highest-end external storage really is a niche product for the well-heeled. At £273 it is more expensive than OCZ’s own SandForce-based Vertex2 internal SSD, which for £30 less should outperform it across the board in real-world scenarios. The only really viable scenarios for this drive are either when wishing to share a single boot drive between two computers, like a laptop and desktop obviously both equipped with USB 3.0; or if you need an external memory stick with fast performance. In the latter case it is not such a bad value proposition, as a ‘plain’ eSATA memory key of the same capacity will set you back around £230. However, even then there is the size advantage of the average memory stick to consider, not to mention not needing to carry around a separate ugly and thick cable.
Warranty:
The Ocz Enyo USB3.0 External Hard Drive comes with three years manufacturer’s warranty for parts and labour.
Ocz Enyo USB 3.0 Portable Solid State Drive – Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | OCZ |
| Model Name | Enyo USB3.0 External Hard Drive |
| Model Numbers | 64GB – OCZSSDU3-1ENY64G 128GB – OCZSSDU3-1ENY128G 256GB – OCZSSDU3-1ENY256G |
| Colour/Finish | Silver |
| Type | USB 3.0 |
| Form factor | Sleek |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 56mm x 120mm x 10mm |
| Weight | 75g |
| Capacities Available | 64GB, 128GB and 256GB |
| Interface | USB 3.0 Interface Backwards compatible with legacy USB ports (2.0) |
| 64GB Max Performance | Read: Up to 225 MB/s Write: Up to 135 MB/s Sustained Write: Up to 40 MB/s |
| 128GB Max Performance | Read: Up to 260 MB/s Write: Up to 200 MB/s Sustained Write: Up to 150 MB/s |
| 256GB Max Performance | Read: Up to 260 MB/s Write: Up to 200 MB/s Sustained Write: Up to 150 MB/s |
| Cache | 64MB Onboard Cache |
| Seek time | <.1ms |
| Compatible OS | Compatible with Mac OS X (USB 2.0 operation only) |
| Software | NA |
| MTBF | 1.5 million hours |
| Features | MLC Flash Background Garbage Collection Shock Resistant up to 1500G Blue LED Indicators Anodised aluminium housing 3’ white USB3.0 (A to Micro B) |
| Power | 1.1W idle |
| Power consumption active | Low Power Consumption: 2.4W in operation |
| Warranty | 3 years |
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