Sharkoon's SATA QuickPort Duo gives product category some credence

When the SATA HDD Stage Rack launched last October, we figured it would just be a one-off gizmo that all of four or five people would pick up. A year later, we're staring at a smattering of iterations from a number of companies. Sharkoon's own attempt at beefing up this apparent product category looks to be a pretty solid product, as the SATA QuickPort Duo gives owners the ability to slam in two 2.5- / 3.5-inch internal SATA hard drives and connect them up to a PC via USB 2.0 or eSATA. Unfortunately, the €47 ($64) price tag is a touch on the high side, but it is the Cadillac of the bunch, you know.

[aSS @ Oct 6th 2008 12:21PM]

just bought a cadillac....

[Pikl @ Oct 6th 2008 12:24PM]

Evidently these folks have never heard of the Thermaltake BlackX...

[mockidol @ Oct 6th 2008 12:46PM]

[Evidently these folks have never heard of the Thermaltake BlackX...]


It has the exact same idicator lights/ button as the Thermaltake I use at work.

[Jake @ Oct 6th 2008 12:41PM]

look again. this one takes *two* drives.

[snapa @ Oct 6th 2008 4:39PM]

That's what she said.

[michas_pi @ Oct 6th 2008 12:31PM]

No FireWire? :(

[Jon Doe. @ Oct 6th 2008 2:55PM]

ESATA FTW.

[Canoo @ Oct 6th 2008 12:39PM]

Yeah, but can i put 22's on it?

[ishism @ Oct 6th 2008 11:00PM]

Even 22 wouldn't help you :p

[Jimmyy @ Oct 6th 2008 12:43PM]

Me wants, Where can I get one???

[Cody Peterson @ Oct 6th 2008 12:50PM]

Can you RAID the two together with Raid 0 and/or 1?

[sync @ Oct 6th 2008 12:58PM]

http://www.genistra.com/images/toaster.jpg

[Marc @ Oct 6th 2008 12:54PM]

From what I gathered when I looked into the single slot version of the Sharkoon Quickport, heat becomes an issue very quickly because of the vertical slot alignment.

While it may be fine for some quick transfers, nonstop operation may become critical.

[sim @ Oct 6th 2008 2:51PM]

Why would that be an issue? Pretty much all dell and hp/compaq boxes have vertically stored hdd's.

[Wolfticket @ Oct 6th 2008 1:07PM]

Sharkoon make some pretty nice innovative stuff. I have this: http://www.sharkoon.com/html/produkte/pc_gehaeuse/pc_jump_start/index_en.html which lets me switch on my tucked away computer from on my desk.
However, I'm guessing that in order to get full speed transfers from one drive to another you'd need to plug both e-sata into the host computer.
Re: Heat build up.
These things are great for techy types that need to recover/transfer data from multiple hard drives on a regular basis. I would never use it as as permanent external storage. There are no end of enclosures that are designed for that but docks like these aren't.

[ssrat_ @ Oct 6th 2008 2:22PM]

I Like it because it means just shoving in the "bad" drive without having to either take the system apart, or getting out an external drive holder.

That plus you can also use it for laptop drives, the only way to make it "perfect" would have been the option to just press a button and have it do a drive copy.
I have no doubt you can do that while hooked up but having it do that on it's own while you play Crysis makes "work" a lot easier

The only other thing I would like is an IDE adapter for it since most PC's in homes still use them

[SlickD @ Oct 6th 2008 2:22PM]

seriously, for a moment I also thought this is a toaster.. ok, maybe a high tech one.

[StatiK EffecK @ Oct 6th 2008 3:53PM]

This brings a whole new meaning to Hitachi's "Get Perpendicular" animated flash video.

[Kingpcgeek @ Oct 6th 2008 5:27PM]

Too bad you can't clone the drive while in the dock.

[r3loaded @ Oct 6th 2008 5:50PM]

"it is the Cadillac of the bunch"

So it'll be bought either by grannies in Florida, or by rappers and drug dealers?

[Matt K @ Oct 6th 2008 8:03PM]

Anyone know of one of these docks that will do SATA & EIDE? Or is there an EIDE to SATA adapter that can then plug into one of these docks??

I have 2 320gb EIDE drives that I would like to keep using (along with my newer sata's)...

[joshua @ Oct 6th 2008 8:06PM]

If you just want to use a drive externally you are better off getting a proper case for it. These are best for when you have a lot of drives and need to copy data from them often. We have the one disk thermaltake one (Which I bet is made by the same company anyway and then rebranded) and it comes in handy hooking drives up to servers.

There are other IDE to USB adapters out there, but they don't have a dock like this. I don't think it would work as well anyway, the SATA connector is designed for hot plugging more than IDE.

[Wasabi @ Oct 6th 2008 9:04PM]

Hmm wonder if these support SAS drives. I've got 2.5 and 3.5 inch SAS that I currently use internal bays for but wouldn't mind an external option as the bays are god aweful expensive. E-Sata combined with some 15k RPM SAS drives would be amply speedy.

[John @ Nov 4th 2008 2:08PM]

I've used the single slot version of these with a samsung 1000GB hard drive in.It has been running non stop for 4 months with no over heating and it works perfect.The person who says their only good for quick data swapping obviously has not used one for any length of time nor the person called marc whose comment about over heating is totally bloviated and misinformed.I'm going to be buying the duo port version when it comes down in price abit.Right now I can only find it for £42 if it was £32 I'd by one.These really are one of the best bits of PC hardware I've bought in 2008..