Rosewill Armer X308 review

Godlygamer23 · September 25, 2016

Hello all. I recently bought a Rosewill Armer X308 for testing purposes and said to myself "Why don't I review this?" So here I am today, writing this review. I have bought a few things from Rosewill in the past, including two cases(first one, bad experience, but the second one was quite alright), Ethernet cables, and now this enclosure. Rosewill has evolved from a Newegg in-house brand to its own image, and overall they make decent products. So how does this one fare? Let's find out, shall we? Bear in mind that I will not be showing the box, or how the content was put in the box.

The unit has a black brushed aluminum finish with a plastic front and back. There's an LED around the power button that indicates power and activity, and the back includes a small vent, a random piece of plastic that covers an empty area, a USB 3.0 connector, and a DC 12V input plug. Images will be shown below of the outside in this order: Front; back; top; bottom.

Front:

Spoiler

Back:

Spoiler

Top:

Spoiler

Bottom:

Spoiler

Overall, I'd say it's a good looking unit. The marks that you see on the front and back of the unit are from me cleaning it off with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and didn't come from the factory like that.

With all that being said, here is an internal shot of what the drive looks like installed, courtesy of my WD Blue 500GB drive:

Spoiler

Installing the drive was a little annoying, as the SATA plugs on the board do not line up with the plugs on the drive itself, so just sliding it in is not currently possible. Below, I have the drive flat up against the tray, and you can see they do not line up with each other.

Spoiler

Some more shots with the drive just resting in the tray:

Spoiler

One other shot:

Spoiler

So while mounting it is not a huge problem, it's not as easy as it should be, and someone who is not paying attention could destroy either SATA ports, and this is something that Rosewill should pay attention to in the future, either with manufacturing this same product, or new products. I will be trying to modify it myself in the future possibly.

How does this thing perform? Well, it seems to perform about where I would expect it. Numbers will be below in the form of CrystalDiskMark screenshots, comparing USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 respectively.

USB 2.0:

Spoiler

USB 3.0:

Spoiler

As you can see, switching over to USB 3.0 did give us about a 15% performance increase.

The audibility of the drive is definitely noticeable as I can hear the drive spinning, but hearing the actual read/write operations isn't very noticeable unless I put my ear up to the enclosure. Vibrations are definitely noticeable if the enclosure is somewhat nearby on the desk. Having it sit in front of me during testing did allow me to feel the vibrations through the keyboard tray and keyboard, but if the enclosure is to the right of my case - which is about 3 feet away from me - I can't feel any vibration. The temperature of the drive after three hours of stressing was at 120 degrees F/49 degrees C, which is definitely acceptable, though not entirely ideal, but I can't complain too much as it's only passively cooled.

In the box, they include all the required hardware for you to use the enclosure, including the screws themselves, a USB 3.0 cable, and the power adapter to actually power the enclosure.

Overall, this is actually a pretty solid product, and anyone looking for a decent 3.5" enclosure should look this way, despite the minor installation issue that I had. Again, I may try to just modify it so the board sits lower, but we'll see.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Godlygamer23
Completed review.

Xanthe_2871 · October 23, 2016

On 9/24/2016 at 10:16 PM, Godlygamer23 said:

Hello all. I recently bought a Rosewill Armer X308 for testing purposes and said to myself "Why don't I review this?" So here I am today, writing this review. I have bought a few things from Rosewill in the past, including two cases(first one, bad experience, but the second one was quite alright), Ethernet cables, and now this enclosure. Rosewill has evolved from a Newegg in-house brand to its own image, and overall they make decent products. So how does this one fare? Let's find out, shall we? Bear in mind that I will not be showing the box, or how the content was put in the box.

The unit has a black brushed aluminum finish with a plastic front and back. There's an LED around the power button that indicates power and activity, and the back includes a small vent, a random piece of plastic that covers an empty area, a USB 3.0 connector, and a DC 12V input plug. Images will be shown below of the outside in this order: Front; back; top; bottom.

Front:

Hide contents

Back:

Hide contents

Top:

Hide contents

Bottom:

Reveal hidden contents

Overall, I'd say it's a good looking unit. The marks that you see on the front and back of the unit are from me cleaning it off with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and didn't come from the factory like that.

With all that being said, here is an internal shot of what the drive looks like installed, courtesy of my WD Blue 500GB drive:

Reveal hidden contents

Installing the drive was a little annoying, as the SATA plugs on the board do not line up with the plugs on the drive itself, so just sliding it in is not currently possible. Below, I have the drive flat up against the tray, and you can see they do not line up with each other.

Reveal hidden contents

Some more shots with the drive just resting in the tray:

Reveal hidden contents

One other shot:

Reveal hidden contents

So while mounting it is not a huge problem, it's not as easy as it should be, and someone who is not paying attention could destroy either SATA ports, and this is something that Rosewill should pay attention to in the future, either with manufacturing this same product, or new products. I will be trying to modify it myself in the future possibly.

How does this thing perform? Well, it seems to perform about where I would expect it. Numbers will be below in the form of CrystalDiskMark screenshots, comparing USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 respectively.

USB 2.0:

Reveal hidden contents

USB 3.0:

Reveal hidden contents

As you can see, switching over to USB 3.0 did give us about a 15% performance increase.

The audibility of the drive is definitely noticeable as I can hear the drive spinning, but hearing the actual read/write operations isn't very noticeable unless I put my ear up to the enclosure. Vibrations are definitely noticeable if the enclosure is somewhat nearby on the desk. Having it sit in front of me during testing did allow me to feel the vibrations through the keyboard tray and keyboard, but if the enclosure is to the right of my case - which is about 3 feet away from me - I can't feel any vibration. The temperature of the drive after three hours of stressing was at 120 degrees F/49 degrees C, which is definitely acceptable, though not entirely ideal, but I can't complain too much as it's only passively cooled.

In the box, they include all the required hardware for you to use the enclosure, including the screws themselves, a USB 3.0 cable, and the power adapter to actually power the enclosure.

Overall, this is actually a pretty solid product, and anyone looking for a decent 3.5" enclosure should look this way, despite the minor installation issue that I had. Again, I may try to just modify it so the board sits lower, but we'll see.

What a shame that such an in depth review didn't get a response. I don't fully understand this product, but I appreciate your hard work.

Godlygamer23 · October 23, 2016

41 minutes ago, Xanthe_2871 said:

What a shame that such an in depth review didn't get a response. I don't fully understand this product, but I appreciate your hard work.

Thank you. What don't you fully understand about this product?