ORICO 2189U3 Review

Orico has sent us for ORICO 2189U3 Review. Today, I will be taking a look at their main business line aka external storage. I was meant to get a USB 3.1 interfaced 2.5” hard drive enclosure but as they were out of stock, they sent me USB 3.0 external enclosure for 2.5” SSD/HDD.

ORICO 2189U3 Review

Each of their product carries a model no to identify the product. The model of this enclosure is Orico 2189U3. It is a tool-less assembly to convert any 2.5” SATA based HDD/SDD of up to 2TB into a ready USB 3.0 external drive. It is using a UASP protocol for which the USB cable is provided with the product. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP / 2000/ 7 / 8 / 10, Linux, Mac OS 9.1 or above and does not need any driver.

It is as simple as opening the cover, putting the drive in, closing the cover and plug n play! The dedicated PCB has enabled the Orico to bring in some protection features like over current protection, over voltage protection, overheat protection to name a few.

• Item:              ORICO 2189U3 Review
• Manufacturer: ORICO
  • Price:              Check Price on Amazon

2.5” SATA  USB 3.0 Hard Drive Specifications

ORICO 2.5” SATA  USB 3.0 Packaging and Unboxing

The product is shipped in a rugged cardboard box with retail printing done right on the box itself. The top side of the box has ORICO brand name and logo printed on the top left. Salient features and model of the product is printed under the brand logo. There is a diagram of the product on the right side. Easy Your PC is the slogan of ORICO and it is printed at the bottom left with the company’s website address.

The backside of the box has ORICO brand name and logo printed at the top left. The product name and company’s contact information is printed in Chinese and English languages. Serial No sticker is pasted at the bottom right. The product is made in China.

The manufacturing is saying thanks for choosing ORICO on the opening side cover. The company’s website address is also printed there. The other sides are blank.

Opening the box will show the enclosure placed inside a plastic cover.

ORICO 2189u3 Box Contents

The ORICO has provided following items in the box:

• 1x External Enclosure
• 2x Anti-Vibration Pads
• 1x USB Adapter Cable
• 1x User Guide

Orico 2189U3 Closer Look

The ORICO 2.5” SATA USB 3.0 External Enclosure Orico 2189u3 Review is a handy external enclosure and converter to transform your 2.5” SATA III SSD/HDD drive into an external drive. The idea is simple but beautifully executed by the ORICO. The main enclosure measures 125x80x14mm where 14mm is the thickness of the enclosure. This enclosure brings the portability of otherwise non-portable drives.

The enclosure is made of the ABS material but finished to give a brushed aluminum look. It is still plastic, peeps! Taking a look at the enclosure from the top side, there is an ORICO brand name and logo printed in the silver color in the middle. The surface is rough to touch it. There is a LED indicator on the left side which lights up in blue to indicate the drive’s operations.

Looking at the enclosure from the backside, it immediately gives the impression of two-fold design. Approximately, 19mm of the frame on the left side is fixed to the front side. Rest of the cover is removable which pushed downwards to slide it open.

At the right side, there is information printed in the silver color like ORICO brand name and logo, product name, the model of the product, manufacturer’s website address, input current, and voltage. This enclosure draws 5V and 900mA. Conformance to various regulations information is printed at the bottom.

The left side of the enclosure has a USB 3.0 Micro B port. This enclosure is following the USAP protocol which allows it to promote sync speed, reduces CPU utilization, data delay and waiting time. USB adapter cable following this protocol has been provided in the box which measures 510mm approximately in length. The cable is braided and is in black color. Its USB connecting end has a blue color to indicate the USB 3.0 interface.

As mentioned above in order to open the enclosure, the backside cover needs to be pushed downwards to slide it out. The cover is rugged. Let’s take a look at the inside of the enclosure with all the magic. The enclosure is for the 2.5” size SSD or HDD with the thickness of 7-9.5mm. There is a single SATA ports jack on the left side. The drive is placed on the main body and slided inwards with matching the SATA data and power headers on to the enclosure’s SATA port.

A solid click is heard when the connection is established. In order to further safeguard the data particularly for the 2.5” HDD, two shockproof pads have been provided with one side having an adhesive tape. The drive is sandwiched between these two pads. Once the drive is secured, simply slide in the top cover on the rails that are part of the frame and closed it. As simple as it could!

This enclosure harnesses the SATA 3 bandwidth over the USB 3.0 interface. The bandwidth of the SATA III is 6600MB/s running at 6 Gbps whereas it is 625MB/s for the USB 3.0 running at 5 Gbps. This Orico 2189u3 Review enclosure carries a multi-protection safety system which includes:

• Over Current Protection
• Over Voltage Protection
• Over Heat Protection
• Electric Leakage Protection
• Short Circuit Protection
• Clutter Protection
• Resistant to fall
• Shockproof

I could not get any information about the operating temperature range of this enclosure.

Testing

Following test bench was used to test the drive:

• Intel i7 6850k
• Asus ROG Rampage V Edition 10
• Ballistics Elite 4x4GB @ 3000 MHz
• Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE
• Corsair AX1200i
• Samsung 840 EVO 250GB for OS
• HyperX 120GB SSD [Test Drive]
• PrimoChill Praxis WetBench

In order to measure the read and write speeds, following software were used:

• ATTO Disk Benchmark v3.05
• AS SSD v1.8.5636.37293
• Crystal Disk Mark 6.0.0 x64

The idea is simple, first I connected the HyperX 120GB to the PC using the SATA III port and ran the above-mentioned tests. Then the same SSD was installed inside the ORICO 2.5” SATA USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure and connected using the USB 3.0 port on the rear I/O of the motherboard. Tests were repeated afterward. The pictures in the test results are categorized using the USB 3.0 and SATA III nomenclature to avoid any confusion. Let’s take a look at the results.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

On a transfer length of 8GB using default transfer size range, the test drive did a read speed of 414MB/s maximum and write speed of 422MB/s maximum. When the test drive was tested on the PC using the same settings, the maximum read speed was 546MB/s and maximum write speed was 522MB/s. There is definitely a performance hit from using different interfaces and protocols but it was more of an expected one.

Crystal Disk Mark

Using the CrystalDiskMark the maximum read speed (sequential) of the test drive was 307.2MB/s and the sequential write speed was 139.6 MB/s. With the test drive’s testing on the PC, the sequential read speed was 512.2MB/s and write speed was 121.2 MB/s. Surprisingly, the test drive has performed well being on the USB 3.0 interface in the write speeds.

AS SSD

Next, I ran the AS SSD software to test the sequential read and write performance of the drive. The sequential read speed using the USB 3.0 was 391.14 MB/s and write speed was 73.46 MB/s. When the test drive was tested on the PC, the read speed was 476.19 MB/s and the write speed was 82.69MB/s. Again telling the tale of two different interfaces as indicated by the overall scores.

Next, I ran the Compression benchmark tool of the AS SSD software. From 180MB/s to 240MB/s there was a gradual upward trend with small dips until the test drive on USB 3.0 took a dramatic surge from 241MB/s going all the way up to approximately 378MB/s with the maximum read of approximately 398MB/s or so.

The writes, on the other hand, is all about taking dips and whatnot, though the maximum write speed was above 400MB/s. The reads were more consistent on the SATA III with almost reaching 500MB/s mark. The writes were no different than the ones we saw with the USB 3.0 but reached a maximum of over 460MB/s.

Next, I ran the copy benchmark of the AS SSD software. Interestingly, we could see a difference for the ISO category but not so much difference for the Program category but the real difference could be seen in the Game category in terms of speed and time. Hit is there but it is something that one could live with after all.

Conclusion

The ORICO USB 3.0 External Enclosure for 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD is a handy case which allows the user to convert their extra storage drive into a portable one with a USB 3.0 interface. This Orico 2189u3 Review enclosure can support up to 2TB of storage capacity drives. There is more beneath the surface than being a simple an external enclosure.

The case is made of ABS material and measures 125x80x14mm where 14mm is the height/thickness of the case making it convenient to carry around even with SSD drive installed, it does not weigh much. The finishing on the case is like brushed aluminum though it is still plastic. The case is rugged and is two parts design.

The bottom cover can be pushed downwards to slide it out. There is a container where the 2.5” SATA based SSD/HDD is placed by aligning the SATA ports on it to the enclosure’s SATA port. There is a dedicated PCB installed inside the mainframe. The top cover has an LED indicator as well which lights up in the blue color.

The enclosure is using USB 3.0 Micro B port for which a dedicated black color USB cable measuring 510mm has been provided with blue color on the USB connector indicating the USB 3.0 interface. orico 2189u3 review has provided two shockproof pads which can be pasted on the enclosure’s inside frame.

This enclosure does not need any driver support and is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP/2000/7/8/10, Linux, and Mac OS 9.1 and above. This enclosure has multiple protection features like overcurrent protection, overvoltage protection, overheat protection, electric leakage protection, short circuit protection, clutter protection, shockproof, resistant to fall etc. This makes the orico 2189u3 review be the best of its class that it has to offer.

In my testing, this enclosure has performed quite well with a 2.5” SSD inside and makes its case on the table in an affordable package coming with multiple protection features, brushed finishing and hassle-free installation. I am thankful to the ORICO for giving the opportunity to review their 2.5” SATA USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure Orico 2189u3 Review.

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