Laptop-Review.eu

The world’s largest maker of cabinets, Taiwanese In Win, have sent us their newest 2.5” hard drive enclosure for a review. With a somewhat odd design and name, the wheels are in motion for an array of tests that go beyond the usual. Sporting RFID encryption, a 0.8mm hardened steel shell and a shock-proof casing that can survive a two-meter free fall, the manufacturer has high expectations of the product’s quality.
In Win started their activities in Taiwan all the way back in 1985, and have since then been in a constant state of growth that have made them the world’s largest cabinet maker. In Win are not all that well known in this part of the world, although they did open an office in the UK about 10 years ago. This was to expand and get their products out in Europe, but the European market is highly competitive and they opted to focus on other markets.

In addition to cabinets, In Win produces power supplies and enclosures for storage units like the one we will be looking at today.


Ammo won a 2009 Red Dot Award for product design, an award which is only given to “particularly creative and innovative products of the highest quality”, as red-dot.de puts it. It is not the first time that In Win has played around with military themed products, having already made a B2 gaming cabinet and a Commander power supply.


External hard drives are growing in popularity, with 3.5” mostly catering to the home and office while 2.5” and 1.8” hard drives are more mobile. To elaborate on some of the prevailing conditions that apply, I have made a short overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the different sizes.

The product was kindly lent to us by In Win

The basics

3.5"

Advantages:
Low cost per unit of storage
Large capacity
Possibility of high transfer speeds (7200 RPM)

Disadvantages:
Requires an external power source
Large and unwieldy if you want to take it with you

2.5"

Advantages:
Runs without an external power source
Portable
Possibility of high transfer speeds (7200 RPM)

Disadvantages:
Costs a little extra
Lower capacity

1.8"

Advantages:
Very portable

Disadvantages:
Tied to slow drives
Costly
Low capacity

Everything is of course a question of need, because if you do not require hundreds of gigabytes of storage or high transfer speeds, a 1.8” external drive should do just fine. However, if you want to bring large chunks of data with you, you will probably want to look at a 2.5” or 3.5” drive.

Specifications



Category

The weapons enthusiast, geek or the guy who always drops his external drive. There are plenty of possibilities with this enclosure, and it really should appeal to a wide consumer base. I would recommend it to anyone who wants their data to be safe, even on the go.

Interface
Internal: SATA-300
External: USB 2.0 (backwards compatible with USB 1.1)

Dimensions
145 x 85 x 20 mm (L*W*H)

Hard drive support
2.5" SATA HDD

System requirements
Windows 2000/XP/Vista Mac OS 9.0 and newer

Warranty
3 year limited warranty (1 year on Print and USB cable)

Data protection
RDIF Data Encryption

Price
Seen at 31.99$ (on Newegg.com as at 03-01-2010)

Design & Construction

With such a uniquely designed product, we feel obligated to take a look at what is under the shell. We also briefly examine the box and the remaining contents.

The box contains:
Manual
Screw driver
A 50cm USB 2.0 cable with extra USB for power
2 RFID tags (a dog tag and a key ring)



Ammo ships in a handsome box, the front of which mentions the RFID encryption, shock protection and USB 2.0. There is also a logo from Reddot, indicating that this product won their award in 2009, a fact In Win is very proud of.


The enclosure is shaped exactly like the original ammo clip, with a hefty coat of paint that can take its fair share of abuse without looking like something out of WW2.


The RFID unit and the small diode are mounted on the sides, and this is where you have to place your RFID key to unlock your drive.


Well hidden behind a rubber flap you find a miniUSB port and a 5V jack. Unfortunately In Win do not sell 5V adaptors, but other manufacturers have adaptors that will fit.


A large piece of rubber encasing the entire hard drive provides shock protection.


If you want to be really safe, you can always mount it with an SSD.


Quite a bit of accessories come with this product, such as 2 RFID tags in the form of a key ring and a dog tag to wear around the neck. There is also a screw driver to mount/remove a drive, a manual with a poster on the rear and a USB to miniUSB cable with an extra USB connector for additional power.

Test:

Since it is a fairly unique product we received for testing, we decided to carry out an expanded test which includes more than testing simple transfer speeds.

The factors we will examine are:
Shock protection
RFID encryption
Transfer speed

Shock protection

I will start by talking about the shock protection. We mounted a 2.5” 7200 RPM drive in the enclosure for the test. The manufacturer has tested a 2m free fall which it should be able to handle. We only went for a free fall of 1.5m (power off so the read/write arm does not break as easily) however, but there were no problems with the drive after 5 consecutive falls.

We are not saying you can actually drop it at 2m without it breaking, but the construction certainly affects how large a shock your drive can survive.

We made a small demo showing that it actually works after a 1.5m drop. It is not full HD quality, but should still give you an idea of what we put it through.

See the clip here

RFID encryption

First off, please note that this kind of RFID encryption does not protect your data to the extent that someone who takes the drive out of the enclosure and mounts it in a computer cannot access your data. So, it is not a solution for highly sensitive data, but more like an additional safety feature or a way to protect your data when you are away from the computer.

Secondly, we were unable to get the encryption working by reading the manual. It was not until we visited their Asian site and found an expanded manual for setting up the RFID encryption that we got it going. So, you can pretty much choose whether you want the encryption or not. The method itself for activating it is remarkably simple, especially if you are mounting a brand new drive.

We also did a quick test to see if the RFID encryption affects transfer speeds, and were able to conclude that it makes no difference.

Transfer speed

We have gone through a good deal of storage units in three identical benchmarks, and so have a basis for comparing the transfer speeds.

The test setup consists of:
IBM T61
CPU: Intel P8400 – 2.4GHz
Storage: G.Skill Falcon 128 GB SSD
Graphics: 128MB nVidia Quadro NVS 140M



Our first test program is Crystal diskmark.
We start out with a very impressive reading speed, regardless of file size, but switching over to writing gives a slightly disappointing result, although that may just be the hard drive. As such, it may not always be best to simply go for the higher RPM drive, not in the least because such tend to use more power.



After that we tested the reading and seeking speed in HD Tach. The seeking speed is slightly lower than that of 5400 RPM drives and also our 7200 RPM 3.5” drive. However, the reading speed is very impressive for a USB 2.0 unit at over 30 MB/s.



The most comprehensive test we decided to show is HD Tune Pro, which tests a number of factors.

Here it actually comes out on top, closely followed by the 5400 RPM drive from WD, which again makes me doubt the viability of 7200 RPM drives for external storage units. Anyway, the speed is tip top, so no problems there.

Conclusion

Small and safe, with the same speed as a 3.5” drive? Yes, that actually describes In Win – Ammo quite well, because it is more than just an enclosure. RFID encryption, free fall protection and a sleek design are some of the things they have pointed out, and we are quite sure there will be no problems when it comes to speed.

The thick steel casing ensures both protection and a way to draw away heat, and the rubber cover protects against free falls and should cause the drive to vibrate less, thereby ensuring a longer life for the hard drive.

With all of those functions, you would not expect much in the way of extras, but In Win manages to surprise here as well, with a package of accessories that is almost unbelievable when you consider the price. We give it our warmest recommendations and look forward to seeing more exciting products from relatively unknown In Win.



Pros:
RFID encryption
Rubber covered HDD
Bold design
Sturdy construction
Plenty of accessories
Low price

Cons:
The European site does not exist, so it might be hard to get help in certain languages
Hard to come by in certain parts of Europe

Construction:	4 / 5
Mobility:	5 / 5
Innovation:	5 / 5
Price:	4 / 5
Accessories:	4,5 / 5
Design:	4,5 / 5
Performance:	5 / 5
Overall:	4,5 / 5