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Ultra Products Mini Portable Disk External HD Enclosure

· by Randy Torio
Manufacturer: Ultra Products · Price at review: $49.99 (≈$88 in 2026)

Not too long ago, we reviewed Ultra’s X-Connect power supply. The power supply proved to be a new and effective solution, because of its modular capability, beautifully sleeved cables, mirror-finished chassis, and its high amount of amps per rail. Now, after having impressed with their X-Connect, Ultra hopes to do the same with their latest external hard drive enclosure.

Your computer information is one of your most valuable resources, so it is important to consistently back up your information as much as possible. However, 400 GB sometimes isn’t going to cut it nowadays, and the extra space of multiple hard drives in your case can start to look smaller and smaller with the accumulation of even more hard drives. Ultra has attempted to alleviate this problem with their Mini Disk Hard drive enclosure that can transform any IDE hard drive into a simple plug and play external hard drive. This eliminates the added cost of purchasing an external hard drive, which can easily become outdated in the future. But how does it compare to IDE? Read on to find out…

Packaging and Contents

Here are some specs taken directly from Ultra’s website:

Features

Specifications

Ultra includes everything you need to install this enclosure: one USB 2.0 cable, one FireWire cable, a driver disc, the enclosure itself, integrated fan, AC power supply, instructions manual, and the screws necessary to install the hard drive. Notice for the features it mentions the enclosure is “hot-swappable” but on the packaging it does not. Initially, I wanted to use the enclosure as a primary external hard drive, but to my dismay I could not get it to work at all. Poiuy223 contacted Ultra Products and sure enough the hard drive is only capable of being “hot-swappable,” meaning it can only be used as a plug and play external hard drive for temporary file swapping and not for booting up. Ultra quickly reacted and included that clarification in their website. Other than that minor detail, Ultra pretty much includes everything necessary to get this hard drive enclosure up and running.

Mini Disk Enclosure

The hard drive enclosure is actually lighter than it looks. It is made of plastic yet it feels durable enough to not crack like cheap plastic can. On the side of the enclosure printed in white are the specifications of this enclosure to remind the user again of its capability. The bottom two grey clips have rubber bottoms to ensure the enclosure stays mounted in place wherever the user may decide to mount it. The enclosure has blue and red LEDs that indicate that the HD enclosure is powered and is in activity. The back of the enclosure holds all the connections. Notice how there are two FireWire connections with an AC connection and USB connection. Ultra included an extra FireWire connection in case the user was not satisfied with only one enclosure and would like the option of daisy chaining more hard drive enclosures together. The back also has a plastic grill so the fan of the enclosure may blow out the hot air coming from the hard drive. The included fan is a standard 40mm fan that does not make too much noise. Overall, the unit itself is attractive with its black plastic casing and different colored LEDs.

Test Setup and Results

Test Setup:

So… how much slower will this hard drive enclosure be in comparison to a direct IDE connection? For testing, I used SiSoftware File System Benchmark, which tests overall the speed of your hard drive. I first tested using a direct IDE connection, then USB 2.0, then FireWire. Here are the results:

From here you can see a noticeable loss in performance when using the enclosure as opposed to having a direct IDE connection. This is probably due to the use of two interfaces rather than just one direct interface. The minimal loss suggests the enclosure’s use as a “hot swappable” device is pretty good, considering it has to go through two interfaces. Overall, the enclosure does serve its purpose as a “hot swappable” device and does so without considerable loss in performance to a direct IDE connection.

Conclusion and Thoughts

Ultra Products has released an excellent hard drive enclosure. With its nice black housing and different colored LEDs, the unit itself is very attractive. More importantly, there is no loss in performance when using it. Ultra also includes an extra FireWire port so that the user has the option of chaining more than one enclosure together. Imagine how many hard drives you can hook up at once. While I had nothing to test the temperature of the hard drive, I noticed the small fan did an excellent job of dissipating heat from the enclosure. Using the hard drive with FireWire for 24 hours caused no form of instability whatsoever, which leads me to believe that little fan is doing its job. This however does not come without a price. Although the unit is very good, $59.99 can make a consumer think twice. Still, if you plan on utilizing that hard drive that just can’t seem to fit into your existing setup, then this enclosure seems to fit the bill.

Pros:

  • Attractive
  • USB 2.0 or FireWire compliant
  • Extra FireWire connection gives option to “chain” more enclosures

Cons:

  • Always on unless you pull the plug
  • Small yet understandable loss in performance

We would like to thank Ultra Products for providing us the sample. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to hit us up in the forums. You can also check out more of our latest reviews on the front page.