Acomdata Samba USB 2.0 3.5-Inch IDE/SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2E-BLK (Black)

by Acomdata

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.5 x 3.9 inches ; 1.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000VNJD18
• Item model number: SMBXXXU2E-Blk
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

Color: Black

From the Manufacturer

Create your own high-performance external hard drive with an Acomdata Samba Enclosure. The daring Samba features a precision-extruded aluminum case in a seductive satin finish, whisper-quiet fanless operation, hot-plug-ability, and (get this) an on-off switch.

Acomdata’s elegant, compact design reflects its purist approach to data storage

The Samba enclosure is equipped for solid reliability and ultra-fast performance

The smart chassis design and fully illustrated guide make installation simple and—like the Samba itself—extremely fast.

So take charge now and transform that useful but utilitarian PATA or SATA IDE hard disk into a versatile, reliable and super speedy external drive. The AcomData Samba is sure to enhance your desktop as well as your data storage.

Acomdata Product Features

• Silent Operation
• Hot Pluggable
• Mac & PC Compatible
• 3 Year Limited Warranty
• Free Tech Support Forever
• 48 bit Logic Block Addressing
• USB 2.0

What’s in the Box
Acomdata Hard Drive Samba Enclosure, Stand, USB Cable, Mounting Screws, AC Adapter, Installation Guide, CD

Product Description

AcomData SMBXXU2E-BLK 3.5" SATA/IDE HDD Ext. Enclosure USB2.0 Black Retail

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent external hard drive enclosure with dual IDE and SATA to USB interfaces, November 9, 2008

By 

J. Chien (Pearland, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Acomdata Samba USB 2.0 3.5-Inch IDE/SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2E-BLU (Blue) (Personal Computers)

This enclosure is solidly built, finely finished, with good fit for 3.5" internal hard drives of various brands, and easily to assemble. It offers IDE or SATA to USB 2.0 interfaces. The blue colored part is an aluminum case that helps dissipate the drive heat without cooling fan noises (the remainder gray parts are plastic). There are three popular colors in matte finish to choose from: red, blue, and black. The vertical stand is attached to the enclosure by a groove and two screws for added stability. The blue indicator light is an approximate match to the blue color of the enclosure case.

I used a Seagate IDE 250GB and a Hitachi SATA 500GB in the enclosure for the trials. Windows XP and Windows Vista readily recognized the assembled external hard drives. They were shown as USB devices with their respective hard drive product numbers and not the identity of the enclosure chipset. This could be important as some hard drive's proprietary software, such as Seagate DiscWizard, require the presence of the branded hard drive in order to be run. The data transfer was reliable, whether the file size was 2MB (photo files) or 49GB (a backup file). The data transfer rates were normal if not a little faster compared to my other external hard drives. The drives never got hot, just slightly warm during the data transfer or after being left on overnight.

I am particular about the position of the power switch. I do not buy any enclosure which power switch is jammed in between the power cable and the USB cable. This enclosure has the power switch conveniently located above the cables.

The tray that houses the hard drive is plastic, preventing the hard drive from making direct contact with the aluminum case for more effective heat dissipation. The side panel with the circuit board and internal connectors is screwed to the plastic hard drive tray, making frequent drive changes a risk of unthreading the screw holes.

Overall I am fond of this external hard drive enclosure, for its nice design and finish, dual internal hard drive interfaces, aluminum case, and reliable data transfer. I am using the Hitachi SATA 500GB in this enclosure permanently. I have also acquired a red for a 640GB SATA.

107 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars read this before you buy!, June 12, 2010

By 

John Little (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acomdata Samba USB 2.0 3.5-Inch IDE/SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2E-BLK (Black) (Personal Computers)

I'm so disappointed! All these good reviews for this thing, and it doesn't work right. Let me say here that I tried it with my HP desktop and Dell laptop and get exactly the same results. Specifically:
I hooked it up per the instructions, turned it on, and... nothing. The computer didn't even see it. So I unplugged the USB cable and when I plugged it back in, the computer saw it and it came up. Great! Turned it off, turned it back on... nothing.

After MUCH experimentation I found that the drive must be powered on BEFORE being plugged in to the computer, which is not only contrary to the instructions, it's just stupid. It means you either have to let the drive spin constantly (stupid) or you have to disconnect the drive from the computer every time you turn it off (again, stupid).

If you leave the drive spinning, you can connect and disconnect the USB cable all you want, it recognizes it every time.

Makes no difference whether or not you properly unmount the drive before turning if off.

All the good things people have said about the instructions and the ease of putting it together are true but it doesn't really matter because as far as I'm concerned, this is a deal-breaker. I've written to Acomdata and will wait for their response but unless they have a REALLY GOOD idea, this enclosure is going back.

Update 6-16-10.
Several reviews here have mentioned that the jumper had to be set to CS, not master as the instructions say. That was my problem. After I changed the jumper, it works perfectly.
The Acomdata support people obviously don't know about this; they told me to send the drive back. Instead, I remembered about the jumper and tried it. It works great now. (I have told them about it, but don't look for them to re-print their instruction manuals.)

Why am I leaving my rating at 1 star? If I hadn't found out about the jumper, I'd have sent the drive back ($$), probably gotten another one which, of course, wouldn't have worked either, then sent it back. (More $$) If my 1 star rating makes people look at this review, it can save some people a lot of trouble.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best cheap drive enclosure, February 28, 2009

By 

alaska (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Acomdata Samba USB 2.0 3.5-Inch IDE/SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2E-BLK (Black) (Personal Computers)

I tried this with both an old PATA/IDE and a new SATA drive; both worked flawlessly. The IDE drive required a jumper setting to "Master"; no jumpers were required for the SATA (WD Caviar). The printed manual is a lot better than what one usually sees with this type of product, but not as complete as the documentation on the included CD-ROM.

pros: very quiet, fanless, good build quality for the price, nice stand. Looks better than most enclosures.

cons: IDE connector is mounted on the PCB board, so you have to be a bit careful. The blue light is rather glaring.

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