The NexStar docking station works great with any PC that has USB ports, but if you have an unused SATA port on your motherboard you can just plug the included adapter into it and use the eSATA cable to connect to the NexStar docking station. Using the eSATA interface can speed your backups by as much as 300%.

The NexStar Hard Drive Dock has its power button located in the front of the unit, utilizing a blue LED surrounding it for a power indicator. There is another blue LED below the power indicator which acts as the activity light. As expected, the USB, eSATA, and power connections are located on the back of the unit. There are also four non-slip rubber feet on the bottom of the unit, which keep it in place at all times. The manual shows how to install hard drives as well as how to connect the unit to a computer.

Vantec has a reputation of throwing absolutely everything you could possibly need into the box, and this is no different with the NexStar Hard Drive Dock. You get the docking station of course, instruction manual, driver CD for those OSes that need drivers, power adapter and cord, USB Cable, eSATA Cable and an eSATA bracket just in case your motherboard doesn’t already have an eSATA port on the back panel.

With the changing face of computing someone needed to come up with a fast, easy, hot swappable method of docking hard drives to a desktop or laptop that doesn't involve seating it in an enclosure or case, yet provide enough protection to read or write to the drive then move on to the next drive easily. Thermaltake decided to fill that need and designed their BlacX line of docking stations. The BlacX is the first device to offer this type of functionality and is a product many of us are going to use every day.

The BlacX is ready to go out of the box. Just make a couple of easy connections, drop in a drive and boot up the system and you're using the docking station with a minimum of effort. Wait until the data transfer is done and you can swap out the drive.