We recently had a look at Sharkoon's SATA QuickPort USB 3.0 in our USB 3.0 article (who'd have thought!), but just recently Sharkoon has released its SATA QuickPort Pro with an Ethernet socket.
The 'QuickPort' product is not unique to Sharkoon - it is a rebrand that a few other companies, such as Thermaltake, have done in the past. However since the USB 3.0, and now the LAN version, Sharkoon is carving out a little market niche.
Why do we care about LAN though? Well it simply makes any hard drive instantly accessible over a network, instead of adding an external or caddied hard drive and fiddling around with shares.
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If you're after a proper NAS product though, you wouldn't buy the QuickPort because it's not designed for a long-term solution. It clearly doesn't stop dust for starters, and gravity alone isn't known as the best security against knocks.
Click to enlarge
We do like the extra connectors though: you still get the option of connecting via eSATA and USB 2.0, and when using USB it has the SD/MMC slot and also acts as a USB hub for two additional ports. The biggest downside is that the Ethernet is 10/100, not Gigabit. Transferring data at 10MB/s and under is painfully slow when sending Gigabytes let alone Terabytes of data.
At £45 it's arguably expensive enough already for a peripheral, but it's appeal is a bit weird - everyone who has seen it in the office has gone "Oh, yea, nice idea!" but no one really can think of a situation where they'd really need one. The deal-breaker for everyone was the 100M Fast Ethernet though, because in an age where Gigabit is standard, it's just too slow.
Click to enlarge
If you do juggle bare drives and need access to them on many PCs then check it out, but really, is it a product for a market that barely exists? If you really want one let us know because we'd love to know in what way you'd use it!
The 'QuickPort' product is not unique to Sharkoon - it is a rebrand that a few other companies, such as Thermaltake, have done in the past. However since the USB 3.0, and now the LAN version, Sharkoon is carving out a little market niche.
Why do we care about LAN though? Well it simply makes any hard drive instantly accessible over a network, instead of adding an external or caddied hard drive and fiddling around with shares.
[break]
Click to enlarge
If you're after a proper NAS product though, you wouldn't buy the QuickPort because it's not designed for a long-term solution. It clearly doesn't stop dust for starters, and gravity alone isn't known as the best security against knocks.
Click to enlarge
We do like the extra connectors though: you still get the option of connecting via eSATA and USB 2.0, and when using USB it has the SD/MMC slot and also acts as a USB hub for two additional ports. The biggest downside is that the Ethernet is 10/100, not Gigabit. Transferring data at 10MB/s and under is painfully slow when sending Gigabytes let alone Terabytes of data.
At £45 it's arguably expensive enough already for a peripheral, but it's appeal is a bit weird - everyone who has seen it in the office has gone "Oh, yea, nice idea!" but no one really can think of a situation where they'd really need one. The deal-breaker for everyone was the 100M Fast Ethernet though, because in an age where Gigabit is standard, it's just too slow.
Click to enlarge
If you do juggle bare drives and need access to them on many PCs then check it out, but really, is it a product for a market that barely exists? If you really want one let us know because we'd love to know in what way you'd use it!
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