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Thermaltake's Blacx: Turn Extra Hard Drives into USB External Hard Drives

Written by:  Berry van der Linden • Edited by: Lamar Stonecypher
Updated Nov 5, 2009 • Related Guides: External Hard Drives | Hard Drive
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Do you have a lot of hard drives laying around? With Thermaltake's Blacx you can now turn those drives into external hard drives. The easiest way to extend hard drive capacity is to use a USB external hard drive. The Blacx makes it easy.

Blacx Base 

Who Makes It?

Thermaltake. a respected entity in the case manufacturing realm, makes the Blacx. If you look at the series of USB external hard drive enclosures at Thermaltake.com then you will find that the Blacx stands out form it's counterparts. Thermaltake has some of the nicest external hard drive enclosures on the market today.

Why Blacx?

Blacx is for those people as said with a lot of SATA hard drives laying around. Or computer resource specialists who find themselves making a lot of backups of hard drives. Or those of us who like useful gadgets. As well as people who just want a big extra USB external hard drive with out having to enclose it into an external exclosure.

I come across a lot of customer computers that I need to back up. Doing this over a network connection takes up to much time. Opening up a case or using a external power supply and eSATA cable works, but the Blacx offers the solution I was looking for something that looks good so it can sit next to my screens and doesn't need to be unhooked from my computer because I need that power supply for something else.

Blacx Boxed 

Packaging
Rating Excellent

The Blacx comes boxed in a very nice black box. Styrofoam and plastic bags protect what is inside from any shipping damage. The box is easy to open. The parts slide out of there packaging very easily.

The Build
Rating Good

Blacx Base The Blacx has stunning mat black finish and is made of a sturdy ABS plastic. The base is weighted down. This was one of my concerns before getting the Blacx. I thought the Blacx might be prone to falling over when a hard drive would be inserted.

The top of the Blacx has an ejection button, LED, and a lid that protects the hard drive slot from getting too dusty.

The back has all the hookups for USB, eSATA, power, and power button. I don't understand why the power button is on the back it could have been on top or on the front. It probably has to do with design constants when designing the PCB (the electronics board on the inside).Blacx Base Back 

What Does It Come With
Rating Excellent

The box contains the base, a power adapter, the USB cable, and an eSATA cable. I expected the box to also have some sort of a cover for long term use if you choose to use a drive as an USB external hard drive. It didn't, but a quick check of the website shows that the more expensive SE model has this. That model also has a USB hub. I went for this model because I would rather have the eSATA that this model has and not have any extra USB ports.

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