Computer hardware thingies: Mediasonic Probox USB3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps enclosure, SODOLA 8-port 2.5GbE Switch, and if you need a good USB-C cable for DAC...

Hey there everyone, this week I thought I'd just put up some quicky comments/"reviews" of products I've found useful in the last while in my computer system and home network in case this might be of use to you. Nothing too fancy or necessarily even audiophile related for the most part.

First, there's this Mediasonic Probox 8-Drive USB3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps enclosure [H82-SU31C] (US$350). 

Box contents: IEC power cable, 8x plastic HDD handles and screws, 3' USB-C to USB-C cable.

In 2023, while we're getting there with high capacity "3D" and higher endurance SSD designs, we're not quite at par with the storage capacity afforded by multi-terabyte hard drives available at excellent prices. I'm sure most of us have been gathering our archive of digital memories and other media for years and have a need for all those terabytes at least backed up.

I've been using the older USB 3.0 + eSATA version (H82-SU3S2) of this device for >10 years already as a simple 3.5" HDD backup box which unfortunately went a bit flaky on me with occasional loss of connection in the last few months. Hence the upgrade to this newer model.

As per the description, this is a 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 device, the interface is USB-C; nothing else other than the power connector on the back and a few buttons and indicators up front. 

Above, we see how the drives fit into the box. While most of the unit is metal, the front cover and indicator sections are plastic. The 3.5" HDD trays are separated with a top and bottom layer. You can unscrew and swing open the metal front retaining door and slide the drives into the SATA backplane (rear connectors as per the image on the right). Very easy to get drives in and out. Notice the front key latch for security.

Yes, you can get 2.5" SDD adaptors extra, but I have not tried these. The hardware will support up to 16TB drives based on the specs (I don't have any drives of this humongous capacity!).

Overall, it works and is a simple JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Drives) direct storage for your computer. There's nothing fancy - no RAID features for example. Other than an ON/OFF button, there's a fan speed button (Auto + 3 levels), and a "Power Sync" button which will power on/off the drive box depending on the computer's power state. Lowest fan speed has been fine with my collection of WD and Seagate enterprise drives, keeping temperatures of the drives <45°C (typically high 30's). The fans are not the quietest but if you can stick the unit under your computer table, noise probably would be unobtrusive. I would not put something like this in quiet space like a bedroom or your soundroom.

There are a few small screws holding the fan retaining mechanism at the back if you want to get at them. The 80x80x20mm 2-pin fans can be replaced. I've heard good things about the quietness of a fan like this Evercool EC8020M12CA if you're looking for a replacement; you might need to splice the 3-pin to the original 2-pin fan connector if it doesn't come with a converter.

Here's a look at the newer box (right) with the 10-year old USB3.0 + eSATA version. Not changed much in all this time...

Old USB3.0 + eSATA unit left, new USB3.2 Gen 2 model on the right.

So, does it work?

Of course. The computer detects the 10Gbps USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 interface without issue. However, since I'm using 3.5" SATA hard drives, they're not going to be saturating the bandwidth unless I've got multiple drives working at the same time. For example, a simple CrystalDiskMark test of one of my drives:

A device like the Western Digital Gold 10TB drive can transfer over 200MB/s sequentially which is not bad for a hard drive but certainly nothing to be excited about compared to transfer speeds of modern SSDs which should be able to achieve 2-3x the sequential read/write speed over SATA-III and 5-10x the random read/write speeds. The intention of a box like this is so that one has capacity to add lots of drives for backup purposes at low cost.

A couple months ago, someone asked the question of me: "If your house is burning down and everyone's safe, what is the one thing you'd save?" My answer would be easy! It would be this Mediasonic Probox! This is where I back up all my family photos, music, ripped movies, and essential work documents. If I can retrieve this, then I can reprint all the treasured photos, reconstruct my Roon music library, and have access to the most important work-related documents.

I see they have a smaller 4-drive version that might be all that one might need - the Mediasonic Probox 4 (HF2-SU3S3) with USB 3.0 5Gbps + eSATA for around US$120. There's also their 4-drive RAID box if you need that. On a side note, if you use eSATA, make sure your chipset has a port-multiplier feature to address all the drives separately, many chipsets do not. My old Sil3132-based card (like this) worked although I imagine there are more modern options these days.

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Over the years I've talked about updating the home network to faster-than-1-gigabit speeds. A good chunk of the infrastructure here at home incorporated 10GbE networking back in 2018. Then in 2021, I brought 2.5GbE into the mix as the base speed available to all the rooms.

For those looking for an inexpensive 2.5Gbps ethernet switch, I found this SODOLA 8-port unmanaged 2.5GBASE-T switch (US$120):

The manual says PoE on the cover. Must be for another model... Who reads manuals these days anyways!? ;-)

As you can see, it comes in a rather generic brown box with a small power supply. With two 2.5GbE connections running at full speed in/out, it uses 5W (which is less than 50% of the Netgear GS110MX with 2-port 10GbE in a similar test).

Notice the ground lug on the back; I mention this because some audiophiles seem to think connecting "ground-cleaning devices" to a switch can help sound quality as per this review of the £1,099 Silent Angel Bonn N8 Pro switch. Would love to see evidence with an example of when this is audible.

This inexpensive switch is silent (fanless), and runs cool hidden away in a cupboard with poor air flow. No problems over last couple months now as the weather gets warmer here entering the summer.

How fast does it transfer data?

Excellent. 2.44Gbps average over 10 minutes, close to the ideal 2.5Gbps maximum. No unexpected speed variation or drop-out when run over an hour during my tests.

With prices of 2.5Gbps RJ45 Cat-5e+ ethernet coming down nicely, we can clearly go beyond the "Gigabit" (1Gbps) speed which has been the standard for many years now if you have the need for more speed.

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Finally, with many modern DACs now using USB-C as their interface, if you're looking for high-quality, well shielded cables, just spend a few bucks and get a 5Gbps (500MB/s) rated cable like the UGREEN USB-C to USB-A 5Gbps (<US$11 for 6').

6' 10Gbps USB-C to USB-C cables are also inexpensive (like this 6' one that I've used successfully at rated speed). There are some USB4.0 40Gbps USB-C 1m cables these days but that's clearly way excessive for simple DAC hook-up purposes!

The vast majority of DACs are still running at 480Mbps "Hi-Speed" USB so a 5Gbps "SuperSpeed" cable will be downward compatible and built to a higher standard. As usual, unless you have a really crappy USB cable (like this one from back in the day), it's just not reasonable to expect "significant" sound differences to come from digital cables regardless of what certain audiophiles might claim. Sure, you could spend significantly more money on something like this AudioQuest Carbon USB-C-to-C or this USB-A-to-C asking for >US$200; notice though these are just 1.5m 480Mbps cables. As usual, I'd love to see actual evidence that there's special value in "audiophile" brands - measurements or controlled, blinded listening tests, no excuses for anything else like subjective dramatic handwaving based on mere faith.

Hope you're enjoying the music, everyone. For those in the British Columbia Lower Mainland and USA Pacific Northwest, Pacific Audio Fest 2023 is happening next weekend (June 23-25, 2023) in Seattle. I see they've got Andrew Jones out this year.

Mulling over whether to do some show coverage again this year. ;-)