Photoshop_User_June_2017

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>^ JUNE 2017

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REVIEWS › ›

Company: OWC Digital

Price: $269.75

Rating:

Hot: Speed; ruggedness; design;

per-bay on/off switch

Not: You can’t mount Atomos disk caddies

Review by Erik Vlietinck

Use Bare SATA Disks with

a Thunderbolt 2 Mac

OWC

Drive Dock

The appeal of a bare drive dock is that you can hot swap and

read two disks simultaneously. The OWC Drive Dock has speed

and expansion functionality to spare with its two Thunderbolt 2

ports and single USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface. It’s an all-aluminum large

square box with independent power switches and LED activity

monitors per drive bay, in addition to an overall on/off switch at

the back of the unit.

The top is made from a robust matte black plastic sheet that

holds the inward-swinging, dust-protection covers. The whole

thing is built like a tank. The Drive Dock also has a built-in auto-

switching power supply and, like other drive docks, accommodates

both 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

I’ve been testing the OWC Drive Dock as a backup and offload

device, and I also tested the dock using two identical WD drives