Thoughts, HEXUS.awards
The Magic Bridge is available at around the £20 mark, which we think is a reasonable price considering its complete bundle. The Magic Bridge comes with everything you need to connect up a SATA or IDE device to a suitably-equipped system. By suitably equipped, we mean one with USB 2.0 and eSATA ports. The former won't be a problem, but many systems lack eSATA connections. However, eSATA controllers, or backplane adapters, are available on the cheap, should they be required.
eSATA offers performance akin to SATA. It's like that by design and it enables SOHOUSB to tack on SATA support to an IDE/USB 2.0 bridge device with little effort. The IDE/USB2.0 bridge itself performs adequately.
We have only two gripes with the Magic Bridge. First, we'd like SATA to bridge to USB 2.0 as well as eSATA. It's great to be able to hook up two drives over two interfaces simultaneously, but what about when eSATA isn't an option? It'd be nice to flick a switch and get SATA bridged over to the good ol' Universal Serial Bus. Secondly, we can't understand why there are two versions of this product out there, one with a 2A DC adapter and one with a 5A adapter. Give us one product and give it to us with a PSU that'll handle two drives at once. K? Thx!
The Magic Bridge is one of those products that is pointless to some and immensely useful for others. If you will find one useful, then get one. It's twenty quid, folks... you can't go wrong at that. If you want a proper enclosure then look elsewhere, but if you need something to carry around when you're fixing and testing bits and bobs, the Magic Bridge will serve you well, just keep an eye out for the version with the 5A power supply so that you have the option to hang two drives off it at once.
HEXUS Awards
It's useful and it's cheap, therefore it's good value!
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Magic Bridge is available from SCAN.
