CONCLUSION

   RaidSonic has launched an very innovative product which unfortunately does not really deliver the performance levels we were hoping it would. Sure it improves performance quite a bit (sometimes even 100% over that of the WD Scorpio HDD) and had we mounted two HyperX 120GB SATA III SSDs we'd had probably maxed out the JMicron HW RAID controller but considering that the device is based on SATA II (300MB/s) that wouldn't make any sense at all (since the HyperX drives can surpass 500MB/s). JMicron may release a firmware update to improve the performance of the drive in the near future but as it stands if you plan on mounting a regular HDD and an SSD in the IB-RD2121StS you should also take a look at the Hybrid Runner by RAIDON. However if you want to use two regular 2.5" HDDs then the ICY BOX IB-RD2121StS is a one way due to its RAID0/1 modes, just make sure you have two identical capacity HDDs so you won't lose any space.

   Currently the ICY BOX IB-RD2121StS 2x2.5" to 3.5" HDD/SSD RAID Converter is only available inside the EU (just like with most RaidSonic products) and retails for around 60Euros a rather tempting price tag for such a unique product. Certainly however not many people will have use for such a product but like we said earlier if you happen to have two 2.5" HDDs laying around or you wish to use two new ones then using the IB-RD2121StS in RAID0 will indeed increase performance while by using RAID1 you can protect your sensitive data. Overall the entire concept behind the ICY BOX IB-RD2121StS is quite unique and the end result although not as fast as we had hoped it to be is not quite good which is why it comes highly recommended by us and gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Aluminum/Hard Plastic)
- RAID0/RAID1/LARGE/NOR Modes
- Improved Performance
- Easy To Use
- JMicron HW RAID Manager
- Tool-Less Design
- Hot-Swap
- Fanless
- Power Saving Mode
- Price (For Some) 

CONS

- Performance Levels Could Be Better
- Eject Button Not Very Sturdy