INTRODUCTION

   Nowadays most people own quite large digital media collections and that is the main reason behind the need we have for large capacity hard disk drives (aside for backup purposes always).However single external HDDs are not really the solution to that since they do take quite a bit of space and if you get more than just one you will also have to use more than just one connection port (if you want to have access to all of them at the same time). External docking stations do work well and in some occasions even better than many enclosures out there but with such solutions your drives are unprotected and again most only have two docks. Now there aren't really that many external enclosures available currently out there with more than just 2 bays and the ones that are available are quite expensive for consumer use but lucky for us the market grows each day and so RaidSonic decided to release their very own ICY BOX IB-3640SU3 USB 3.0 4 bay JBOD external enclosure.

   RaidSonic Technology GmbH was founded in Hamburg 1999. To realize our future visions and the rising requirements, RaidSonic moved to Ahrensburg (20 min. away from Hamburg) in May 2004.The capacity of our new warehouse, our permanent improving logistic and the expanded technical support lets us look into the future very optimistically. Our vision in a constantly growing IT market is to develop products, which will become your future dreams. Our extensive product portfolio, which we distribute Europe-wide, combines all internal and external solutions for the application of mass storage, for industrial and professional applications as well as for the private sphere, too. Through our all along increasing know-how, good results in research and development and our good cooperation with our long-time customers we could achieve a dynamic growth.

   RaidSonic has actually manufactured 3 different ICY BOX enclosures based on the same design, the mainstream IB-3640SU3 (Single, USB 3.0, eSATA) we have here with us today, the high-end IB-RD3640SU3 (RAID 0/1/3/5/10/Single, USB 3.0, eSATA) and the professional-grade IB-RD3640SU3E2 (RAID 0/1/3/5/10/Single, USB 3.0, eSATA, FireWire 400, 2xFireWire 800). As expected the two higher end models also cost quite a bit more and so we decided to focus on the mainstream one which is also the one we think most consumers can easily afford. So the ICY BOX IB-3640SU3 is a 4x3.5" bay external enclosure with JBOD mode (4 separate drive letters) featuring both USB 3.0 (backwards compatible with USB 2.0) and eSATA connectivity. However i have to admit that the people over at RaidSonic this time over have outdone themselves and so the IB-3640SU3 is much more sophisticated than most 4 bay external enclosures out there so let's not waste time and move to the main part of this review.