While it’s true that there are a plethora of good quality, purpose-built external hard drives available, there’s undeniable appeal in having a more flexible, and potentially more economical, solution. Say, like me, you have an extra 1TB internal hard drive available. Instead of sitting in a drawer (or, in my case, a bad computer), the drive can easily be put to practical use in something like the Liztek HDDS1BS USB 3.0 Super Speed to SATA Single Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5 and 3.5 inch Hard Drives (suitably descriptive, if not something of a mouthful). Even if you have to purchase a bare drive, the fact that right now on Amazon the HDDS1BS costs only $22.95 works very much in its economic favor.

An interesting feature of the HDDS1BS is that unlike most devices of this type where you slide in a drive from the top, vertically, it has what Liztek refers to as a side loading design (to me, it looks kind of like a sled). Whatever your impression of the design, the benefit is that you slide the drive in a stable horizontal position, where it remains, with easier access and visibility to the whole drive versus the more traditional version of a product like this.

The USB 3.0 connection and driver-less design should allow it work with any computer (I tested it on an iBuyPower Windows 7 desktop and a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with Windows 8.1; Windows XP or later and Mac OS X compatibility are bullet points), and features transfer rates up to 5 Gbps. Naturally, maximum speed is determined both by the performance of the drive and target computer. A nice bonus is that hard drives can be hot swapped, meaning you don’t have to take any special precautions when inserting and removing drives, even when the HDDS1BS is on.

The HDDS1BS is professionally packaged in a nice box and includes the Liztek USB 3.0 Single Bay HDD Docking Station, USB 3.0 data cable, power adapter cable, and user’s manual. An impressive 18-month warranty is also standard. Overall build quality is excellent, with a solid feel, so it’s not surprising that they offer such a generous warranty.

Special thanks to Gurin for the review unit. Be sure to also check out Liztek’s other products at www.liztek.com.