Thermaltake BlacX Duet ST0014U-D Dual Drive Docking Station: specs and uses

The Thermaltake BlacX Duet (ST0014U-D) is a docking station with two open bays for SATA hard drives and solid-state drives. You drop a bare drive in from the top, connect the dock to a computer and the drive appears as external storage. It's handy for backups, cloning, recovering files from an old drive or moving data between drives without opening the computer.

Two bays for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives

Thermaltake says the dock takes both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA drives, supporting SATA I, II and III, and that it reads and writes to two drives at the same time. The 2.5-inch size is common in laptops and SSDs, and 3.5-inch drives are common in desktops and network storage. Thermaltake says it works with Windows and Mac OS.

USB 3.0 and speed

The listing gives USB 3.0 SuperSpeed as the main interface, with transfer up to 5.0 Gbps, around ten times the nominal rate of USB 2.0. The listing also mentions an eSATA transfer rate up to 3 Gbps. The description's specification section lists both USB 2.0 and eSATA connections and cables, so confirm which cable comes in the box. Speeds also depend on the drive itself, as a spinning hard drive is much slower than a USB 3.0 link can carry.

Hot swap and plug and play

The dock supports hot swapping, so you can change drives without turning the dock off and quickly move between several drives. Setup is plug and play with no software to install. As with any external drive, use your operating system's eject option before removing a drive, to protect the data.

Build and cooling

Thermaltake describes an open "over docking" design to maximize heat dissipation and exhaust, and a Solid State Grip base with an anti-slip surface. The case material is plastic. Dimensions are 140 x 120 x 70 mm, with a weight of 312 g. The dock uses an external power adapter. The listing mentions CE, FCC and GOST R certification.

Who it suits

It suits people who regularly handle bare drives: IT technicians, photographers and video editors who archive to drives, and anyone cloning an old drive or retrieving data. It's less suited to carrying around, since drives sit exposed in the bays.

What to check before you buy

• Drive type: confirm your drives are SATA, not IDE or NVMe.
• Cable and port: check that the USB cable provided matches your computer's port.
• Large drives: if you plan to use very large drives, check Thermaltake's notes on capacity support.
• Power: the dock needs mains power through its adapter.
• Handling: bare drives need careful handling, and a dock isn't a protective case.
• Data safety: back up important files, and eject drives properly.
• Cloning: the listing doesn't describe cloning functions, so don't assume the dock does it on its own.

The short version

• Two-bay dock for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA drives.
• USB 3.0 SuperSpeed up to 5.0 Gbps, plus eSATA, per the listing.
• Hot swap, plug and play, no software.
• 140 x 120 x 70 mm and 312 g, powered by an adapter.
• Suits backups, drive access and data recovery.

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