In Win Ammo 2.5" Enclosure

"Military themed design. Ultimate security. Never-ending features. The award-winning AMMO 2.5” HD Enclosure is protected by 0.8mm of cold steel that helps optimize thermal performance. The front and backsides of the AMMO are indented with groove lines that provide for anti-vibration and add to the character of the AMMO’s look at feel. Equipped with RFID encryption security, the included dog tag acts as a key that locks and protects all your precious data. From its stunning design to its amazing security features, the AMMO is a perfect way to stealthy store any private information."

That is what In Win describes the Ammo 2.5" hard drive enclosure as on its website.  Will it live up to all of this big talk?

Main Features

Specifications

Note that on the specifications, there is a logo stating "Exceed U.S. MIL-STD-810F METH.516.5 Proc.IV" from 2 meters.  This is refering to a Department of Defense standardized testing document for a whole variety of things.  Fortunately they listed the specific test and method that were used on this device.  Information on test 516.5 is as follows:

A summary for those of you that skipped the reference just made, basically you can drop the enclosure from up to two meters and the drive inside will still work.  This is based upon a laboratory test using a hook to drop the enclosire from a fixed distance onto a standardized surface.  Laboratory tests cannot always match real world circumstances, but this is testing above and beyond what most manufacturers would think of doing.

About In Win

IN-WIN Development Inc., an ISO 9001 manufacturer of professional computer chassis, power supplies and digital storage devices, is the leading provider of enclosure solutions to system integrators worldwide. Founded in 1986, IN-WIN provides high quality chassis that conform to all safety regulations, as well as unsurpassed customer service.
		1985 Company founded as IN WIN Development Inc., focus on chassis selling and marketing. 1987 Established chassis assembly facility. 1992 Established Taoyuan factory in Taiwan. 1994 Established in house painting department and facilities 1995 Established stamping and tooling department to enhance the ability of technician and product quality control on yield rate. 1997 Established facility automation on progressive stamping equipments. Executed TQM (Total Quality Management) system. 1998 ISO 9002 certified Established facility automation on robot stamping equipments. 1999 ISO 9001 certified Established USA branch to explore the US market. Established New CHANGHEIN factory in Taoyuan, Taiwan. 2000 Established UK branch to explore European market. Established Japan office. Established Power Supply Group for Power Supply development and manufacture. 2001 Re-build and enlarged Taoyuan factory to become the Headquarter. Implementation of ERP system. ISO 14001 & ISO 9001, 2000 version certified. Listed on Taiwan OTC market. 2002 Implementation of IN SHIN factory plan at China. Implementation of e-Documents. Established NL branch office and warehouse as European Market Center. 2003 Established IN SHIN factory at China. Listed on Taiwan SEC market. 2004 Established UPS Group for UPS development and manufacture. 2006 All product lines are compliance with RoHS directive regulation. In Win is honor to receive the “Symbol of Excellence Award 2006”. 2007 Obtained IECQ 080000 HSPM certification.
		Corporate Vision   In Win was well trained to become a top-notch manufacturer of core technology to enhance internal core competence to meet what customer and market needs constantly. Top Management has been executed four major elements to reach our growing goal: Innovation, Service, Speed, Value, Safety, Warmth, Faithful, Diligence in order to remain our leading edge position and differentiate with other players.   Innovation Safety Service Warmth Speed Faithful Value Diligence
		Goals   Your partner of choice Product quality assured Constant product innovation High environmental standards & social responsibilities Continuing the highest demands of service

  Pictures

I have scaled all images to 400x400 so they will load faster for you.  This has messed with the aspect ratio on some of them.  Click any image for the full size and properly shaped picture.

My box arrived a little smashed up, but the product inside was fine.  The packaging is a little more plain than most of In Wins' products, and I was a little suprised at that.  The theme is still there, but it jsut doesn't have the flair of the Commander box, or of the towers that I have seen.  The front references to the three main features, and shows off that this is a RedDot Design Award winner for 2009.  For those of you who don't know:

About red dot design award

With more than 11,000 submissions from 61 countries, the international “red dot design award” is the largest and most renowned design competition in the world. It is divided into the “red dot award: product design”, the “red dot award: communication design” and the “red dot award: design concept.” The award-winning products are put before an international public in the red dot design museum.

Each year an international jury reviews and evaluates the submitted products according to criteria such as degree of innovation, functionality and the formal quality. This ensures the seriousness of the competition and its international acceptance. The group of jurors is made up of renowned designers and design experts from all over the world who reach their decisions on which designs are good enough to receive a red dot award independently and impartially. The constellation changes from year to year and guarantees a high degree of objectivity and reliability.

The award is as a seal of quality; it stands for membership of the best in design and business. The winners receive the awards in person on the occasion of the gala ceremony in the Essen Aalto-Theater, which is witnessed by more than 1,200 guests. In addition, the annual “red dot award: product design” also rewards one design team with the special title of design team of the year. The award, the “Radius” challenge trophy, has already been received by the design teams of many renowned companies, including LG Electronics, adidas, Apple, Mercedes-Benz, Nokia, Philips, Siemens and Sony.

The back of the box simply goes more in depth into the specifications and features.

There is quite a bit in the box, but let's look at the main item first.  The enclosure is made of sturdy 0.8mm tensile strength steel, and is designed to look like a magazine for an M16/M4/AR15.  Overall the style matches perfectly for the short magazine (not the extended), but it is quite a bit larger.  Stamped on the front is "2.5 INCH SATA HDD ENCLOSURE", and it also says "RFID SECURITY" next to the indicator LED/Sensor.

On the slanted end, "IN WIN" is molded into the rubber interior.  On the flat end, you can see the two small screws that are used to get into the enclosure.  Underneath a flap of rubber there is a 5-pin mini-B plug and a 5V AC adapter plug.  The AC adapter is not included, but if you have a high draw HDD you can pick one up at your local electronics supply store (read: Radio Shack) for a very small amount.  For most drives however, the included dual USB cable should suffice.

Here are the other items in the box.  As stated above, you get a dual USB A to 5-pin mini B cable.  Then there is a small phillips head screwdriver for installing the hard drive (handy if all of your tools happen to be in boxes because you are moving halfway around the world soon :( )  The dog tag is your primary RFID access key, and the red tag is a spare. 

Holy crap! That is what I have to say!  To continue the theme as In Win is so good at doing, the owner's manual and directions are on the back of a very large target silhouette.  This works out well for appearances, but is a little akward to read when you are learning how to set up the RFID keys.

Taking out the two set screws, you can push out the rubber interior of the enclosure.  The steel protects it from impact, and the soft rubber absorbs any vibration.  This has a dual benefit: protecting the drive in a drop, and preventing drive noise and desk shudder from the spinning drive.  The insert has one side open to get the drive in, and the other is slotted for heat dissipation.  In the small square cutout you can see the RFID sensor.

Inside you can see the control board, with fixed connectors for the SATA data and power.  This made placing my Samsung 500GB extremely easy, just bend the rubber and pop it in.  Once the drive is in place you simply slide the whole thing into the enclosure and replace the set screws.

This image is intended to show you that there is an LED indicator built into the RFID sensor.  It is very easy to understand, Green can be accessed, Red is secure.  When you first plug in the drive, the light will be red and flashing, indicating that you need to "register the RFID tags to the controller board.  This is a simple process of placing the tags next to the sensor one at a time.  On the next page I will show you the steps to set up the new drive, but at this point the enclosure is good to go.  When you plug in the drive the LED is red, so you place your dog tag next to the sensor and the lights turns green.  When you unplug the drive everything locks down as tight as Fort Knox.  Another interesting note with this, even if you take the drive out of the enclosure and place it in another, you will not be able to access the data.  It must be in the ammo, and the RFID tag must be present, or be prepared to format the hard drive and start over.

   Setup

I have scaled all images to 400x400 so they will load faster for you.  This has messed with the aspect ratio on some of them.  Click any image for the full size and properly shaped picture.

When first hooking up a new drive it must be formatted and setup.  This is the process for Vista.  Got to the Control Panel and open Administrative Tools.  Then open Computer Management.

Select Storage, then Disk Management.  This will show you a list of all of your installed hard drives and set up partitions.  You should see a drive listed as "Unknown".  Right click on it and select Initialize Disk.  MBR works perfectly on the majority of drives, especially the sizes that you can obtain in a 2.5" format.

This will take you to the New Simple Volume Wizard. With this you can set up the disk into one or many partitions.  Since this is going to be a secure backup drive for me, I set up one partion that is the maximum size on the disk.

If it helps you stay organized, you can choose a specific drive letter for this partion, or you can let the computer you plug it into decide by not assigning a letter.  on the next screen you choose what format to have the partition in, and can name it, making it easier to find in My Computer.

Let the format run, which will take a different amount of time depending on the size and speed of the drive, and the size of the partition.  When it is complete, the wizard will close, and the drive will show up in My Computer.  Voila, you have now setup your new drive in an encrypted enclosure!

 Performance

     To test this enclosure out, I rebooted my system and let it sit for five minutes to ensure that all processes had started and stabilized.  I then plugged in both USB leads to headers directly on the motherboard and ran the benchmarks.  I used Crystal DiskMark 2.2, and HD Tune Pro 3.50.  HD Tach is normally on my list also, but it would not run in my most recent install.

(Yeah, Yeah, I did this testing before I had time to put in my Core i7...)

All of the testing showed nice solid numbers for this drive, proving that the controller board simply acts as a pass through to change SATA to USB.  I was concerned that the encryption chip would slow down the process, but it seems to have no effect at all.

 Conclusion

      This enclosure is a joy to use.  The theme is great, as to be expected from In Win.  The enclosure itself is very sturdy being made of 0.8mm tensile strength steel.  Installing a drive and setting up the RFID tags is very easy.  Once your data is in place, it will take a long time for anyone to get past the RFID encryption, provided you keep the tags in a seperate spot from the drive itself.  In Win even took the time to do DoD level testing for shock, so if you throw it in your bag or car, (or drop it walking there) you won't have to be concerned that you damaged your precious data.  Fortunately, all of this security did not hamper the performance of the drive.  The $39.99 price point puts it in the middle of the pack, but the features are worth a lot more.

Found At: Newegg.com for $39.99 

Pros:

• Unique Styling
• Good Testing Results
• 0.8mm Tensile Strength Steel
• DoD Level Shock Tests
• RFID Encryption

Cons:

• The Owner's Manual Is A Bit Large ;p

Overall the Ammo has become my new favorite 2.5" enclosure, and is well worth the money if you want to protect your precious portable data!

10  / 10

And the Golden Ghost Award