I have had several people tell me that the Stackables (as a whole) resemble a mini server, and I guess I could see that being possible. In all honesty, however, they do not look as "big" in person as they appear in the photos above.



I connected the Stackables to my main computer to do some testing. As you can see in these pictures, the "server" isn't as big as you might think from the other photos.

I connected the hard drive enclosures and the card reader & USB hub to the power center with the supplied cables. This eliminated the need to use several power cables which would result in a loss of three wall sockets instead of just one.

All of the Stackables products performed as anticipated. I used the card reader in conjunction with my SD memory card and had no issues whatsoever. The card reader accepts a wide array of cards, so most users should be covered. Going into the review, I didn't think I would like the USB hub being on the back of the card reader unit, but I found this actually worked out well and kept any potential wire clutter out of sight. My SATA hard drive worked perfectly using both USB and SATA connections. The addition of the eSATA PCI adapter is great. The cooling fan on the hard drive enclosure was inaudible and didn't seem to be putting out much air, which I guess is a good thing. As mentioned before, I wasn't able to test the IDE hard drive enclosure, as I don't have access to an old IDE style hard drive.

The LED lights on the front of the power center and the two hard drive enclosures looked really nice. During data transfers, the red HDD lights also lit up and looked equally appealing. I was a bit skeptical about using two different materials on the power center and the other Stackables, but you really can't even notice the difference unless you are looking for it. The "exhaust" temperature of the power center never reached higher than 46C during my observations using a wireless thermometer.

At the end of the day, however, I'm not sure if I am "sold" on the idea of the Stackables. I think the concept is really neat, but there are a few things that you should consider before investing in a system like this.

First, do you really need each of these components? Sure, many people could have a use for an external hard drive enclosure. But, do you need more than one? Second, let's say you need a card reader and a USB hub. Ok, you now have two components of the Stackables system. Can you really justify buying the power center to supply juice to only two devices?

Next, consider price. As of writing, the power center has an MSRP of $69.99. Add another $49.99 for the card reader & USB hub and an additional $59.99 for the SATA hard drive enclosure. You are looking at roughly $180.00 USD for an external enclosure, card reader & USB hub. If you ask me, that is a very steep price for such components.

But, there are those people out there who like a uniform style with their components, and in that department, the Stackables certainly delivers. Also, perhaps the saving grace for the Stackables is the ability to be able to use each component without the need of the power center. If you only have one or two Stackables components, I wouldn't even consider the power center. But, in the event that you have the need for multiple external hard drive enclosures (three or more), then I would consider the power center a necessity in order to conserve wall sockets.

Thanks to Ultra Products for supplying us with these review samples.