Docking Station Review: Aegis NetDock

As computers get smaller, tradeoffs have to be made. That's especially the case with netbooks, those diminutive dynamos that have captured a broad audience in recent times. Some of the tradeoffs necessary to shrink down those portables to the pint-sized packages that their fans find so alluring include smaller hard drives, fewer USB ports and the total absence of optical drives.

Given the avowed mission of the netbook, it's easy to understand why designers felt those tradeoffs weren't tradeoffs at all. Large hard drives aren't needed when the Internet is your hard drive. A USB port or two should be sufficient because you don't need to hang devices from a netbook like ornaments on a Christmas tree. And if you really need an optical drive, you should be using a full-sized notebook because there just isn't any room in a netbook for one.

As is often the case with the best designs of mice and men, however, some users always want to do more with a device than it's intended to do. For those netbook users -- as well as others looking for a plug-and-play way to expand their computing platforms -- there's the Aegis NetDock from Apricorn, a clever combination of a USB 2.0 hard drive, optical drive, and docking station.

Hot Ports

The NetDock is a compact box that plugs into a netbook or other computer's USB port. It measures 6.25 by 5.75 by 1.25 inches -- about the size of a Mac Mini, only half the height and weighing considerably less. It's dapper-looking, too, with a candy-apple-red enclosure and glossy black base. Because of its size and weight, it can be easily toted around in a backpack or briefcase and be at the ready when its services are needed -- as long as you're near a power outlet, since the device runs off AC power.

The NetDock has four USB 2.0 ports. Two of them are hot ports (labeled with a lightning bolt to distinguish them from the other two USB ports on the unit). That means they're always on as long as the unit's AC adapter is drawing juice. Portable gadgets like digital music players and mobile phones can be charged through the hot ports. You can even charge an iPad from them without worrying about whether or not there's enough power to do so.

What's more, all the ports have sufficient power to run a portable hard drive with a single connection. Some portable hard drives have dual USB connectors -- occupying two ports -- because some PCs can't provide enough power through a single USB port to do it. That's not necessary with the NetDock. A single port will do the trick.

To save power and the environment, the NetDock has a power management system. When you disconnect the unit from a computer, it will power down, although the hot USB ports will still provide power to anything connected to them. When you reconnect it, it will automatically power up.

The NetDock can be purchased with or without a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive of its own. Without a hard drive, it sells for $89; with a 250GB drive, it's $149; and with a 500GB drive, it's $179. However, the 500GB model is currently on sale at $149 after a $30 mail-in rebate for purchases made during July 2010.

Upgrading a diskless NetDock by adding a hard drive is relatively easy: You remove a screw at the bottom of the case, flip it over and slide the top forward, then slide the hard drive in and secure it with two screws included with the drive. Replace the top, reinsert the screw in the bottom of the unit, and you're good to go.

Burn, Sync, Play

The third element of the NetDock is its combination CD/DVD drive that supports dual-layer recording. Dual-layer discs have slightly less than double the capacity of a single-layer DVD -- 8.5GB compared to 4.7GB -- but not only does that additional storage come in handy when backing up data, but it makes it easy to copy lengthy videos without resorting to obscene compression ratios or multiple-disc copies.

Although the NetDock will run on both Windows and OS X computers, only Windows software is included with the unit. There are programs for playing media, burning CDs and DVDs, and for synchronizing information between the NetDock and a PC.

For synchronizing folders, there's Microsoft SyncToy, a utility that lets you sync files between folder pairs. So you could create an Images folder on the NetDock hard drive and pair it with the My Pictures folder on your PC. Then, every time you add an image to the latter folder, it's backed up on the NetDock drive.

That kind of one-way sync -- where new and updated files are simply copied from one paired folder to another with no deletions -- is the "contribute" option in SyncToy. Other options are "synchronize" -- new and updated files are copied both ways, renames and deletions are performed both ways, too -- and "echo" -- new and updated files are copied one way, as are renames and deletions.

The CD/DVD burning software included with NetDock is the free version of BurnAware. It will burn CD and DVD data and video discs, as well as creating and burning ISO and CUE/BIN images and copying discs to ISO images. You can also make a CD that can be used to boot your computer, make audio and MP3 CDs, and erase CD-RWs.

The third program offered by Apricorn is the VLC media player. It will play video and audio files and can be customized in a number ways. A number of skins are available to jazz up the look of the interface, for example, and a number of hot keys can be programmed for various functions.

We're already wishing for a USB 3.0 version, but for now, if you're looking for an expansion box for a netbook or even a notebook computer, the NetDock is nicely designed and a solid product. And at a post-rebate price of $149 for the 500GB model, it's a steal.