The SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 3.5" External Enclosure performs head and shoulders over the previous generation of USB2 enclosures! I suppose that is to be expected since USB3.0 offers ten times the bandwidth of USB2. USB2 was limited to 480Mb/s and USB3.0 offers a massive 5Gb/s, so the performance gains we saw here today are nothing short of expected. I will admit though, knowing the speed that USB3.0 offers I was still pleasantly surprised. I was surprised as to how well the SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 3.5" External Enclosure performed when compared to the same drive being attached via the SATA port on the test system.
Performance aside, of which there was plenty, the SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 3.5" External Enclosure is an all around solid piece of hardware. It has a very clean and appealing look that will look great on your desk or next to your HTPC. If you plan on using the Airbox USB3.0 3.5" External Enclosure with your HTPC keep in mind the blue LED on the front panel. While it's not the brightest LED that I have ever come across, I could see it being a distraction while sitting in the dark and watching a movie. Although if that is the only feature holding you back, it can be remedied rather easily. If you are comfortable with electronics you can most likely remove the light altogether. The other option is a small strip of black electrical tape to cover it up (that's the same way I get rid of the pesky Check Engine Light in my truck).
When it comes to pricing the SunbeamTech Airbox USB 3.0 external enclosure retails for $55.99 shipped from Newegg. The same SunbeamTech Airbox external enclosure with USB 2.0 and eSATA connections sells for $41.55 shipped from Newegg. For an extra $14.44 (34%) you get an enclosure that is ready for Super Speed USB 3.0. You just saw the performance gap between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 was more than double in our real worl file transfer test, so the extra cost seems well worth it and justified.
There is a ~2.5X performance boost in real world tests against 2.0 enclosure. Going by the pricing of the USB 2.0 drive enclosure this should be priced ~3k INR.