A Closer Look & Assembly

RX358 Enclosure

Since the enclosure ships opened up already, you can clearly see the insides. Rosewill did not cover up the PCB with any kind of protective plastic, so you have to watch out when installing the hard drive. An air vent in front allows for cool air to enter the enclosure, while a thin 80 mm fan expells it out of the chassis and keeps the drive cool in the process. You will not find any openings on the other side panel, just a print of the SATA logo along with some legal text.


The connectivity of the RX358 is nothing out of the ordinary. You have the power plug along with the USB 3.0 connector. There is a large power switch, so that you can actually turn the entire unit off when not in use. An additional, tiny switch allows you to toggle the LED lighting as well, which is a great little option.


As mentioned before, the inner fan is 80 mm in diameter and is screwed into the frame with the help of a plastic contraption. If you look closely, you can see two wires running from the cooling unit, which means that it is by no means temperature controlled. The PCB is rather large and employs an "asmedia ASM 1051", which is actually capable of SATA I, II and 6 Gb/s according to the asmedia website, but Rosewill does not advertise that fact anywhere.


To install the hard drive, you need to remove both plastic side panels, place the drive in the bottom tray and secure it with the provided screws. To close things up, replace the black side panels, screw them down and place the solid cover back unto the entire unit with the included special screws.


There are two blue LEDs in the front of the chassis. One starts blinking when the hard drive is accessed.

RC-505 USB 3.0 PCIe Card

There is not much to say about the PCIe x1 USB 3.0 Controller. It is of the same variety as most other cards out there. It employs the same black PCB and comes with a pair of USB 3.0 connectors.


The USB plugs are of blue color, as are all USB 3.0 ones. You can easily unscrew the large bracket cover and replace it with the smaller one, making it a good choice for HTPC or SFF units. Power is not supplied through the PCIe x1, instead a Molex connector is required. If you take a close look at the IC, it is the NEC one used on pretty much every USB 3.0 capable mainboard and expansion card on the market nowadays.


Installing the card does not bear any surprises, just plug it in, connect the power and install the drivers. On an unrelated note: Windows 7 does not correctly recognize the NEC controller. The OS actually mistakes it for another device and thus automatically installs the wrong software for it. You have to delete those drivers and immediately apply the correct ones, instead of hitting the "scan for new hardware" button.