The Thermaltake Max 4 Active Cooling Enclosure is a great external enclosure for those worried about using a hot drive inside a portable case. The entire enclosure is well made and has a nice fingerprint-resistant finish. Assembly was very easy and only took a few minutes to complete. Performance was good, too, in both USB and eSATA configurations. The active cooling helped the fast Western Digital Raptor stay cool when idling or working, and the fan was quieter than other active cooling solutions out there. Top all that off with cool blue LEDs for the fan and Power & HDD Activity, and the Max 4 brings a lot of style to the portable storage market.

The only faults that can be found with the Max 4 are that the enclosure is compatible with SATA drives only, and that its only option is to have the case sit vertically on the desk. It would have been nice to see Thermaltake add some rubber pads that the user could stick on one side to allow the drive to lay flat, which would allow horizontal mounting and stacking of multiple enclosures. Fortunately, these rubber pads can be picked up at the local hardware store for a few dollars.

Overall the Thermaltake Max 4 Active Cooling Enclosure is a quality external enclosure that performs well and keeps the drive cool at the same time.