Our last test candidate is the NewerTech Guardian Maximus elite that has, in contrast to the other devices present in this test only two hard drives. Available is the Guardian Maximus either as empty or as a pre-configured with hard disk device. The range of available capacities are moving in the latter case, between 300 GB and 2 TB. Interested parties should however be aware that the device is supported by a custom Oxford OXUFS936DS chipset only the RAID 1 mode. According to the specifications of the chip manufacturer of the chipset is running in its original version, however, able to disks in a RAID0 configuration, and in span mode.

Something unusual appears to us, the fact that the Guardian Maximus Elite is a solution for data backup and applied for the manufacture of data redundancy, users can not be given on failure to replace a hard drive itself. Technically, this would indeed be very easily, but it would take the guarantee by the loss in purchasing.

Housing and ports

Like the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro QX2 is the case of Maximus Elite aluminum. The dimensions of about 24 cm long, 7 cm wide and 14 cm height covered by the restriction to two hard drives also made quite compact. The unit is on two aluminum legs that are fitted with a rubber coating and thus guarantee a non-slip stand. Most of the front is occupied by a large hole mesh. Among them are four LEDs provide information about the system status and disk activity.

Here, too, all connections are on the back of the unit. By using the Oxford chipset, it should not surprise that, again, 2x FireWire 800, 1x FireWire 400, 1x USB 2.0 and eSATA interface are available. Continue to adorn the back of another on / off switch, a jack for external power supply and smaller fans, which should provide in connection with the large grid on the front page for sufficient air circulation within the enclosure.