Recommend a 3.5" external hd enclosure

[SparksNelec]

Well, my 75GXP has lasted me this long, lets see if an external hard drive enclosure will kill it :D

I want a 3.5" enclosure, preferably fanless, with USB 2.0 and firewire interfaces. I'll be using it for temp storage along with troubleshooting programs and drivers. Any recommendations, advice, or horror stories?

Directron has a Bytecc and a Startecc one that seems OK but I haven't found many reviews on them.

[haroldmeyer]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-146-008&depa=0

[burningrave101]

Go with one of the Bytecc enclosures. They are about the best and get alot of reviews done on them. If you havn't seen several reviews for the Bytecc enclosures then you most not frequent very many hardware sites :p.

Something you want to remember about putting a hard drive in an external enclosure is that it will work as it normally would but you want to be very careful with it and not shake it around or throw it in your backpack to take with you all the time. Its still an internal hard drive. External hard drives that are actual built to be outside of a case are SUPPOST to be better for such things. But as long as you just have it sitting on your desk it will be fine.

I would use a Firewire hookup also because firewire is alot faster then USB 2.0 for hard drives.

[Kido1986]

I like my Bafo. What I really want though is a 3.5" that doesnt need power.

I hate needing my power cord and having bad luck with 2.5" drives. 1 doesnt work at all, and another doesnt work with Nforce2, which 3 of the computer I need to use an external with have :/.

[Tekara]

I use this one:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-123-105&depa=0

it's really nice due to it's slim dimensions; it fits like a glove around the hard drive and it's only about an inch and a half longer than the standard 3.5" hardrive (for controller card).

there is a firewire version, but I don't see one that has both.

[burningrave101]

One of the Bytecc models has both USB 2.0 and Firewire ports so you can pick and choose whichever you want.

[SparksNelec]

The Bytecc 3.5" design looks pretty good and I was able to find some reviews on it that agreed along with a couple of recommendations here. Unless there are some major problems with the enclosure, I think I'll go with that one.

Just out of curiosity though, anyone have any experience with the Argosy enclosure found at Directron?

Thanks everyone for your input!

[Ice Czar]

considering the potential implementation issues, Id skip the USB\Firewire implementation for the eSATA

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/esata.htm

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=485217&perpage=15&pagenumber=2 < last post

if you are going to go the USB\Firewire route, you have some research to do
unless the performance doesnt matter