Esata external enclosure reccomendations?

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praxis1452

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I bought this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817347018. It had esata, and it was cheap, little did I know that the drive would just get too damn hit. Now I'm out ~$30 and still in need of an external enclosure that won't take my drive to 50C.

I'm using a 1.5T seagate so it does require more heat dissipation than some 320g drive.

Any recommendations that are pretty cheap, that use esata and can dissipate the heat? I guess I'm kinda asking for everything, but hey, it doesn't have to look nice or anything.
 
I love my TT BlacX for the simple reasons of no heat buildup, and I can hotswap drives in it.
 
LOL that looks like a cartridge based console except the cartridge is a giant hard drive.
 
Kil4Thril said:
I love my TT BlacX for the simple reasons of no heat buildup, and I can hotswap drives in it.
Click to expand...

Many who use those docking stations, including me, have discovered that our drives actually bake when using those for extended periods.

One morning I found the paint on my HD had gotten tacky because the drive idled all night in a docking station.

A 3.5" external case should always have active cooling if used for extended periods and I always recommend the Antec MX-1.
 
antec mx-1 for prolonged use, tt blacX for quick swap access.
 
I like my Rosewill RX-358. The fan is silent (and separately switched as well) and keeps the drive very cool. A coworker also bought one on my recommendation to replace his retail Zip enclosure that was cooking the drive, and he seems quite happy with it.

The blue LEDs on it can be annoying, and the drive mounting is rather involved (i.e. you don't want to be swapping drives in and out of it all the time). It does include a SATA-to-eSATA adapter bracket, which can also be reversed into a ghetto eSATA adapter for a bare SATA drive.

I would like to get a BlacX (or Xigmatek's version of it) for tech work (backing up drives before a reinstall, etc.), but the Rosewill works great for a permanent enclosure.
 
praxis1452 said:
I bought this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817347018. It had esata, and it was cheap, little did I know that the drive would just get too damn hit. Now I'm out ~$30 and still in need of an external enclosure that won't take my drive to 50C.

I'm using a 1.5T seagate so it does require more heat dissipation than some 320g drive.

Any recommendations that are pretty cheap, that use esata and can dissipate the heat? I guess I'm kinda asking for everything, but hey, it doesn't have to look nice or anything.
Click to expand...

Most hard drives are going to get really hot in external enclosures. 50C is pretty hard to do in an external enclosure. My 150 gig Raptor gets up to 50C on the test stand, true it's a hotter drive that most, but still. I use this Icy Dock enclosure with the lovely name of MB559US-1S-B. It's not obnoxious looking, allows USB 2.0 and eSATA, and it allows hot-swapping.
 
Old Hippie said:
Many who use those docking stations, including me, have discovered that our drives actually bake when using those for extended periods.

One morning I found the paint on my HD had gotten tacky because the drive idled all night in a docking station.

A 3.5" external case should always have active cooling if used for extended periods and I always recommend the Antec MX-1.
Click to expand...

I've never noticed this, but I've never left a drive in it for extended periods (use 'em and store 'em). I have a couple of junk drives- I'll try it tonight, just to see what happens.

I also have an MX-1 used for my DirecTV DVR. It is REAL nice, so much so, that I forgot it until seeing it mentioned.
 
Just an option:
Put your drive inside your case as an internal drive.
Attach the drive to a hot-swappable port (AHCI).
Place a switch that would disconnect both 5V and 12V power to the drive.
When you want to use the drive, switch it on. After you are done, eject it using the safe remove icon on the taskbar. After Windows says it is safe to remove the drive, power off the switch.

Your drive will be cooled like all your internal drives.
You don't have to worry about forgetting to power it off. The taskbar icon will remind you that it is still connected.
The problem with this is that it is not a portable drive anymore.
So, choose your poison!
 
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