external enclosures

[scottatwittenberg]

ok.. i want to put one, or maybe both of my 160 gb drives into an external enclosure..

i have a few questions..

is it possible to have an external enclosure with sata drives in it?

if so, could i theoretically get one, put a raptor in it, run my comptuer from it and have it be faster than the internal IDE drives i have now?

is there a way to buy just a card/board that would convert usb or firewire to ide? or usb or firewire to sata? if so, i think i would rather get one of those, and then mod a computer case to hold the hard drives, and maybe a psu and even some fans.. then it would also theoretically be pretty upgradeable.. i could add 8 hard drives if i wanted.. (if it got too complicated though, i should just look at making a file server)

so.. for right now..
is there any kind of card/board, or enclosure that will basically convert usb, or firewire, or both to both ide and sata?

if not.. what is a good enclosure that i can put once of my hard drives in? the cheaper the better

 

[Laforge]

ok.. i want to put one, or maybe both of my 160 gb drives into an external enclosure..

i have a few questions..

I'll try to answer them..

is it possible to have an external enclosure with sata drives in it?

Yes, you can. I even sell them.

if so, could i theoretically get one, put a raptor in it, run my comptuer from it and have it be faster than the internal IDE drives i have now?

Firewire A (ieee1394a) is limited to about 50mb a second top performance. Firewire B is double that.. Those numbers, mind you, are "max theoretical" -- real world performance is lower. However, So is the real world performance of hard drives.

Not knowing which ide drives you have now, I can't tell you a definate yes or no answer to that. :-( The raptor may be faster externally than your pata internals, or it might not be.. I'd lean towards it being faster, however, especially if you spend the extra for 1394*b*

is there a way to buy just a card/board that would convert usb or firewire to ide? or usb or firewire to sata? if so, i think i would rather get one of those, and then mod a computer case to hold the hard drives, and maybe a psu and even some fans.. then it would also theoretically be pretty upgradeable.. i could add 8 hard drives if i wanted.. (if it got too complicated though, i should just look at making a file server)

initio makes these sort of controllers, but I would not recommend this as a "home brew" situation.. Partly because you need a seperate controller for every drive [some initio boards can take 2 drives, and you also need firewire bridges to plug into your internal firewire card.


As for price, It's probably against the rules for me to quote you prices on what *I* sell, but if you PM me, I'm sure I can hook you up.

Lastly.. the Pata [ide] -> firewire enclosures are generally cheaper than s-ata

 

[scottatwittenberg]

ok.. i started looking at things and am posting them as i find them

will any of these support more than 1 device? i guess it would need master and slave.. also.. how does sata work? are their primary and secondary channels and all that? master and slave? i have no idea...

http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=USB-IDE
for $30 i think i will just buy an enclosure

http://www.deltrontech.com/Firewire/1394IDE/1394IDE.htm
oem only...

http://www.addonics.com/products/io/
$30 again

http://www.ebigchina.com/ebcps/4/pd/1241113.html
what about the power cable? are these for laptop drives?
what are the differences between laptop and 3.5 inch drive connections? i think they are different, but i am not sure..

http://www.cooldrives.com/usb20toideab.html
supports 2 drives, but for $80 it better..

http://www.firewiremax.com/fire-wire-1394-ilink/fi800i13usb2.html
$90

http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_info.php/products_id/360?osCsid=afe442655c8290c8f491fc50df0cf5ca

http://www.cooldrives.com seems to have a lot of stuff.. but it is expensive.. i am just trying to do this cheaply...

 

[Laforge]

ok.. i started looking at things and am posting them as i find them

will any of these support more than 1 device? i guess it would need master and slave.. also.. how does sata work? are their primary and secondary channels and all that? master and slave? i have no idea...

http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=USB-IDE
for $30 i think i will just buy an enclosure

http://www.deltrontech.com/Firewire/1394IDE/1394IDE.htm
oem only...

http://www.addonics.com/products/io/
$30 again

http://www.ebigchina.com/ebcps/4/pd/1241113.html
what about the power cable? are these for laptop drives?
what are the differences between laptop and 3.5 inch drive connections? i think they are different, but i am not sure..

http://www.cooldrives.com/usb20toideab.html
supports 2 drives, but for $80 it better..

http://www.firewiremax.com/fire-wire-1394-ilink/fi800i13usb2.html
$90

http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_info.php/products_id/360?osCsid=afe442655c8290c8f491fc50df0cf5ca

http://www.cooldrives.com seems to have a lot of stuff.. but it is expensive.. i am just trying to do this cheaply...

You're not going to find a multi-drive enclosure much cheaper than that $80 one.

You have to realize, [and I'm just going by what cooldrives has]

Lets say the enclosure costs $20
The card ide->usb converter you have is $30
You've got to also put a powersupply in it.. proprietary design, not "pc" design..
and you've got to build it.

$80 is damn cheap for that, honestly.

You are going to spend at least $65 in hardware.

 

[scottatwittenberg]

there are no $80 enclosures, that is just for the card that controls 2 drives..

the cheapest dual drive enclosures are about $130..

so that is a $70 controller (probably less in bulk of course)
$30 case with psu and 2 $10 removeable drive tray things..

the price is right..

but.. for $130 i can build a decent cpu/mobo/heatsink combo.. i have everything else to make a comptuer.. and stick that comptuer in a closet.. with loud fans and not care..

so i am looking at spending $40-60 on a decent external enclosure... or i will figure out how to cool my hdds in my case better...

 

[Laforge]

there are no $80 enclosures, that is just for the card that controls 2 drives..

Actually, you are incorrect. cooldrives sells an $80, dual drive, enclosure.