New HDD arrangement

[carlmart]

As I am now assembling a new desktop, I'm seriously considering something different for HDD management: moving the HDDs out.

Because the HDDs I have to use simultaneously have been growing up in number in the recent years, finding a mobo with multiple SATA interfaces has been a must, and also a problem.

USB3 may have come to the rescue, as I have had to use a laptop with an external HDD recently, power-fed from the USB interface too, and I have come to think that might be the way to go on my desktop.

That is also fortunate, because newer mobos do not have IDE interface anymore. So you end up using two SATAs right away for C: and DVD. Until now I used two more SATAs for data, mostly video files. But as I also edit features on the same computer, any mobo I might consider should have at least 6 SATAs, which is not that usual, most having 4.

What I'm considering now is moving the data HDDs out of the main case, and use external USB3 HDD boxes. This I think is important: they should be powered through the USB interface.

My experience with HDD external interfaces, both in USB and 1394, has not been too good for the drives health. All HDDs that were used with them did not survive much longer, and I believe it might be related to the power supply.

Any comments over this matter will be welcome.

 

[Aesma]

Only 2,5" HDDs (and SSDs) can be powered by USB.

You're right that cheap enclosures' power supplies are crappy. In fact I own 6 expensive 4*HDD enclosures and one of them is dead because of its power supply (an internal one, not a brick).

For your use case I wouldn't bother with external enclosures to be honest, and middle/high end motherboards always have at least 6 SATA.

 

[carlmart]

Only 2,5" HDDs (and SSDs) can be powered by USB.

That's fine with me. Until recently capacity was a problem with 2.5" HDDs, not it's not. Neither is price.

The way I'm thinking it now is that they should be fine for storing video files, even if running @ 5400rpm.

What I will have to make my mind on is the editing HDDs, which should probably run in RAID and I never tried that. Those should be regular 3.5" internal types. But anything external is to be 2.5" type.

You're right that cheap enclosures' power supplies are crappy. In fact I own 6 expensive 4*HDD enclosures and one of them is dead because of its power supply (an internal one, not a brick).

If I can find an affordable 4 x HDD enclosure, with good specs, I might try that. Which one of yours is dead?

For your use case I wouldn't bother with external enclosures to be honest, and middle/high end motherboards always have at least 6 SATA.

It's nice to have an opinion, because it might help get to a decision. I'm pretty satisfied with the external arrangement I am using now, and I believe the HDD is much more secure than with the other types I had.