Quality external eSATA enclosure?

S

Surly73

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 19, 2007
Messages
1,782
I'm looking for an external enclosure with eSATA+USB2 (Firewire would be a bonus but isn't required) on the outside and SATA on the inside.

I'd like something with a bulletproof chipset - no goofy write timeouts, no lackluster performance, no issues with hot plug eSATA, it would be nice if SMART was supported even when running USB

I intend to use a 3.5" SATA2 drive but the ability to also accept 2.5" would be a bonus.

An internal power supply (ie. standard IEC power input on the back instead of an external wall wart) would be nice.

Including things like USB and eSATA cables are also a nice touch. Rubber feet and a quality feel would be appreciated.

I don't need cute stuff like "backup" buttons.

I've been browsing the Vantec line at NCIX but I'm open to suggestions. I'm not sure if a dock is right for me and the intended purposes, but you can chime in if you love your dock too. You don't always get what you pay for and lots of things don't work like they claim, so I'd like to ask first.

Thanks,
 
The Antec MX-1 is pretty nice. I have one and it has been working well for me. It doesn't have an external power brick however. Not exactly the cheapest thing around either.
 
The MX-1 is a decent enclosure, but it's a little on the bulky side considering it's only holding 1 drive. Plus, I really don't like those 4-pin din connectors that seem to be so popular for external enclosures - in my experience they don't really fit very well and tend to wiggle around a lot. It does keep your drive silent and cool, but due to the size I wouldn't use it except for at home or office purposes, not travel.

When I was in Korea a few years ago I picked up some really high quality enclosures from DVICO (almost $80/ea) that are almost no larger than a 3.5 drive and had a high quality bridge chip that never gave me issues. Only problem was it was for IDE drives, and eSATA was not a common interconnect back then. It came with a nice travel case too, and the power brick was very small and used one of those laptop-style power plugs that never gives me issues like those 4-pin din connectors do (wiggle = flaky connection = dropped drive). I actually still use it for IDE drives (with a power plug converter to US plugs) since the power brick is multi-voltage, like most power bricks.

Looking at the newegg external enclosure list, all I see are the same tired aluminum/plastic/gimmicky enclosures with the crappy 4-pin din connectors. It would be nice if one of the mainstream manufacturers came out with a decent enclosure. I was considering the icydock tray-type one, but the 4-pin din connector scared me off.
 
+1 Antec MX-1

I do agree with alamone though, it is a bit bulky for travel purposes. I don't have the same issues with the 4-pin DIN connector though. S-Video ROCKS!...
 
OP, unfortunately i don't have much info on it but a cousin of mine has the Macally PHR-100SUA and loves it. He's had plenty of external enclosures in the past so he does have some experience with em. Vantec enclosures are also known to be good.

- Vantec esata/firewire/usb dock: http://www.google.com/products?q=Vantec+NST-D100UFS&hl=en&scoring=p

- Vantec esata/firewire/usb enclosure: http://www.google.com/products?q=Vantec+NST-360UFS&hl=en&scoring=p


epimetheus said:
S-Video ROCKS!...
Click to expand...
haha, i "almost" wonder how much damage one would cause to an svideo input if you tried plugging it in :p
 
Thanks for responses so far, I should add a couple of things before following all of the links :)

1. I'm somewhat in favour of an internal power supply, meaning NO power brick. I know that probably means that it would definitely have a fan, which I'm on the fence about. (yes, it may provide better cooling, but then its noisy and the bearings will just go bad in a year and I bet lots of passively cooled enclosures with external brick supplies keep the drive within acceptable limits)

2. I don't intend to travel with this case. It will be used for a fairly large-scale film and slide scanning project within my family. Someone might scan 1000 35mm slides into TIFFs and someone else may need to tag, edit, curves, resize etc.... It'll move around but it won't be backpacked. After the project is over, I may or may not keep using it for misc backups and such with a different drive in it.

Thanks!
 
Blue Fox said:
The Antec MX-1 is pretty nice. I have one and it has been working well for me. It doesn't have an external power brick however. Not exactly the cheapest thing around either.
Click to expand...

Im looking at this on Newegg and it says it "Supports up to 750G SATA hard disk drive". So if i have a 1tb HD in there, it wont work?
 
Retardo said:
Im looking at this on Newegg and it says it "Supports up to 750G SATA hard disk drive". So if i have a 1tb HD in there, it wont work?
Click to expand...
It will work. Manufacturers only like to advertise the largest available capacity available at the time when it was released.
 
Blue Fox said:
It will work. Manufacturers only like to advertise the largest available capacity available at the time when it was released.
Click to expand...

QFT. I'd wager a years salary (lol@unemployment) that whats advertising as "supporting up to" 750 gigs, would actually work just fine with a 2tb WD drive.
 
Actually, I tried to plug my 2TB WD20EADS into my vantec(?) docking bay thing, and the USB bridge chip didn't quite like it (format failed). eSATA would have probably worked, but I was connecting it to my laptop. So I think a lot of bridge chips out there may not work properly w/ the 2TB drives just yet.
 
alamone said:
Actually, I tried to plug my 2TB WD20EADS into my vantec(?) docking bay thing, and the USB bridge chip didn't quite like it (format failed). eSATA would have probably worked, but I was connecting it to my laptop. So I think a lot of bridge chips out there may not work properly w/ the 2TB drives just yet.
Click to expand...

So this would be another factor in my purchase. I think I'd like 2TB support, even though I'm just putting a 500GB in from the shelf right now.
 
I was also concerned with getting a certain AMS enclusre. It also said it only supported up to 750GB. It could work with a 1TB but if you had issues they would say you used a drive it did not support.

AMS enclosure
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top