Recommend External HDD Enclosure

M

Mmm.vap0r

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Jun 18, 2006
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I have a 300 gb hdd in my desktop that crashed that's not getting used. I want to use it as an external hard drive since its just collecting dust. Not really sure what to look for in external enclosures for this thing. It's a 3.5" SATA (II i think, 3.0 Gb/s??) someone help me out. kthxbai
 
First thing, figure out how you want to connect it to your computer.

To connect it via SATA you need to have an eSATA port on your motherboard or case.

Most external enclosures are USB, there is really no differences between enclosures other than build quality/material and types of connections.

eSATA is obviously the fastest, however USB is usually fine for speed, you will probably average 20-30mb a sec, where with eSATA I get something like 50mb a sec.
 
I've been using this one for about a year now and it's been great so far. I have a 500GB Seagate 3 GB/s and this enclosure keeps it running cool enough to keep it serving and holding my data.I bought mine at Fry's though.
 
TooBooKoo said:
I've been using this one for about a year now and it's been great so far. I have a 500GB Seagate 3 GB/s and this enclosure keeps it running cool enough to keep it serving and holding my data.I bought mine at Fry's though.
Click to expand...

Works good here too, but if you plan on removing the drive the screws are a pain in the ass to get out.

Since I remove my drives a lot, swapping things is a priority so I'm getting a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071 next month I think eSATA for only $10 more than my Antec. I can't fathom having any more external cases for all my drives and that should work with the SATA ones and I'll just keep my IDE's in the enclosures.
 
TooBooKoo said:
I've been using this one for about a year now and it's been great so far. I have a 500GB Seagate 3 GB/s and this enclosure keeps it running cool enough to keep it serving and holding my data.I bought mine at Fry's though.
Click to expand...
Have the exact same set-up. Running a Seagate 7200.10 500GB out of this and it works well. Picked it up on sale from Fry's for just $12.99. Runs a bit hot so take ambient into account. It's cold as balls in Oregon so not a problem for me but if I were in like Cali or back home in Hawai'i, I'd look elsewhere.
 
skyline889 said:
Have the exact same set-up. Running a Seagate 7200.10 500GB out of this and it works well. Picked it up on sale from Fry's for just $12.99. Runs a bit hot so take ambient into account. It's cold as balls in Oregon so not a problem for me but if I were in like Cali or back home in Hawai'i, I'd look elsewhere.
Click to expand...

That's what I gave for it as well... I would say for $12.99 it's a very solid external.
I would agree that you can find some that run much cooler out there though.
 
$12 for that Antec is a nice deal.

I used to have a seagate freeagent case. My friend knocked it off my desk while it was running and that was the end of the drive inside.

Good enclosures will have better controllers but if you're just using it for backups once in awhile, it won't matter much.

If you're feeling baller, get a Mercury Elite Pro enclosure!
 
OP, keep all that ********* crap to yourself. Don't post junk in your title to call attention to your thread. It just pisses off the mod who has to edit it.

Word to the wise.
 
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