Due to varations is "ambient" room tempertures and the enclosure itself, having a fan allows greater stability in its use. It's true the metal case will allow some heat dissaption but that not enough for the long run and HDs do fail in std. system cases with all its fans. Heat is now the most common killer of a HD, so all attention to reduce heat is good news. The cost of a fan is hardly a back breaker so pick a fan supplied ext. case and one well vented as well.
tada -----Willy ![]()
A company that makes external enclosures told me that people have perception that a fan is necessary for an enclosure and that they only still make enclosures with fans to keep from losing customers to competitors.
I am wanting to puchase an external enclosure for my Western Digital 3.5", 7200RPM, 250GB, SATA II hard drive and run a powerful software on it. Does anyone have opinions regading having a fan or no fan?
Will not having a fan but having a good aluminum heat desipation ruin my hard drive/lower the number of years that drive will last?
I am interested in the new Macally SATA enclosure. Any opinions on the Macally enclosure brands?

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