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General discussion

Need Help Selecting a HARD DRIVE ENCLOSURE

Jul 22, 2006 12:51PM PDT

Please do not go off topic. These questions is about hard drive enclosures, not computer case.

I have a new Western Digital Caviar SE16 3.5'' , 7200RPM, 250GB, SATA II, 16MB Cache. I will be leaving the drive on for about 2 hours at a time to do video editing on a powerful video editing software.

I've done alot of research and narrowed the enclosures down to the three shown below. Please suggest one. My main concern is heat. I've provided links to the sites of each enclosures that has the specifications and also I've included a site that has the user guide so that you can see what the enclosure looks like inside. I am mostly wantin the Addonics or the Macally.


ADDONICS (AE5SACSUF):
Release date: 2 years ago.
Chipset for USB 2.0: Cypress
Has a fan on the back. Also built for 5.25 inch drive so there is extra space on the top of the drive.

http://www.addonics.com/products/enclosures/ae5idecsu2f.asp

http://www.addonics.com/support/user_guides/exdrive/AE5IDECSUF.pdf


MACALLY (PHR-100SU):
Release date: 6 to 8 months ago.
Chipset for USB 2.0: JMicron
No fan. Has quality aluminum case. Has anti shock mounting screws.

http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/storage_device/phr_100su.html

http://www.macally.com/techsupport/manual/phr100su_manual.pdf

KINGWIN (TL-35USBS)
Chipset: JMicro
Has fan on the bottom corner.

http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=52&ID=265

Discussion is locked

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Off topic, never. . .
Jul 23, 2006 10:52AM PDT

But as long as you ask, there are two considerations.

Get USB-2 and a fan. Period. Your choice on vendor. Don't over-analyze. I bought my two in about 30 seconds. Bytecc. Aluminum case for heat dissipation and a fan. External power. USB-2. One contains a HD and the other contains a DVD burner. Works perfectly on my three desktops and two laptops.

Wayne

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Anyone else have suggestions of my original post?
Jul 25, 2006 9:53AM PDT

Anyone else have suggestions of my post regarding the three external enclosures that I narrowed down?

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The word "FUNGIBLE" comes to mind.
Jul 25, 2006 11:50PM PDT

These cases are for the most part fungible. Today I rarely encounter one that does not work. While I prefer the 3.5 inch drive cases to have fans, that's about it.

You'll be fine. (As long as you understand the words above.)

Bob

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Fungible?
Jul 26, 2006 1:49AM PDT

What do you mean by Fungible?

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(NT) (NT) Fungible, just like gasoline.
Jul 26, 2006 2:33AM PDT
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Yes to fungible
Aug 3, 2006 9:21PM PDT

Agree - my enclosure is so generic, there is no manufacturer's label on it. The only cautions I would offer is that there is a difference in fan noise levels, so you might want to invest in one of the ultra quite fans used in desktop cases to replace the original; and ensure you get a USB 2.0 one since there are older 1.1 and 1.0 models sitting in inventory.

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Enclosure: Heat killed my drive
Aug 3, 2006 10:26PM PDT

I bought the Compusa house brand with usb2 and firewire (no fan). I left it on mostly full time. It worked fine until I bought another external drive to back up the first one. I bought it at Fry's. It also had no fan. I questioned the tech support people about the need for a fan, but out of the approx 6 enclosures they had, only one had a fan. All claimed the aluminum casing disipated the heat.

They were operating about 4 inches apart, and the original one just stopped being recognized. I can hear it start up and that's it. I'd buy one with a fan no matter what going forward.

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Heat
Aug 3, 2006 11:03PM PDT

I have to agree with that. I have had 3 external hard drives that do not have fans. 2 have died from heat (I did get them replaced). Although I still have those kind, I do not turn them on unless I need to use them for a short period. I would never buy one without a fan again.

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Enclosure: Heat killed my drive
Aug 4, 2006 10:18AM PDT

I have had trouble with heat, not only shutting down the hard drive, but also ruining a couple of good ones. I have not had any luck at all with fanless cases. One drive from a major hard drive mfg went belly up very shortly after it was put into use. The replacement drive furnished under warranty did the same thing. I currently have the second failure of another 3.5 case, equipped with a fan. The first quit after one afternoon session. The second quit on day two.
I have had a lot better luck with 5.25 cases with a fan. I have ordered a 5.25 case to replace the two mentioned above. Earlier, I bought two 3.5 cases without fans. The first one died soon after being put into use, and the second drive package has not even been opened. Sort of expensive education, but I have learned a lot from it. You can lose a lot of information when a hard drive is completely lost because of overheating. Tain't worth the gamble.

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Get one with a fan!!!!
Aug 4, 2006 1:40PM PDT

Head the warnings from all the other readers...HEAT KILLS HARD DRIVES!!!! Especially the newer, faster drives. The whole aluminum case will feel as hot as a branding iron. You can't go wrong with an enclosure with a fan!.
This is one that I recently bought and I am very happy with it. The case is plastic, but it has a fan, so it's not necessary to be metal. I like the indicator lights on it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8800165648&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT

Check out the sellers other auctions.

Good Luck,

Frank

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Be careful in your selection
Aug 4, 2006 3:43PM PDT

Not all enclosures will handle SATA drives. Make sure you get one that will.

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I would recommend the Kingwin unit
Aug 4, 2006 9:57PM PDT

All Large HDs generate heat, You need to dissipate that heat quickly, the kingwin unit has the fan as well as a fan failure indicator, its aluminum and its roomy. You just cant go wrong with redundancy when your data is at stake.

Not to mention the pricing is more than reasonable. I found find some good choices and the kingwin unit at IC PC Parts here is the link to the unit http://www.icpcparts.com/catalog2/computer-hardware-hard-drive-enclosures-docking-c-1_29.html

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get the fan!
Aug 5, 2006 5:24AM PDT

I got a hard drive that didn?t work in my computer, and with no money to replace it or warranty (no return sales) I got a 3.5? enclosure to use (no fan) to use on my three-computer network (24 ? 7). The Maxtor drive quit after 3 months, (80 GB. Drive ? had 52 GB. Used) lost it all! I had a 250 GB drive that I was saving to put in a rebuild, but I put it in the case but I cut a hole in the top of the case and put a CPU fan on it ? keeps it cold!
old.giant61

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Do your homework
Aug 5, 2006 7:52PM PDT

Start off here: http://www.fatwallet.com/t/28/496281

This is a great discussion and evaluation of external enclosures. In general, buy a name brand if you care about your data. Lower tier manufacturers, like bytecc, use cheap chipsets, such as Prolific, and are prone to failure and data corruption (especially their firewire units). Better chipset come from Oxford, Initio, and Cypress (for USB; stay away from Cypress firewire chips). Ali chips are slow and Prolific chips are problems waiting to happen. Other chips come from Ti and jmicron. At the moment, I don't know any reason to exclude them.

Not all fans are created equal. A small 40mm fan may do more to annoy you than it does to cool the HD. Look for a fan 60-80mm, such as in the AMS Vensus DS3. The Macally does not use a fan, and the case gets hot. That means that heat transfer is taking place: the heatsink is doing its job. If you are only going to run this drive for a couple hours at a time, the lack of a fan--in a good, well-designed case (Macally)--is not a problem. Also, a fan failure will never take out your drive.

Finally, for video editing, you may want to consider going with a dual bay case and two identical drives in RAID 0. Most cases with this config are built for IDE drives and not SATA, though.

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EDIT
Aug 5, 2006 8:16PM PDT
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About firewire issues...
Aug 6, 2006 9:44AM PDT

I found that to be a Windows PC only issue. The firewire worked find on the Apples and Linux. The Apple 1$ firewall toll slowed acceptance in the PC market and it's my view that this is why firewire for hard disks on Windows is not safe for all drives.

I have yet to hear a report like yours when the drive is on an Apple.

Bob

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It all depends on the chipset
Aug 6, 2006 7:01PM PDT

I don't know if any of the low end chip makers are suppliers for Apple, but I doubt it. Firewire issues on the Windows systems can be traced to the likes of Prolific chips, which really should be avoided at all costs. Oxford and Initio chips are both well-regarded and perform equally well on either platform. No issues on the Win side with those.