FireWire cases and ATA drives: A follow-up

We received many replies to yesterday's item on When a Power Mac dies. Most expanded upon our brief mention of the potential money savings of adding an ATA drive to a FireWire case, and pointed out that it is possible to get an even better deal than we described. Here are several options:

Mike Chung suggests: "The StarTech.com case you mentioned can be had for as little as $129.95 at buy.com. For $129.95 plus say an IBM Deskstar 75GXP (75 Gig, 7200RPM) for $280 (at ibuyer), you would have a great portable FireWire drive with 75 fast Gigs...all for $410."

Jerry Kindall writes: "The best deals I've found for FireWire cases for ATA drives is at www.madlogix.com. A 3.5" hard disk case is $100 and a mini-case for 2.5" (laptop size) drives is $120. The latter is bus-powered so you don't even need a power cord."

Bill Achuff offers: "One of the most reliable and attractive cases for a 3.5-inch HD is the Pyro 1394 FireWire from ADS Technologies; it retails for $140. If you really want to see some beautiful case designs, however, visit www.fwdepot.com. They have cases for 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives; some with both FireWire and USB connections, i.e., SK3.5FWUS and the DFMDFWUS. Only the dual bus units approach the $185 price point. [Note: the ones we looked at were not bus-powered, if that matters to you; the StarTech is.]