good quality SATA drive enclosures

[Turbonium]

Can anyone recommend any good quality SATA (SATA1-compatible) drive enclosures (makes or models)?

By good quality, I mean reliable over all else (build quality, thermals, etc.). Speed is a bonus, but not a priority.

 

[bononos]

A more likely source of problems with harddrive enclosures is poor quality built in power supplies rather than heat buildup. Hard to choose a good enclosure when theres little or no specs on their accompanying power supplies so you'll just have to go with a good brand. Theres no point spending alot on a good psu and cheaping out on external harddrive enclosures that will fry your backups.

 

[LurchFrinky]

I use a cheap Rosewill case for my 2.5" that I am very happy with.
For 5.25" I use a Vantec NexStar DX that is just awesome. Aluminum chassis with fan makes it sturdy, cool, and stylish.

But this may not be what you meant.
What are you putting inside? 2.5", 3.5", optical drive, multi-drive RAID?
What type of connectivity? USB 2.0, 3.0, firewire, Esata?

 

[Turbonium]

A more likely source of problems with harddrive enclosures is poor quality built in power supplies rather than heat buildup. Hard to choose a good enclosure when theres little or no specs on their accompanying power supplies so you'll just have to go with a good brand. Theres no point spending alot on a good psu and cheaping out on external harddrive enclosures that will fry your backups.

To clarify for readers, here's the OP: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=33463942&postcount=14

What are you putting inside?

Forget what I said earlier about SATA1. Just assume a 3.5" SATA2 HDD with USB 3.0 interface (assuming SATA and USB are backwards compatible with earlier, slower versions, meaning, for example, that I'd be able to install a SATA1 drive into the enclosure and connect it to a system with USB2.0).

Basically, I'm going to buy a pair of drives (with a pair of enclosures) for backup purposes. I don't want to do RAID-1, as I want to do each backup separately to be extra safe. I picked 3.5" because it's what I'm familiar with, and the drives can be used in a system later. I picked SATA because they're the most common, cheapest kind of 3.5" drive.

EDIT:

How's this one?: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16817392039
Paired with this drive?: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16822148697

 

[corkyg]

When it comes to external drive enclosures, I choose Vantec NexStars all the way.

 

[bononos]

I have little idea on that Vantec enclosure in your link but the good thing is that Vantec makes psus at least. To clarify my earlier post- the sata-usb electronics probably cost <$5. The important bit is the internal power supply.

I think Seagate reduced it warranty to 1yr so why not get a WD green which have a 2yr warranty.

 

[Turbonium]

...why not get a WD green which have a 2yr warranty.

Don't they spin at a slower rate, but more relevantly, shut themselves down after a while to save power? I would imagine this could lead to problems in an external setup environment.

 

[bononos]

Don't they spin at a slower rate, but more relevantly, shut themselves down after a while to save power? I would imagine this could lead to problems in an external setup environment.

All drives do that(sleep) and not just greens. I'm not aware of any issues with green drives or the WD green in particular being used in external enclosures.

 

[Turbonium]

According to the PDF specsheet linked below, the better (by a slight margin) of the two WDC drives is actually 3 bucks cheaper:

WD10EZRX - cheaper, and marginally superior
WD10EARX - pricier, and marginally inferior

specsheet: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701229.pdf

What gives? Is this just some weird supply issue?

 

[fuzzymath10]

I used a few 2.5 and 3.5" vantecs and am very happy with them. I even ran some for weeks on end without issues.

 

[Be1n]

A more likely source of problems with harddrive enclosures is poor quality built in power supplies rather than heat buildup. Hard to choose a good enclosure when theres little or no specs on their accompanying power supplies so you'll just have to go with a good brand. Theres no point spending alot on a good psu and cheaping out on external harddrive enclosures that will fry your backups.

I've been having problems with enclosures as well. Can you answer the following questions?

1. What is the psu you are referring to? Is it the AC adapter, or a part of the enclosure it self?
2. About branding, enclosures are pretty much all made by budget brands like Vantec. Renowned manufacturers like Kingston or Belkin don't bother making them. I just had a vantec Nexstar CX's onboard circuitry fail, I thought it was the hdd at first because file transfers don't arrive with the same checksums. But then the enclosure started dropping in and out of connection, and when I moved the drive to a new enclosure everything was fine again. Most other competitors are even worse, I had an Eagletech enclosure that had out of the box connection problems. Right now I have switched to Siig, but don't know if it is decidedly better than Vantec.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Have a Sabrent enclosure paired with a WD Green 2 TB with an eSATA connection. So far, no issues, but my main concern is the stress put on the SATA cable inside due to the positioning on the circuit board, and the location of the SATA port on the HDD. Basically, I had to force things in place. Even though the screws hold the drive in place pretty well, I'm still hesitant on moving it around much.

Apart from that though, haven't had issues with the PSU, and even makes a better drive for Fraps (via eSATA) than my lappy's pokey 5400 rpm drive. And the aluminum enclosure itself looks bauss.

 

[tcsenter]

I've bought a dozen of the iMicro brand enclosures in the past five or six years. No problems at all.

 

[mojaveron]

if you are looking for good quality? The MiniPro 2.5-inch eSATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure (9.5mm, 12.5mm, 15mm).


http://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-2-5-in...+enclosure+2+5

 

[WilliamM2]

We have been using the USB2 version of these for 8 years. Have about ten at work, and two at home. No failures, and the drives stay nice and cool. I have 1 USB3 version as well, but have only used it for a couple months, great so far. They go on sale every other week it seems, paid $24 for my usb3 version, less than $20 for the USB2's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182248

 

[Dessert Tears]

We have been using the USB2 version of these for 8 years. Have about ten at work, and two at home. No failures, and the drives stay nice and cool. I have 1 USB3 version as well, but have only used it for a couple months, great so far. They go on sale every other week it seems, paid $24 for my usb3 version, less than $20 for the USB2's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182248

I have the USB 3 version, and I like it. I can see the drive's SMART data in Crystal Disk Info. I've had some problems with copying large (10s of GB) disk image files, but they go through if I retry and leave the computer completely alone, including checking status.