very slim external firewire harddrive enclosure $54 free shipped at newegg

[WalkingDead]

Originally posted by: Morph
Ask youself this: How many of your friends have Firewire ports on their computers? How many have USB? How many motherboards being sold today have Firewire ports? How many have USB 2.0?

The main purpose of an external hard drive is portability, being able to take it anywhere and plug it into any computer you may need to. USB2 is much more practical in this regard, despite the fact that it may be slightly slower.

Yes, my nForce mobo has both firewire and USB2. Actually most of my friends have firewire PCI cards, chipset buildin firewire, Radeon 8500DV or Creative Audigy sound cards in their machine.

Just for all of you info:

There's a bus powered 3.5" HDD firewire & USB 2 combo enclosure with Oxford 911 chipset and supports 200gig HDD out there. It's not cheap at $159 but it's damn nice. I tested one with a 80gig Maxtor D740X 7200rpm HDD without any problem. I don't remember the brand but I could ask my friend that has one.

 

[addragyn]

FireWire is to USB2, as SCSI is to IDE, as HW Modems are to Winmodems. The former are superior technologies and the latter are more common and cheaper tech.

FireWire is without question superior to USB2 in many ways.

USB2 is widesppread thanks to Intel. Why Intel choose to engineer instead USB2 and make it ubiquitous instead of the proven and mature FireWire is beyond me. I wish Intel could've put those resources towards making their integrated graphics even more extweeem! It's also odd since the killer app for a high speeds consumer interconnect is video. And DV cams come with FireWire.

FieWire is not going anywhere. It's the standard for Digital Video and has been picked up for DVD audio and will likely be part of your next home theater. It's also common in high-end graphics peripherials and in the audio world.

Personally, whenever I buy an external drive I get a FireWire/USB combo enclosure. I have USB in case I need it and a FireWire card in the machine I'll plug it into. I'm as interested in USB2 as I am in a WinModem.

It's a nice looking enclosure Farve and a good price too. For true portability I use these. Nice thing about FireWire is it supplies enough power to run a 2.5" hard drive. So no need to lug around an adaptor. Plus the Cutie enclosure comes with a little leather case. That's portable.

Course if you're into random file cansual file sharing with strangers USB is the slot for you.

 

[hans007]

this is the best looking enclosure i've seen in a while. i'm tired of that ugly plastic gray one that like everyone sells in various forms.


firewire is better, but thebackward compatibility of usb2 works for me.


some firewire drives can be powered from firewire bus even. i saw on ebay there is a company the sells 2.5" enclosures for about $12 plus shipping (thats the recent close prices anyways)

 

[IgoByte]

The question still remains: is this the enclosure to get? I think it looks really nice compared to the other crap I've been seeing.

 

[IgoByte]

Those of you who need portability over anything else, you shouldn't even be looking at 3.5" drive enclosures. Check out the complete package from LaCie. That drive has FW and USB 2.0 and comes in a small and portable package.

 

[MontyBurns]

The lack of a fan no doubt makes this smaller (and quieter) than others, but I wouldn't stick a big HD in there that you're accessing constantly. Too risky.

 

[Sneezer]

Originally posted by: MontyBurns
The lack of a fan no doubt makes this smaller (and quieter) than others, but I wouldn't stick a big HD in there that you're accessing constantly. Too risky.

Its been my experience that most laptop drives do not need a fan. 5400rpm models only recently came out on the market, the vast majority of decent deals on these smaller drivers are going to be 4200rpm models. I have a 30gb in my Libretto, which does not have any cooling at all, and have never had a problem. My Xircom NIC/modem generates more heat than the HDD under load. Most of the current laptops have fans strictly because the CPU, even the mobility ones, generate too much heat and need a fan to help stabilize the temp.

 

[Slacktron]

I bought one of the larger grey Firewire/USB2 combo cases from CompGeeks several months ago, and it sucks. It only works for a few minutes at a time, and then the drive simply disappears from Win2k. This happens on either USB or Firewire, and I tried three brands of IDE drive from 20 to 80GB. Happens on my laptop, desktop, and other desktop. I don't recall seeing an Oxford 911 chip, but there was an Ali chip on the board and super-loud fan.

In any case, I bought a BUSLink external combo drive from here: gus.com, and it rocks. It's been 100% reliable, has no fan, fits in a large pocket, and requires no additional power on either USB2 or Firewire. Just plug and go. USB1 needs the power pack or I get an "overloaded port" warning.

Anyway, after jerking around with this stupid no-name combo case and windows errors, this sure is nice.

 

[Sneezer]

Just noticed that at Macworld the announced the next generation of Firewire, Firewire 800 with an 800 Mbs data rate. Pretty cool. Looks like initial products will be hitting the marketplace in March.

 

[Vegito]

Originally posted by: Bfavre444
Does anyone own or have tried the following firewire enclosure? How's the speed?

I have the cool max external usb2/fw one.. ill take some pics.. I didn't see much speed difference but I dont have usb2 so i can't test it out..

inside is plastic.. not high quality , pic 3 and usb2 needs drivers, fw doesn't

USB2 is still software control and requires processing power.. fw doesn't !

 

[pmark]

Slacktron, sounds like you got a bum unit. I also got an enclosure from ComputerGeeks that is both Firewire and USB2 and ti works perfectly fine and I use it all of the time.

And I just want to say if you can't get a unit that has both Firewire and USB2 then I would get USB because of the fact the more people has USB. And USB2 isn't that much slower then Firewire. I don't even notice the difference between the two.

 

[addragyn]

The question still remains: is this the enclosure to get? I think it looks really nice compared to the other crap I've been seeing.

It does look nice and NewEgg seems to be held in pretty high regard for service. Go for it and just return if it's junk. Oxford 911 is regarded as the best bridge but I'm sure other companies can figure it out too. I've always just got Oxford 911 enxlosures. Wiebe Tech are supposed to be really good. High prices. Some of their products are exclusive and others are rebranded. All their stuff uses Oxford 911.


Just noticed that at Macworld the announced the next generation of Firewire, Firewire 800 with an 800 Mbs data rate. Pretty cool. Looks like initial products will be hitting the marketplace in March.

Besides being faster FireWire 800 does a few other cool things. Unlike USB FW devices can daisy chain. Which is why alot of them come with 2 ports. Instead of buying a hub for USB you just pay for port as you go. FW800 takes it one step further - you can connect the end of your loop back into your machine for redundancy. And some of the new long cabling options are also very interesting. You could put your machine in the basement(or at the other end of a football field) and run a KVM for keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and FW for drives.


He seems to think that firewire was better than DVI..... apparently because it talks both ways instead of a one way stream...

That makes FireWire useful for a control bus and for transferring data between components. It's likely FireWire and DVI will live together in two different roles.


Can you run files off Ipod? Never had one..... but as of size wise, ipod is bigger.

The iPod mounts as an external disk on Mac and Win boxes. No drivers, just plug it in and there it is. MP3s are tranferred through SW instead of just by dragging them over, doing that puts them into a databse which is your song list. This thing is much bigger than an iPod. A 3.5" drive is larger than 2 iPods side by side. In fact it's larger than four iPods. Maxtor's DiamondMax Plus 8 is a single platter hard drive that is about half as thin as most 3.5" drives. That drive is about as thick as an iPod. BTW - For a cheap drive the fluid bearing of that Maxtor is nice and quiet.

 

[chrisfrog]

Originally posted by: IgoByte

Originally posted by: Cryo

well.... since sony always using firewire for their high end video products. I am guessing its going to be around for a while. Besides isn't firewire 2 coming soon?

Any way, if you want a fire wire enclsoure. You should check out this one, build in LIt-Ion battery!

linky

more expensive, but great for laptop users.

Well if you want that you might as well get an Ipod
its smaller and plays mp3s

It's $500 for 20GB. Isn't that a little inconvenient?

ipod rules, hands down

and nothing, i mean nothing beats apple support

i bought a 10gb in august, a couple weeks ago it quits working (i may have dropped it), so i filed for applecare, they ship me a box so i can ship mine back, i ship it back on a friday. tuesday morning theres a brand new 20gb sitting on my porch.

 

[Bfavre444]

Originally posted by: forcesho

Originally posted by: Bfavre444
Does anyone own or have tried the following firewire enclosure? How's the speed?

I have the cool max external usb2/fw one.. ill take some pics.. I didn't see much speed difference but I dont have usb2 so i can't test it out..

inside is plastic.. not high quality , pic 3 and usb2 needs drivers, fw doesn't

USB2 is still software control and requires processing power.. fw doesn't !

Hey forcesho, I would really appreciate if you could do some benchmarks on that coolmax CD-309 for firewire. This is the one I'm leaning toward the most. Do you use HDtach to benchmark?
THANKs.

 

[Vegito]

no but let me know where to download it and ill post the drive spec im going to use and pc specs ! I can do it tonight

 

[Bfavre444]

Originally posted by: forcesho
no but let me know where to download it and ill post the drive spec im going to use and pc specs ! I can do it tonight

That'd be great! HDtach 2.61 you can download at http://www.tcdlabs.com/hdtach.htm. It tests peak, average, and minimum read speeds; as well as cpu utilization and access time. It's also a small and simple program.

Oh, and those pics you said you were gonna take, those would be great too if you can still do that.

 

[IgoByte]

Originally posted by: chrisfrog

Originally posted by: IgoByte

Originally posted by: Cryo

well.... since sony always using firewire for their high end video products. I am guessing its going to be around for a while. Besides isn't firewire 2 coming soon?

Any way, if you want a fire wire enclsoure. You should check out this one, build in LIt-Ion battery!

linky

more expensive, but great for laptop users.

Well if you want that you might as well get an Ipod
its smaller and plays mp3s

It's $500 for 20GB. Isn't that a little inconvenient?

ipod rules, hands down

and nothing, i mean nothing beats apple support

i bought a 10gb in august, a couple weeks ago it quits working (i may have dropped it), so i filed for applecare, they ship me a box so i can ship mine back, i ship it back on a friday. tuesday morning theres a brand new 20gb sitting on my porch.

The iPod is wonderful. I have a 20GB winpod and love it. The support was fine too. No copmplaints. My point was that 1. 20GB isn't enough for a portable HDD and 2. that using the iPod as a portable HDD isn't the most cost-effective thing.

 

[Vegito]

Bad news.. the hd tach doesn't see the hdd at all.. even though windows does.... any other thing i can test it with

Originally posted by: Bfavre444

Originally posted by: forcesho
no but let me know where to download it and ill post the drive spec im going to use and pc specs ! I can do it tonight

That'd be great! HDtach 2.61 you can download at http://www.tcdlabs.com/hdtach.htm. It tests peak, average, and minimum read speeds; as well as cpu utilization and access time. It's also a small and simple program.

Oh, and those pics you said you were gonna take, those would be great too if you can still do that.

 

[Bfavre444]

Originally posted by: forcesho
Bad news.. the hd tach doesn't see the hdd at all.. even though windows does.... any other thing i can test it with

You could use SiSoft SANDRA or Winbench 99. Again, thanks for taking your time to test your drive.

 

[TKHDebater]

Bought this a week ago. It sucks. super tight fit, had to practically crush the LEDs to get my normal size HD in. the IDE cable inside will be crushed and crimped, there is no on/off switch, just plug it in and immediately it powers up, its made from cheap crappy plastic. No cooling whatsoever. Spend a little more and get a better one.

 

[artist99]

USB 2.0 enclosure for large drives

2nd Generation Oxford 911

 

[Bfavre444]

Originally posted by: TKHDebater
Bought this a week ago. It sucks. super tight fit, had to practically crush the LEDs to get my normal size HD in. the IDE cable inside will be crushed and crimped, there is no on/off switch, just plug it in and immediately it powers up, its made from cheap crappy plastic. No cooling whatsoever. Spend a little more and get a better one.

Are you talking about the HD-337 the silver very slim one?

 

[TKHDebater]

I bought the very slim silver one for $54

 

[NeoZGeo]

okay.... this threat is getting more confusing and confusing......

which silver one are you talking about?

 

[krackato]

Firewire 2 is already available in the new Powermac line that was released recently. Doubles the data rate from 400 to 800mbps. In contrast, USB2 is supposedly 420, but lots of people say that firewire is the more stable, more advanced technology. I've had nothing but great experiences with Firewire myself.

As far as enclosures, if you're getting a firewire case, the only thing that I can recommend is that you get one with the Oxford 911 chipset. I've got one and it's much better than some of the other chipsets I've used that my friends have used, especially if you're editing video and you don't want dropped frames (and who does?).

As to why Intel supported USB2 instead of Firewire... one word: money. Firewire was developed by Apple, and I'm sure they wanted more money to lease their product than Intel was willing to pay.