Best HDD enclosure for SATA discs?

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Question as above really. As far as I can see, there are only two on the ocuk site.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Removable_Hard_Drive_Racks.html

One is the
'Stardom U6-1S-B2 Serial ATA to USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure'
at £43.42

and the other is the,
'Icy Box External Enclosure IB-351ST-US-B Serial ATA to USB 2.0 - Black'
at £34.02

Anyone used either of these? What would you reccommend?
Cheers!

(ps. It will probably be used with a 160GB or a 200GB Samsung Spinpoint if that makes any difference)
 
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Has nobody got any of these things then?

I've also found the:
"Enermax External Enclosure EB305C IDE/SATA to USB2.0 - Black"
at £29.32

which has the advantage of being able to take both IDE and SATA discs, which is great, but its also cheaper than both of the above sata-only options and I'm wondering why?

Anybody?
 
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nightwish said:
Has nobody got any of these things then?

I've also found the:
"Enermax External Enclosure EB305C IDE/SATA to USB2.0 - Black"
at £29.32

which has the advantage of being able to take both IDE and SATA discs, which is great, but its also cheaper than both of the above sata-only options and I'm wondering why?

Anybody?


Just ordered one, I'll let you know if it's any good once I get it.
 
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Got it yesterday.

Seems like very good value for money.
Was easy to install although a little cramped.

Popped in my sata maxtor diamondmax 10 and had no problems whatsoever.

I must say that I wouldn't recommend it for people who need to be transporting it with them all the time. I dont think It would stand up well to being dropped or banged about to much as it's quite brittle + it uses one of those power supply's with the external boxey bit. For a external home storage device though it's perfect.
 
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Cheers for that mate! :) Looks like it'll go on my shopping list then!

I'm slightly suprised that more people haven't got one of these - I'm sure I'm going to find one very useful...
 
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I got my Stardom yesterday with a 400GB WD SATAII 16MB drive. It's running very cool and quiet, very good enclosure! Easy installation too, and looks nice ;). Really nice black metal case.
 
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I have just got an Enermax External Enclosure EB305C IDE/SATA to USB2.0 - Black"
at £29.32, and wrecked a Seagate 80Gb hardrive. I have a PATA Western Digital in it now and runs like a dream. The SATA drive cable is not to my liking being too thick considering how short it is. The Seagate is dead and doesn't spin up. First ever dead hard drive. :( :rolleyes:
 
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nightwish said:
Question as above really. As far as I can see, there are only two on the ocuk site.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Removable_Hard_Drive_Racks.html

One is the
'Stardom U6-1S-B2 Serial ATA to USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure'
at £43.42

and the other is the,
'Icy Box External Enclosure IB-351ST-US-B Serial ATA to USB 2.0 - Black'
at £34.02

Anyone used either of these? What would you reccommend?
Cheers!

(ps. It will probably be used with a 160GB or a 200GB Samsung Spinpoint if that makes any difference)

I'm also interested in getting an external hard drive case and separate hard drive. I like the look of the Icy Box. Anyone know whether it is worth going with SATA for external hard drives or better to stick to IDE?
 
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bornslippy said:
I'm also interested in getting an external hard drive case and separate hard drive. I like the look of the Icy Box. Anyone know whether it is worth going with SATA for external hard drives or better to stick to IDE?

I don't think it really matters, but most of the enclosures available atm are IDE only. Having said that they are more SATA ones starting to become available.

In the end, I went for the,
Enermax External Enclosure EB305C IDE/SATA to USB2.0 - Black
mainly because you can put either type of disc in there. I'm very pleased with it generally - plug and play, solidly built, worked flawlessly so far. The Icyboxes are also good tho...
 
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I think I'm going to get an ICY box as they look good. Probably the IDE version as it's significantly cheaper than the SATA compatible one. I think a 300gb Maxtor or WD to go with it as well.
 
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I have both PATA and SATA IcyBox enclosures - in fact the SATA has a 250Gb WD drive in it which is one half of my RAID0 array which I cloned a few minutes ago and am using now. :)

Note that there is no Firewire option with the SATA enclosure, which was the main reason why I have the PATA also.
 
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bornslippy said:
Just wondering, is it worth getting a hard drive with a 16mb cache to put in an external box as a backup drive, or will a 8mb cache suffice for backup purposes?

Generally speaking, bigger is better, but it is unlikley to make a big difference, especially for a large drive.

I have gone for the 16Mb Cache versions for my last 3 drives, as there was hardly any difference in price.
 
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