Hi, I'm on the lookout for an external hard drive enclosure to allow me to connect one of my old IDE hard drives to my PC. It must provide USB2 and firewire connections and be for 3.5" IDE drives. It would also be nice if it were aesthetically pleasing, but seeing as this is subject to individual opinion it might be of limited significance. I was wondering if any of you could recommend external enclosures that you've been using along with pros and cons? Thanks in advance
Spire makes some decent External Enclosures for reasonable prices: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817105007 This first one has all that you wanted including: USB 2.0 support, two Firewire connections and up to 400 GB Storage capacity. It's made out've aluminum and has a clean look, nothing fancy. The negatives you may find is that the mounting rails are plastic, not metal, and it only comes with an AC PLUG that accepts 100-110 AC power sources. (Sorry UK etc.) Also, whether or not you feel this is a pro or con, it has passive cooling, no fan. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817105007 This second Spire case does the same basic things as the one above, except the case style has a little more flare and the AC adapter accepts 100-240v. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=31389&CatId=2213 This enclosure by Ultra has the same setup with two firewire and one USB 2.0. However, the case is alot more flashy, is cooled by a fan and can daisy chain up to 3 of the same HD's if wanted. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1184267&CatId=0 Pretty much the same specs as the first Spire up the page, but it's case design is a little different and currently has a $20 rebate, making it the most affordable in my listing. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1020248&CatId=0 Finally, this enclosure has all of the above: aluminum construction, firewire, usb2.0 etc. and has crazy LED lights all over it. Edit: The Ultra case has a fan because it's made of plastic and rubber, which do not have good thermal dissipation properties like Aluminum.
