3.5" HDD enclosure?

So on Sunday I got rid of my desktop for good! I kept my HDD though as my laptop only has 30GB.

I've got a 500GB 3.5" Seagate (I think SATA 2). I was hoping to turn it into an external hard drive, and found this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817193052

Is this worth getting? It's the cheapest I could find at my local store. Is there something more recommended? It won't be traveling much, but I don't want an enclosure that will crap out on me and ruin my drive.

Thanks!

 

What kind of external connectors do you have? Are you limited to only USB 2.0? Do you have USB 3.0? eSATA?

 

I have no idea what you're going on about... I have a 500GB desktop drive that I want to make use of, and an old Thinkpad...

I don't want an SSD...

USB 2.0 only, since I'm using a really old Thinkpad, and for other legacy laptops. The speeds are fine for me, if it can do 1GB in 45 seconds I'm happy...I figure this enclosure can?

 

Like I said, any old enclosure would be fine. If you are scared of dropping it then yeah get one that is padded or whatever. There are literally thousands of enclosures to choose from they all pretty much perform the same.. it's up to the drive performance wise, not the caddy.

 

Ok cool will get any old thing then..

 

Some come with extra little things like a sata connector if compatible, others have usb 3.0 if you want that too, some are rugged so if you drop it the drive should be ok. Tons have decorations/vinyls etc and look good. Really you just go for what you want. Try not to get one that is made in China... and if you can don't just get a generic metallic looking one that you can find absolutely everywhere.

For instance if you look at the ebay link I gave you all of those are pretty generic and most of them aren't protected from drops at all. These days tons of 3,5" drives will park their heads anyway if it feels like they are falling.. but it's best not to drop it anyway.

If you can find one of these near where you are or on newegg or something: http://cgi.ebay.com/Rocketfish-RF-A...C_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3a6414179f

They're awesome and have tons of input/output methods. But the choice is yours, if it were me i'd go for something 'above' just plain old generic.

 

I suppose I'm a bit partial to Silverstone's MS03 3.5" all aluminum external hard drive enclosure. It's really well-made with plenty of different connectivity options. It even contains a 30mm internal cooling fan to keep the operating temps of your hard drive in check.

Check out the review I did on it here:

Silverstone MS03 External Hard Drive Enclosure Review

You really can't ask for anything better, unless you get one with USB 3.0. And while the price is a bit higher than most other extermal enclosures out there, the MS03 is a much better built unit in my opinion.