***SATA-compatible*** hard drive enclosure

PLEASE help me find one of these. I've had tons of trouble finding an enclosure for the beautiful 3.5" western digital 320GB i got for 140 bucks.

Thanks.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155903

I have used a ValueDisk enclosure, which newegg no longer carried. The ValueDisk SATA enclosure is a fanless aluminum. It is certainly quiet, but cooling is marginal. Though I never have any heat related problems, but would rather keep the hard drive cooler. The one shown in the above link has an 80mm fan which should provide decent cooling. Keep it mind that a true SATA enclosure (i.e. SATA interface internally and externally) is just an internal SATA hard drive that is physically located out side the PC case. Unlike USB and Firewire enclosures which are plug-and-play devices, you need to turn off a PC before disconnect a SATA enclosure just like you would not disconnect any internal hard drive while the PC is on.

 

Thanks FN400, this looks great. I'm thinking about getting an additional enclosure with external USB 2.0 for portability -- does that sound practical?

 

I also have a USB enclosure with a 2.5" 40GB hard drive for portability. If you need to connect a SATA enclosure to a laptop you can get a PCMCIA card with SATA connections.

I have this card. The price is reasonable and it works very well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815124012