2.5" HDD USB enclosures again--heat problems?

Someone recently started a thread asking about these, which to buy.

My reply was that--after you know whether to buy IDE or SATA, go for the lowest price, as they are all about the same, they all should work if you have the right type for your drive, with any OS, all seem to be USB 2.0, etc.

Then I saw another discussion here that touched on external drive enclosures, and warned of the problems of drive overheating in aluminum enclosures (which they are all made of), and recommended enclosures with a fan.

Well, many 3.5 enclosures have a fan. Of course that requires external AC power. I have not seen 2.5 enclosures with a fan. They are all small, fit tightly over the drive (no room for a fan!), are bus-powered, etc.

I'm wondering, though. I did see one SATA 2.5" enclosure that is slightly larger than others I've seen. Still bus-powered, and still no room for a fan. But that design would give a little space between the drive and the enclosure case. The drive in that one is screwed to a board inside, so it would not move around inside the slightly larger casing. It costs more than the cheapest ones, although I don't know if it's worth it.

What do people think? Would a little air space between the drive and ends of the enclosure case give better ventilation, better prevention against overheating?

Here is the unit I meant:

http://www.macally.com/EN/Product/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=166

(It usually sells for around $22-$25, not the $39 listed. Yet, one can buy others for $10-15.)

Also, the following unit from Enermax, advertises that it has a special design for cooling the drive (again no fan though):

http://www.enermaxusa.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28_31&products_id=134

I think it costs still more-I believe I saw it for $29-35 or so. It appears that it is partly steel mesh, for heat dissipation. (Though I guess if you got caught in the rain with it, and it got wet, the mesh might not be such a good idea-letting water in)!

The question is--is there really a point in spending more for a more expensive enclosure, none of which (for 2.5 drives) have fans? Would it really make a difference?

Has anyone here suffered drive problems and failure, due to a drive overheating in an enclosure?

 

Aren't they built in aluminium because the case is supposed to act as a heatsink?

 

2.5" hdd's doesn't create much heat, that's why it's not many 2.5" enclosures that could install a fan. They should work without any heatproblems without a fan. Mý notebook doesn't have any active cooling that goes too the HDD at all, it's all passively cooled thus temps doesn't reach over 45-46C when doing alot of transfers or something stressy with the HDD.

It's only 3.5" that's concerened about active cooling as they generate much more heat! Bigger and faster..

 

I have never had a problem with the aluminum ones for a 2.5" they dont get very hot, the main problem I am having is that some usb ports are not giving enough voltage, so a fan would probably only add to that.

There is more to the enclosure than the way its made tho, the connections, the connection quality and all of that really matters too.

The cheapo ones always give me more problems than the nice ones.

 

Yes, the aluminum is supposed to dissipate heat. However, some wrote in another thread, that it doesn't do that so well.

 

Same here.

Just get a cheap one.

 

Well, most notebooks do have fans--that is active cooling. I don't know if the cooling is directed at the HDD though.

I sure have had notebook HDDs in external enclosures become very hot while in use before. I don't know if that indicates a problem though, that the outside of the enclosure becomes very hot.

Not necessarily true about notebook drives being slower. There are some much faster ones these days, spinning at 7200 RPM, etc.

 

Well, it would be kind of hard to judge the connections. Unless the enclosure doesn't work! Then one might well surmise a bad connection. In my experience, most of these work, including the cheapest.

They usually come with a cable to connect with a second USB port for added power. In my experience though, that is usually not necessary. (Interesting, none of the pre-built external notebook drives (WD Passport and others) come with a cable for more power, or an outlet for such, but all the notebook enclosures seem to come with that feature. I wonder why?)

I guess a stronger case might give added protection in case of dropping, etc. On the other hand, heavier material would make the drive heavier, and one would think would lessen the heat dissipation.

 

I didn't say all notebooks comes without active cooling for the HDD, i just said that mine doesn't, and i haven't noticed any overheating problems at all, not ever near. 46C isn't near the limit of overheating IMHO.


I think it's a huge difference between the performance of 2.5 vs 3.5 hdd's.
I don't know how you compare, so how do you compare performance? Slowest 3.5" 7200rpm vs fastest 2.5" 7200rpm hdd?

Usualy there has always been a faster alternative for the 3.5" hdd's vs the fastest 2.5", can't compare old drives with new ones either, speaking of mechanical hdd's only, ofcourse.
And 2.5" drives has always been behind the 3.5" when it comes to performance, until velociraptor showed up, though velociraptor is not a true 2.5" so i wouldn't count that in when comparing, as it is much thicker than the standard 2.5".

The power consumption speaks for itself when it comes to generating heat though, 2.5" doesn't consume as much as the 3.5" drives.


Can you name any 2.5" mechanical drive that is faster than the fastest 3.5" drive?

 

That is a pretty silly question, isn't it? Could you name one? Of course not!

I mentioned that it wasn't correct any more to assume that all 2.5" drives are slower than all 3.5" drives. Certainly some of the best 2.5" drives these days will outperform some 3.5" drives. That doesn't mean they will outperform the fastest 3.5" drive. Ridiculous question. You seemed to imply that all 2.5" drives were slower, so I pointed out that is not always the case. That's all

 

In looking at some enclosures online, a couple of features will make them more expensive:

1) If they do not only have a USB connection, but also Firewire or Esata.

2) They come with something called "Push-button backup".

Those features are completely meaningless to me. I'm fine with USB 2 for an external drive, no need for FW or Esata. (I don't have any connector even for the latter, on any computer.)

And "push-button backup" sounds like a silly gimmick to me.

So--I wouldn't pay more for "features" like those.

However, if it seemed like one enclosure would really protect my drive better, that might be worth spending a few extra bucks on.

 

I have an aluminum one that doesn't have any vents. its basically a two piece and it is completely air tight.

whats worse? dust or heat? my HD says do not cover breathing hole, so woudn't using the aluminum case with no vents defeat the purpose of a breathing hole?

 

It's as silly as you thought that i meant that all 2.5" was slower than all 3.5", i just meant that overall the 3.5" are faster than any 2.5". If you compare them equally specwise any other comparing would be even more silly.

Sorry for the missunderstanding.

 

You're correct.


Heat is worse imho, but dust often creates heat. And i most certainly think that your aluminum enclosure is acting like a heatsink?

 

i believe so, but its gets extremely hot. while i was formatting my new drive, it got really hot. I should have remove the top cover during the format.. should i punch a hole into the case to let it vent? maybe one hole on the case right above the breathing hole on the hard drive.

 

That's why I wondered whether that Enermax enclosure with the steel mesh for venting, might be better than the usual non-vented case. However, as stated, dust and moisture could also get into a vented case.

I'm wondering if a non-vented case that doesn't fit quite as tightly around the drive, but leaves a slight amount of breathing space (like the Macally one I pointed to) would help also with overheating, compared to the more common very tight ones? I don't know, just wondering. Any opinions?

 

This is why when working on assignment, I prefer to use an aluminum 3.5" enclosure with a fan and its own power supply: HEAT!

 

I just cloned my HD to the New HD using the aluminum enclosure, the heat issue wasn't that bad. Not as bad as was during the format.

So, I guess I'm good..

--------------
The new seagate drive (barracuda 7200) makes my laptop feel like a brand new laptop. quiet, faster and doesn't get a hot as the older 80gb seagate it came with.

 

Yes, but this discussion is not about 3.5 enclosures, but 2.5 ones. Besides, the site is Notebook Review Forums, so we are discussing notebook drives.

 

Hmm you sure? Cause you ether just taught me something I didnt think of, or your wrong lol.

I have the Y-USB cords it has two ends on it like you said but I noticed that one is for power only and one is data + power.

I figured its like this because of e-sata, if you use the esata connection and the data + power plug the computer will pick it up as a usb connection still.

So you have to use the power only plug. That was my thought and reasoning for it having two connections. The wire looks like its in series, so plugging both of them in would double the voltage to the drive, and that does not sound like a good thing to do (not only for the hdd, but for your usb ports and mobo), you just want more amps I would think.

So lets get more feedback from the masses. Are you supposed to use both connections at the same time for more power incase you have low power usb ports or is that false and potentially dangerous?

 

That is what the extra wire is for, to provide more power (through a second USB port) to the drive if necessary. I've read the directions on a couple enclosures I've had.

It is usually not necessary though. And I've never seen that power port on any pre-made external USB drive that I've seen, that come already in their own nclosure.

 

No the one I have has 1 E-Sata Port & 1 USB Port.

I came with 2 cabes, one E-Sata Cable & 1 Y-USB Cable.

On the USB Cable one end of the Y is power ONLY, the other is Power + Data.

If you use the E-Sata you have to use the Power only connection for the PC to pick up the E-Sata connection instead of the USB 2.0 Connection and its much faster.

E-Sata does not supply any power, only data. I was under the impression they just use the same generic Y cable even if you dont have e sata for cost reasons.

All my stuff is OEM, no directions