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    Best External Drive Enclosure...Looking

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by MadBoris, Apr 18, 2009.

  1. MadBoris

    MadBoris Notebook Consultant

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    Hey All...

    I'm looking for the best drive enclosure out today, price is not really an option, I just want a quality enclosure.

    I would like one with the most combo's possible for various functionality.
    I want something portable, so not a dock.
    Please let me know if you have some recommendations.

    Here are the features I would like in order of priority under each heading...

    {Ports}
    eSata
    USB 2.0
    Firewire
    (Firewire not necessary but a nice option)

    {Internal Connections}
    SATA II
    SATA I
    IDE
    (SATA 2 with SATA 1 "supported", and would like IDE backwards compatibility)

    {Form Factor}
    3.5"
    2.5"
    5.25" (CD/DVD)
    1.8"
    (1.8" isn't necessary, but it would be nice to be able to to have DVD/CD drive burning support with a 5.25")

    {Features}
    Supports >= 1TB drives (not sure why they wouldn't support large drives but alot of them stipulate smaller size)
    Durable
    Good airflow fan
    Hot swappable (not a deal breaker)

    Thank you for any recommendations or links.
     
  2. martee

    martee Notebook Evangelist

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    Rosewill RX25-AT-SC-BLK one of the best in my opinion. Cost $17.99


    Size 2.5", USB 2.0 & eSATA
    Drive Capacity support: 320GB........... but I run 500GB without problem
    Material Aluminum & plastic.......excellent heat dissipation

    Internal Interface SATA
    External Interface USB 2.0 (Transfer Rates Up To 480 Mbps) & eSATA (Transfer Rates Up To 3 Gbps)

    Hard Drive support: 2.5" SATA (up to 9.5mm)
    Supports transfer rates up to 480 Mbps with USB 2.0
    Supports transfer rates up to 3 Gbps with eSATA
    LED indicates Power / HDD status

    Compliant with USB 2.0 Backward Compatible With USB 1.1
    Supports Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 8.6/9.x/10.x and Linux kernel after 2.4.1.0