External Hard drvie enclosure

What is the best enclosure for under $20?
Does brand really matter or will they all pretty much do the trick?

 

What size drive?

Some of the low cost stuff, IMHO, is just not worth it. I took a chance on two cheapo enclosures, from newegg, and had a 50% failure rate. The postage back was almost the cost of the enclosure!

If you shop around you can find some amazing deals. Office Max had 160GB Western Digital drive on sale, and after rebate, your cost $40.

You can then throw the drive out and keep the case

 

You can get a decent 2.5" enclosure for around that, but if you're looking for a 3.5" enclosure, you're looking at a little more for a decent one.

 

I use 2 cheapest 2.5" enclosure boxes for 40GB and 100GB hard drives. The both have different USB connectors, they are very good to transfer the data so far. I feel happy about them.

 

its for a 3.5" 160 GB hdd. I was lookin at like $20 dollar enclosures on newegg and tigerdirect. Stay away from those? Also, its a new HD, do i need to format it before using it like this?

 

hmm...Hard Drive enclousures can be very expensive as sometimes there are excellent deals on ready built external HDDs.

Also, data transfer rates may be faster if you buy a ready built one and build quality will obviously be better.

You might want to format, some Hard Drives come using the FAt32 file system, you may want to change that to the NTFS file system.

 

I would shop newegg. You take a chance with a $20 buck case. The problem is you pay an average of $5-7 shipping.

The tiny loud fan in my 3.5 SYBA Versa drive died today, so I pulled the fan from the DOA unit. It had good user reviews, but I won't order any more

There are better units that posters have ordered. Search this forum with the search function.

Cheers

 

I purchased a vantec enclosure from Best Buy for $28. Not fancy, 1 light (on/off). aluminum case, plastic ends, plastic fans, etc. Suits my needs.
Did I mention it came with a cool stand, its plastic too.

 

I have been using two enclosures I got (at different times, different companies) for 0-4$ after rebates, and they have been working fine for many years now. I think its really up to choosing the aesthetics and the interface of the enclosure that matters. And with 2.5" enclosures, I really haven't seen firewire ones, so its only USB to deal with as the interface.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=63983

 

I just went to PC Club yesterday and bought one for $30. That way i dont have to deal w/ shipping. The on/off button is a little sketchy sometimes, but its aluminum, usb 2.0, and lights up!