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    Please help me decide on my 3.5" External Enclosure!

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by redevils89, Mar 11, 2007.

  1. redevils89

    redevils89 Notebook Consultant

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    Hi, I have two Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA 160gb 6y160mo hard drives lying around
    my desktop got messed up and I sold my video card, ram sticks, and other parts, but I don't want to sell my hard drive without formatting them. I want to buy a case and format them and sell one as an external hdd and one as a used hdd.

    I looked at some at Newegg, but I don't know what the eSATA cables are for. For my Maxtor harddrives, which enclosure would work as an external hdd? Can someone explain where the eSATA cable plugs into(from the back of the hdd enclosure?)

    Thank you.


    I recently bought a IDE enclosure and a hdd and got them to work as an external hdd, but this SATA business is giving me a problem.
     
    redevils89, Mar 11, 2007
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  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I'd check out the Vantec NexStar3 external enclosures. I just picked up two, and I love 'em. The eSata enclosure has USB and eSATA out, which means you can pick which you want to use. If you use the eSATA out, you plug in the included PCI card that gives you an eSATA port on your desktop. That card will take up any type of PCI slot available as it's only a eSATA->SATA converter that will plug directly into a motherboard's SATA port. If you want portability, just use the USB connection.
     
    Greg, Mar 11, 2007
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  3. skagen

    skagen Notebook Deity

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    You want to be very careful with Vantec and the many cheap brands. if they us a Prolific chip, you are risking your data in the long run. What you want is an enclosure that uses a Cypress or Oxford chipset. They will say so and if they dont bet you money its a cheapo Prolific chipset in there.

    Best enclosure I ever got was a Rosewill one on Newegg.com, but Rosewill just stopped making enclosures. Another good one is www.weibetech.com

    But make no mistake if you get a a cheap enclosure you are cutting costs in the wrong place. There is no free lunch on these things. I dont think you can get a legit Oxford or Prolific equipped one for less than $60.
     
    skagen, Mar 11, 2007
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  4. TedJ

    TedJ Asus fan in a can!

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    The only Prolific chipset that I've seen issues with (personally) is the Prolific PL3507, used in cheaper firewire/usb enclosures... which can be fixed, or at least mitigated via a firmware update.

    The Vantec Nexstar NST360-SU uses a SunPlus SPIF215A chipset for the USB-SATA bridge, the eSATA connection is a simple passthrough.

    The general consensus of the various reviews on this enclosure is that it's an excellent prospect for the money.
     
    TedJ, Mar 12, 2007
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