External enclosure recommendations

[John]

I'm thinking that keeping my hd's in an external enclosure instead of
inside the case may be a good idea - easier to replace, upgrade, etc.
OTOH, I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for the enclosure.

At the moment, I have two IDE drives. I'd like to find an enclosure to
put them in that would be able to use newer hd's in the future.

Regardless, who are quality manufacturers of this type of equipment?

TIA, John

--

 

[Mike T.]

I'm thinking that keeping my hd's in an external enclosure instead of
inside the case may be a good idea - easier to replace, upgrade, etc.
OTOH, I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for the enclosure.

At the moment, I have two IDE drives. I'd like to find an enclosure to
put them in that would be able to use newer hd's in the future.

Regardless, who are quality manufacturers of this type of equipment?

TIA, John

There's a third option. There are pull-out trays that allow you to install
hard drives in the 5.25" drive bays. You could get a couple of those ("icy
dock" is one popular brand). Basically, you install half of the drawer in
the drive bay. The other half contains the hard drive, and it slides out
the front of the case. Trying to find one that will take your IDE drives
and later take SATA drives will be tough though, I imagine. -Dave

IDE example follows
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994050

 

[Timothy Daniels]

There's a third option. There are pull-out trays that allow you to install
hard drives in the 5.25" drive bays.

Kingwin makes an extensive line of what it calls "mobile racks",
sometimes known as "hard drive caddys" or "removable drive trays":
http://kingwin.com/mobileracks.asp

Kingwin also offers extra trays for the rack/tray combos:
http://kingwin.com/mobileracktrays.asp

You can usually find the combos for $25 (+/- $5), and the
trays for $15 (+/- $5). Search Nextag.com, PriceWatch.com,
PriceGrabber.com, FroogleGoogle.com, etc. by model no. to
find the deals.

Kingwin also makes external enclosures, but I'd only get the
eSATA enclosures for the speed advantage of SATA and the
shielded cable of eSATA: http://kingwin.com/jt35ebk.asp
Notice that these enclosures have their own cooling fans and
power supplies.

You can get eSATA adapter brackets here:
http://www.firewire-1394.com/external-sata-solutions.htm

You can get eSATA cables here:
http://www.firewire-1394.com/sata-cables-shielded.htm

SIIG (among others) makes PCIe expansion cards:
http://siig.com/product.asp?catid=7&pid=1018

*TimDaniels*

 

[Bill]

I'm thinking that keeping my hd's in an external enclosure instead of
inside the case may be a good idea - easier to replace, upgrade, etc.
OTOH, I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for the enclosure.

At the moment, I have two IDE drives. I'd like to find an enclosure to
put them in that would be able to use newer hd's in the future.

Regardless, who are quality manufacturers of this type of equipment?

TIA, John

I picked up an aluminum USB enclosure on E-bay that has both IDE and
SATA connectors. With shipping, I think it came to about 30 bucks.

Bill

 

[John]

Kingwin makes an extensive line of what it calls "mobile racks",
sometimes known as "hard drive caddys" or "removable drive trays":
http://kingwin.com/mobileracks.asp

Kingwin also offers extra trays for the rack/tray combos:
http://kingwin.com/mobileracktrays.asp

You can usually find the combos for $25 (+/- $5), and the
trays for $15 (+/- $5). Search Nextag.com, PriceWatch.com,
PriceGrabber.com, FroogleGoogle.com, etc. by model no. to
find the deals.

Kingwin also makes external enclosures, but I'd only get the
eSATA enclosures for the speed advantage of SATA and the
shielded cable of eSATA: http://kingwin.com/jt35ebk.asp
Notice that these enclosures have their own cooling fans and
power supplies.

You can get eSATA adapter brackets here:
http://www.firewire-1394.com/external-sata-solutions.htm

You can get eSATA cables here:
http://www.firewire-1394.com/sata-cables-shielded.htm

SIIG (among others) makes PCIe expansion cards:
http://siig.com/product.asp?catid=7&pid=1018

*TimDaniels*

Thanks for the suggestions Mike and Tim.

I've already been using the third option for awhile in order to switch
between 2 OS on one pc, but the pin on the mobile rack broke when
switching. There's also the issue of how much wear and tear something
like that will stand up to with repeated use and matching the rack with
the RPM of the drive. A replacement rack now for that brand is pretty
scarce, and I haven't seen generic replacements. That's in part why
I'm interested in the external enclosure.

I just don't know who makes them and secondarily what reputation they
have. For example, the two eSATA enclosures I have seen advertised
were by SANS and by Cremax and started at $50+. A two bay enclosure by
SANS was around $100 IIRC.

John
--

 

[Timothy Daniels]

.... matching the rack with the RPM of the drive.

? The rack has nothing to do with the rotational speed
of the hard drive.

*TimDaniels*

 

[John]

? The rack has nothing to do with the rotational speed
of the hard drive.

*TimDaniels*

It may not now in 2007, but when I bought it originally several years
ago, the manufacturer DID have specific recommendations about which of
their racks would work with the RPM of a drive.

John

--

 

[Timothy Daniels]

It may not now in 2007, but when I bought it originally
several years ago, the manufacturer DID have specific
recommendations about which of their racks would
work with the RPM of a drive.

That may have been a cooling issue. Notice that Kingwin
offers various number and configurations of cooling fans in
their mobile racks. On a recommendation by a hardware
review website, I bought the IDE mobile rack that has a
single 80mm diam. fan in the bottom of the tray, and it
keeps my 7200rpm Maxtor hard drives at what feels like
human body temperature. For an external enclosure, I
would definitely get the kind with a built-in fan and a
dedicated power supply and not rely on air convection
and/or USB power.

*TimDaniels*

 

[John]

That may have been a cooling issue. Notice that Kingwin
offers various number and configurations of cooling fans in
their mobile racks. On a recommendation by a hardware
review website, I bought the IDE mobile rack that has a
single 80mm diam. fan in the bottom of the tray, and it
keeps my 7200rpm Maxtor hard drives at what feels like
human body temperature. For an external enclosure, I
would definitely get the kind with a built-in fan and a
dedicated power supply and not rely on air convection
and/or USB power.

*TimDaniels*

That I will be doing. The problem that's materializing for me now is
the dedicated power supply. I already have seven of those AC/DC
adapters and feel like I'm reaching the max that I can safely plug in
around my place I'm just not quite ready to hire an electrician to
come in and install more outlets just so that I can add more pc
equipment. ;-)

It'd be nice if there were a device that would use only one electrical
outlet but have the power cords to plug into some multiple number of
devices. But with my luck, it'd still require special electrical
wiring.

--

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The problem that's materializing for me now is the dedicated
power supply. I already have seven of those AC/DC
adapters and feel like I'm reaching the max that I can safely
plug in around my place

The house of the future will have an entire wall of outlets in each
room - from floor to ceiling, with one outlet for each wall wart
power supply. A whole-house fan will keep them all cool.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Thomas Wendell]

That I will be doing. The problem that's materializing for me now is
the dedicated power supply. I already have seven of those AC/DC
adapters and feel like I'm reaching the max that I can safely plug in
around my place I'm just not quite ready to hire an electrician
to come in and install more outlets just so that I can add more pc
equipment. ;-)

It'd be nice if there were a device that would use only one electrical
outlet but have the power cords to plug into some multiple number of
devices. But with my luck, it'd still require special electrical
wiring.

Yeah :-( ,with todays uncountable number of different voltage, AC or DC,
physical connector.....



--
Tumppi
=================================
A lot learned from these newsgroups
Helsinki, FINLAND
(translations from/to FI not always accurate
=================================

 

[caronte]

I'm thinking that keeping my hd's in an external enclosure instead of
inside the case may be a good idea - easier to replace, upgrade, etc.
OTOH, I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for the enclosure.

At the moment, I have two IDE drives. I'd like to find an enclosure to
put them in that would be able to use newer hd's in the future.

Regardless, who are quality manufacturers of this type of equipment?

TIA, John

--

THAT'S A GOOD IDEA