?how to shop for an external hard drive case?

[aotemp]

Hi,

I need a little help from you gurus.

I have a regular Hard drive that normally would fit nicely into my
desktop PC (not laptop). However with Dell's new connections, the 40
pin connection is worthless to me. So Ive opted to buy a case for my
new hard drive (160 gigs).

Unfortunately I don't know much about what Im looking for, all I know
is that I want something affordable, worthwhile and compatible. Also I
know that I want USB 2.0 because it's the fastest connection.

What I need help on is... Are there any real differences between the
external hard drive cases? Can I just buy the cheapest one that I can
find on froogle and have it work well for me? Is there something that
I should pay specific attention to? Do I want a 2.5", 3.5" or a 5.5"
case?

I appreciate any help that your willing to offer (as long as your not
just flaming me..)

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a regular Hard drive that normally would fit nicely
into my desktop PC (not laptop). However with Dell's
new connections, the 40 pin connection is worthless to me.

You should be able to change the ribbon cable to an 80 wire cable.

So Ive opted to buy a case for my new hard drive (160 gigs).

That approach has some real downsides.

Unfortunately I don't know much about what Im looking for, all I know
is that I want something affordable, worthwhile and compatible. Also
I know that I want USB 2.0 because it's the fastest connection.

Firewire is actually a tad faster, but not enough to justify
adding a firewire port if you only have a USB 2 port.

What I need help on is... Are there any real
differences between the external hard drive cases?

Yes, the main difference is how well they cool the drive.

Can I just buy the cheapest one that I can
find on froogle and have it work well for me?
Nope.

Is there something that I should pay specific attention to?

Yes, drive cooling.

Do I want a 2.5", 3.5" or a 5.5" case?

3.5"

 

[Roger Blake]

3.5"

Are there any this size that have a cooling fan? I've been using 5.25"
external cases for hard drives in order to get this feature. A more
compact case would be nice if it had sufficient cooling.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Are there any this size that have a cooling fan?

Yes, there are a few, but they arent very common at
all and fans that small have some real downsides too.

I've been using 5.25" external cases for hard drives in order to get this
feature. A more compact case would be nice if it had sufficient cooling.

The main downside is that fans that small have their own problems.

 

[Joe Doe]

I found the NexStar 3 by Vantec that uses passive cooling to get quite
hot.

I bought a case by Venus. It is big and chunky (fits 5.5 inch drives as
well as 3.5 inch) but cools quite well. So if you do not mind a big
enclosure this might be fine (they make a combo firewire/usb enclosure
too with a 4 inch fan that appears to be mounted above the drive. I
have a smaller fan on mine. It also has an outlet for headphones if you
should connect a CD player/DVD player to it so is quite versatile.

I have a USB 2.0 card (via chipset). The Venus uses a cypress chipset.
I get transfer rates of about 10 MB/min. People report transfer rates
as high as 24 MB/min. I thought it was operating on USB 1.1 but when I
transferred the drive to a known 1.1 port on the machine Windows
immediately came up and told me I have faster ports available (2.0) and
should switch to those for performance. Practically the relatively slow
speeds are not too bad - I can watch a DVD off the USB drive no problem.
However, when I dump large amounts of data the write speed is slower
than I expected. The drive is a current Seagate 300 GB PATA drive. My
machine is an older A7V133/850 Athlon and do not know if this
contributes to the slowness. The USB 2.0 card is on the same IRQ as the
1.1 USB.

Roland