3.5" & 5.25" USB 2.0 EXTERNAL ENCLOSURE FOR PC/MACS - $46

[MacNcheese]

Portable storage solutions are certainly easy enough to come by, but finding a portable storage solution that also has enough zip to make it convenient practically takes a miracle. This 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch external drive enclosure supports USB 2.0. With the USB 2.0 interface, this unit will transfer data at rates up to 400Mbytes per second. The USB case is also 100% Plug-and-Play and hot-swappable, so users with die hard portable solution needs can use more than one case to quickly and easily turn all of their drives into portable storage.

Brand new in retail box

Fitting for CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM & 3.5 "

£¼ Hard Drives

Work with both PC and Mac

Plug and Play

Hot-swappable connection

Support PC windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP and Mac OS 8.6 or above

AC input: 100 - 240V DC output: +5V/+12V

Stackable casing

Dimension : L265 x W165 x H55 mm

IDE to USB 2.0

PC Micro Link


$46 + Shipping


--
Cheese

 

[hwz8b]

USB 2.0 external enclosures are capable of transfers of up to 480Mbytes/sec. The data on the web site should be erroneous.

The cheapest I could find was from pcwebshopper.com, which sells it at $43 + shipping. Beware that not all external enclosures are built the same. I previously bought a firewire enclosure from piranhatech, and the drive wasn't compatible at all with anything on my machine.

 

[Megor]

Do these enclosures work with hard drives bigger than 137 gigs? I had to buy an ata 133 card to get my 160 gig hard drive to work properly.

 

[alexruiz]

The site seems shady... I was excited because I want to buy an enclosure. Keep in mind that this is USB 2.0 only. A firewire / usb 2.0 combo would be nice and sweet.

Even though the peak bandwidth of usb 2.0 is higher than firewire's, in real data transfer firewire still has the upper hand.... usb 2.0 works more like "burst" of data, while firewire can keep steady data streams.

Thanks anyways.

Alex

 

[nj]

I bought my enclosure from Avlogic.com for $49 and free shipping. I got a confirmation right away and a tracking number within a day. They have a 9 rating at ressellerratings.com.

This pcmicrostore place looks kinda shady to me ...

 

[dutt]

Is it working very well?
Is that oxford 911 chipset?

Originally posted by: nj
I bought my enclosure from Avlogic.com for $49 and free shipping. I got a confirmation right away and a tracking number within a day. They have a 9 rating at ressellerratings.com.

This pcmicrostore place looks kinda shady to me ...

 

[nj]

Originally posted by: dutt
Is it working very well?
Is that oxford 911 chipset?

I hooked up an old 8gb 5400rpm and filled it up pretty quick. I remember 1.4 gigs worth of divx taking no time at all. I don't have any real numbers though, sorry. It "feels" like your working with an internal drive. I think it runs at about 1/2 - 3/4 speed of traditional IDE speeds. Fast enough for the divx/mp3/backup that I'm using it for. I could run some tests tonight.

I don't know what chipset it uses. I could look later.

 

[pcNate]

Compgeeks.com currently has a 3.5"/5.25" usb 2.0 enclosure for $49.

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ME-320U2

I got my external enclosure and hard drive from there, but it was firewire/usb 1.1, and only for laptop hard drives. I got a pretty good deal and it's worked great.

[edit]Compgeeks may get in a usb 2.0/firewire unit, they seem to get new stuff all the time...same goes for if they run out of what's there.[/edit]

 

[vk8]

I bought this same enclosure, but from audioexchange (http://store.yahoo.com/sagetech/35usb20exen.html) I'm not sure if the cable it comes with was going to be only usb1 like most so I bought a seperate usb2 cable. It has worked really well with both a dvd-rom and a harddrive and even works under dos (restoring backups from ghost) if you find the right drivers for it.

 

[dutt]

Can it support big hard drive like 120G?

Originally posted by: vk8
I bought this same enclosure, but from audioexchange (http://store.yahoo.com/sagetech/35usb20exen.html) I'm not sure if the cable it comes with was going to be only usb1 like most so I bought a seperate usb2 cable. It has worked really well with both a dvd-rom and a harddrive and even works under dos (restoring backups from ghost) if you find the right drivers for it.

 

[iliopsoas]

PC Micro has good prices but charges big for shipping and handling. Purchased from them in the past without problems.

 

[MontyBurns]

The link above to compgeeks is for the same enclosure. You can use a coupon code found at fat wallet for 10% off, and you can get it delivered FedEx ground for right at $50. I'd go for them over this no-rep company.

By the way, it's incredibly stupid that "f*twallet" is a "forbidden" word. Blocking the competition? Real cool.

 

[Devistater]

Here's another one, $45 plus shipping:
http://www.linkpca.com/usb20hardise.html
Found that one in a post by mrbentley in another older thread about USB enclosures. I'm just about ready to buy an enclosure.

Heh, other than the coloring that one at linkpca and the geeks one look nearly identical. I'm much more prone to order one from geeks. I've ordered from them before and they seem pretty good.

 

[hwz8b]

Originally posted by: alexruiz
The site seems shady... I was excited because I want to buy an enclosure. Keep in mind that this is USB 2.0 only. A firewire / usb 2.0 combo would be nice and sweet.

Even though the peak bandwidth of usb 2.0 is higher than firewire's, in real data transfer firewire still has the upper hand.... usb 2.0 works more like "burst" of data, while firewire can keep steady data streams.

Thanks anyways.

Alex

That's why I actually purchased a firewire cardbus controller/external enclosure combo first. But for the life of me I couldn't get it to work with my Windows XP notebook. It also had the Oxford 911 chipset, but it wouldn't recognize 2 cd burners (40x and 32x cendynes) and an 80 GB maxtor harddrive i threw at them. So I would say that at best that the firewire enclosure compatibility on the PC side is limited. Hopefully the USB 2.0 combo would work better once it arrives. I already purchased an enclosure from pcwebshopper.com, and it's scheduled for delivery on the 6th. I will report back on the result once it arrives if anyone is interested.

I also bought a cardbus USB 2.0 controller from Akida computers for $42. Both Akida and PCWebshopper.com are Yahoo store fronts, so they are pretty much the same thing I guess.

 

[mannydx]

Can someone who bought this hook me up with the drivers? I let a buddy borrow mine, but the fool lost the driver cd and I can't find the drivers or the company for that matter anywhere on the net.

 

[MontyBurns]

Buying it at the Geeks with 10% off gives you the best price and a reputable retailer. Why by it elsewhere?

 

[SpideyCU]

Now if only CompGeek's USB 2.0 & Firewire combo external enclosure was in stock...I'd much rather get that since I only need it for a hard drive (3.5") and not a burner or anything. I imagine many people like me already have firewire cards but not USB 2.0...

 

[alrocky]

The CompGeek offer does look like a good alternative. Too bad it isn't in stock. I got my USB 2.0 enclosure at www.linkpca.com/usb20hardise.html $45. Shipping was about $9.

[edit] How did I not see Devistater's post?

 

[MontyBurns]

Spidey: That external enclosure is crap. I started a thread on it awhile back and led a bunch of people to buy it. But we quickly realized it was very cheaply made, and the fan roared louder than any other fan you've ever heard. It was great having both USB 2.0 and FireWire, but that thing was a piece of junk. Really, don't get it.

 

[Placer14]

Are these items REALLY plug and play. If I plug it into a computer it's never been plugged into before Me and up, it'll work? I'd like something like this, but to carry around drivers and such so it'll work on other computer suck the big one. Please let me know.

 

[Jugernot]

Originally posted by: hwz8b
USB 2.0 external enclosures are capable of transfers of up to 480Mbytes/sec. The data on the web site should be erroneous.

The cheapest I could find was from pcwebshopper.com, which sells it at $43 + shipping. Beware that not all external enclosures are built the same. I previously bought a firewire enclosure from piranhatech, and the drive wasn't compatible at all with anything on my machine.

Actually they are capable of 480Mbits/sec NOT Mbytes..... So your data is erroneous.

 

[Bookmage]

so does anyone know where to get a good usb2/firewire combo 5.25 external enclosure??
the one directron has is about 90$ but i cant any reviews on it or info about who makes it...
I might just have to get a firewire one...
Anyone know of any other good deals on external enclosures???

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: Placer14
Are these items REALLY plug and play. If I plug it into a computer it's never been plugged into before Me and up, it'll work? I'd like something like this, but to carry around drivers and such so it'll work on other computer suck the big one. Please let me know.

If I'm not mistaken, win XP has the nessasary stuff built in. I could be wrong though. Its not that hard to carry around a cd is it?

 

[chmike]

Do I need to have USB 2.0 for these to work? Isn't USB 2.0 backwards compatible with USB 1.1? Can I still connect it to 1.1 for now; it'll just be slower?

thanks

 

[Drakkon]

I recently purchased this prettymuch exact enclosure from a guy in fs/ft forums.
Currently using it at USB 1.1 and it connects fairly fast. I truely notice not much difference wheter its CD burner or Hard drive.
However I bought a new USB 2.0 PCMCIA card though for my laptop so i can use an external mouse and this at same time