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Can anyone recommend a good external enclosure?

A

ajf3

Platinum Member

Hi all,

Currently have a 5.25" FW enclosure holding a 120GB 7200 that basically runs 24/7.... I've decided to replace it since it's a couple of years old & I've heard the PSU's aren't that great (don't want to risk downtime).

It works well, but I have a big gripe with the NOISE level... sounds like a shopvac.

I went with mounting the 3.5" drive in the 5.25 case since when I had my first one it was a 3.5 case & the HD burned up... Not really concerned about the size - only that it has sufficient cooling & is QUIET. FW is required, USB2 would be an added bonus.

So, if you have a good, cool, quiet enclosure for a 7200rpm 24/7 drive, let me know!

Also - while this is out there, are there any of these that will allow the drive to spindown/sleep under Win2k via the power mgt tools?

Thanks!!!
 
I have an older, USB2 only, version of this enclosure. So far, it's worked really well with the 200GB drive I have inside of it. It looks like they've updated the design of the enclosures, which isn't a bad thing. If they are similar or the same as before, it will last...

I'm thinking of getting another one, once I put a larger drive into my xbox. That way, I'll have something to do with the 160GB drive that's in it now...
 
Thanks for the newegg link... is it really quiet? Looks like it has the same size fan (1.75") as the one I have & it's very loud. Would you compare it to, say a Panaflo L1A noisewise?
 
The one I linked to is made for hard drives, is smaller, cheaper (cost) has the interfaces you want, and IS silent (no fan since the power supply is outside the enclosure). I have a previous version of the one I linked to, and I can verify that it IS silent. All you get is the noise from your hard drive. Get a silent hard drive and you'll be golden.
 
akira34 - I was kinda of adverse to that one since it was like the older one I had that burned up my drive... with no active cooling, does your drive get hot? I'll be running a 7200rpm drive 24/7... do you leave yours on?
 
I only use the drive when I need to... That's what externals are meant for, at least the way I see it... IF I'm going to be using the drive 24/7/365, then it goes inside the computer case.
 
I use mine for development environments on a laptop... I have a 40gb in the laptop, but a 120GB in the external to house DB's, builds, code, etc... I use it actively all day & prefer not to have to turn it off at night since I have to exit all the apps that have files open on it, unmount DB's, etc...
 
There's a slight hum to it, but that coud very well be from the drive. It doesn't really sound like a fan. I will see if I cna unplug the fan and if it still makes the noise.
 
I wasn't able to remove the fan, but I halted it before turning on the drive. The noise it makes was from my 5400 rmp maxtor diamondmax 80 drive. Whatever noise the slow moving fan made, it was not audible over the drive. Hope that helps.
 
I don't know if windows power management has built in features for usb mass storage drives. I have a Buffalo Drive Station 160GB external hard drive. It ships with the Buffalo Power Save Utility for HD, which is a background service power managemant utility that runs in the system tray. You can set it to turn off the hard drive after a predetermined interval from 3 min. to 5 hrs. You can try and use that to control your external drive. Download the free program from http://www.buffalotech.com/support/downloads.php Select any of the drive station units from options 9 thru 12.
 
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