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internal HD + enclosure

Q

quangdaika

Member
is this better than getting an external hd? cause i know that an internal hd is less expensive than an external one. does anyone have any recommendations for enclosures and brands of HD?
 
Originally posted by: quangdaika
is this better than getting an external hd? cause i know that an internal hd is less expensive than an external one. does anyone have any recommendations for enclosures and brands of HD?
Click to expand...

Its basically better because it is usually cheaper and you have total control over what HD you choose to put in there.

Just look on newegg for enclosures that have decent reviews, then choose a HD.
 
Originally posted by: Blain
Enclosure - BYTECC ME-320U2
It's cheap... It runs off regular AC power cord... Plenty of interior room for 3 1/2" HD. 😀
HD - SAMSUNG SpinPoint SP2014N 200GB
Samsung quality... Quiet... Cool... 200GB... Big bang for the buck. :laugh:
Click to expand...

I had two of the Byetecc cases and they were ok to use but very bad quality-wise. However, if you're going to use them on a shelf or something where they're not moved much they should be fine.
 
Originally posted by: phatrabt
Originally posted by: Blain
Enclosure - BYTECC ME-320U2
It's cheap... It runs off regular AC power cord... Plenty of interior room for 3 1/2" HD. 😀
HD - SAMSUNG SpinPoint SP2014N 200GB
Samsung quality... Quiet... Cool... 200GB... Big bang for the buck. :laugh:
Click to expand...

I had two of the Byetecc cases and they were ok to use but very bad quality-wise. However, if you're going to use them on a shelf or something where they're not moved much they should be fine.
Click to expand...

what did you mean by bad quality? they weren't well made because of the plastic casing?

also, i went to newegg and they have a lot of enclosures. some have AC adapter and some don't. why is that? and what is hot swapable?

 
I have used a Bytecc enclosure and a Vantec Nexstar I. Both used the same ALI M5621 chipset and offered poor performance in my opinion.

You really want to find out what chipset the enclosure uses before you buy it.

While the Nextar I, and the Bytecc enclosure used the same chipset, the prices were significantly different. They benchmarked exactly the same, yet the nextar costs like $20 more.

I bought a cheapo USB to IDE cable off ebay that used a Genesis GL811E chipset, and that thing ROCKS. The ALI's could only push through 26MBytes/sec, while the Genesis was solid at 35MBytes/sec. A 34% increase in performance is HUGE IMO.

The newer Vantec Nextar III enclosures use the Prolific chipset. I haven't had any in my hands yet to benchmark, but I have heard that this is the best chipset. I found a cheapo case on froogle that uses the prolific chip. It was only like $30 shipped, compared to the Nextar III which is around $60 without shipping.

The performance of these enclosures can only reach about 40MBytes/sec total due to the USB 2.0 and 1394A firewire spec (400 and 480mbits/sec). That is both BURST speed and for sequential reads. Usually a hard drive can burst at whatever the spec for it is. (ie ATA100 - burst at 100MB/sec)

If you're looking for big big performance you'll want to get a 1394B enclosure, and you'll probably have to get a 1934B card as well. This is the newer firewire spec that transfers data at 800mbits/sec (100mbytes/sec). With an enclosure like this, there are no bottlenecks, and you will be sure to get the full performance out of the drive. These enclosures costs substantially more though.

Here are some using the prolific chipset:
Sexy Vantec Nextar 3- $32.99 no-name etailer or $39.99+5.99s/h @ Newegg
Kingwin MS-350U-S $27.90 @ Mwave.com or $30.99+5.99s/h @ Newegg
Plumax PM-525U2-PRB - $21.99 no-name etailer
 
Originally posted by: quangdaika
is this better than getting an external hd? cause i know that an internal hd is less expensive than an external one. does anyone have any recommendations for enclosures and brands of HD?
Click to expand...

there is basically no difference between buying your own case and external HD vs buying one preinstalled except for the price. I myself opt for the mini 2.5'' laptop enclosures + 80 GB laptop HD because it is so much more pocketable and can be powered off the USB port for use on a laptop.
 
Originally posted by: quangdaika
would any enclosure support both Ultra 100 and 133?
Click to expand...


You'll have to check out the specs of the enclosure to see if they support 100/133 but I would expect it to so; but you'll be limited to to the speed of the USB or Firewire speed and won't get the internal speeds of 50-70 MB/s.

I converted an internal HDD into an external one. Look at my sig. for "Convert your internal hard drive into..." and you can get an idea of how it's done.
 
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