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Portable 2.5" drives - el-cheapo DIY vs big brand name

M

malG

Senior member
just wondering, why are portable 2.5" drives from Seagate and WD so expensive compared to DIY solutions ($10 drive enclosure from eBay + notebook drive)?

Don't tell me $10 drive enclosures are sh!t - kindly elaborate, what makes them inferior?

Thanks.
 
The "el cheapo" ones work just fine. Just make sure you get a decent enclosure and you will be good. All my exteranl hdd's are the cheapo kind. Except, I have an iomega rocstor which works wonderfully. Usually the branded ones come with fancy tech. and looks. Like to combine a bunch as one hdd and such.
 
I never buy "packeaged" externals. Presently, I have 5 external 2.5" drives - all in encloosures where I could fit in my supply of 2.5-in HDDs generated by =several laptop upgrades. So, effectively, all I bought were enclosures. Some are Firewires, some USB, and some are both.

These are great for storage of digital imagery.

I have not seen many $10 enclosures. First, for good reliability they should be self powered - i.e., have their own power briquette. And, I really prefer them to have both Firewire and USB connectivity. And lastly - I want them to be metal - not plastic. So, I won't say that $10 enclosures are s***, - but I will simply state that they do not meet my specs. 🙂
 
Yeah, my rocstor is selfpowered or can run off usb2. I usually just use usb2 power cause I hate having to carry psu around.
 
Originally posted by: malG
just wondering, why are portable 2.5" drives from Seagate and WD so expensive compared to DIY solutions ($10 drive enclosure from eBay + notebook drive)?

Don't tell me $10 drive enclosures are sh!t - kindly elaborate, what makes them inferior?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Name brand, that's all. The $20 generic enclosures from CompUSA have been working fine forever for me. Make sure you buy a decent hard drive brand though.
 
I guess I use the crappy ones since they cost me less than $20.00. But I never had any problems with them either. BTW, it's also FW/USB interfaces. So the answer to the original question is, NO. DIY enclosures are not all crappy!
 
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