Rosewill RX30-U2FA 3.5'' enclosure

[imported_stev]

I've been poking around for 3.5'' hard drive enclosures and I'm leaning heavily toward Rosewill RX30-U2FA. It allows USB 2.0 and Firewire transfers, it has chipsets that people seem to like, it looks durable, and it looks nice (NOT shiny, very plain, no logos).

It doesn't have a fan, but since it'll just be turned on when backing up files, I don't see that as being a problem. Besides, it's just one more thing that can break and I don't know how difficult it would be to replace a fan for an enclosure.

So, to anyone that has this or one of the other Rosewill enclosures, I have a few questions:

What hard drive temps have been observed while the hard drive is reading/writing (assuming SMART can be accessed through USB/FW)?

Are there rubber feet for the vertical stand and/or for a horizontal configuration? I asked Rosewill about this and they said yes, but they didn't mention how they are attached. I would likely remove the vertical stand and just set the enclosure horizontally on the top of my PC case.

Does the hard drive move around at all once it's installed?

Any other things you like or don't like about the unit?

A lot of people seem enamored with AMS Venus and Vantec Nexstar3, but I just don't see their draw. That said, it seems strange to me that these Rosewill enclosures only seem to be available at Newegg. Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, please share. I promise that whichever one I buy, I'll post some pictures and info here to return the favor!

 

[imported_stev]

Yeah, I know these are very specific questions, but.... *bump*

 

[imported_stev]

*last bump*

Does anyone who reads this forum have any of the Rosewill enclosures? Does anyone have anything good/bad to say about them? If not, I guess I'll just trust my judgement and buy one.

 

[imported_stev]

I went ahead and bought the Rosewill RX30-U2FA BLK 3.5" enclosure.

Here are some pictures of the unit:
Everything that came in the box
The inner hard drive cage (left), cage cover (upper right), and outer shell (lower right)
Close-up of the hard drive cage, uses a molex power plug (below the IDE cable)
Seagate PATA 300GB 16MB Cache installed!
The enclosure in action
...And another shot


Here are the answers to my own questions (sometimes with more questions):

What hard drive temps have been observed while the hard drive is reading/writing (assuming SMART can be accessed through USB/FW)?
SpeedFan won't recognize the hard drive when it's plugged in to USB or FW. Does anyone know of a program that can do this? Anyway, the enclosure feels warm, but not hot and I get no indication from the hard drive's performance that it's running too hot.

Are there rubber feet for the vertical stand and/or for a horizontal configuration? I asked Rosewill about this and they said yes, but they didn't mention how they are attached. I would likely remove the vertical stand and just set the enclosure horizontally on the top of my PC case.
It comes with rubber-ish feet stuck on the bottom of the vertical stand legs, but no other extra feet for a horizontal config. While they protect the surface the enclosure is sitting on, they don't dampen vibration very well. The enclosure is noticeably noisy when it's sitting on a wooden desk, but it becomes very silent when I lift it up. Does anyone know of any soft aftermarket feet that would work for a small device such as this?

Does the hard drive move around at all once it's installed?
Nope. Four screws attach the bottom of the hard drive to the cage. Then, four small screws go into the cage cover, which is held to the outer shell by (you guessed it) four screws.

Any other things you like or don't like about the unit?
Other than the vibration problem, nothing else I don't like. The unit is well-built with snugly-fitting cords, the cords themselves feel durable, and the case just looks sexy. It exactly matches my Antec TX640 MiniTower.

I hope this helps anyone who's shopping around for an enclosure.

 

[imported_stev]

One more thing. I tested the enclosure with both the USB 2.0 and 1394a (firewire) interfaces with a 9.08 GB test directory consisting of 414 files and 7 folders. I timed how long it took to copy these files with each interface cable and I rebooted in between to make sure there was no caching in RAM or on the hard drive itself. Here are the results:

USB 2.0 Interface: 5:38
1394a (firewire) Interface: 6:01