Multiple external hard drives

I have a Mac Mini which I have 4 external USB hard drives connected primarily set up as an iTunes sever. I have a 1 tb drive with 2 partitions which host various files to my other Mac on the network and serve as my Time Machine location. I have a 2 TB WD My Book, a 2.5 TB WD Elements, and a 3 TB Seagate Backup Plus which all have digital video on them and are in the iTunes library on the Mac Mini which hosts to my Apple TV's and other Mac.

I am out of USB ports on the Mac Mini and out of plugs on my surge protector. I am looking to get at least 1 dual bay external enclosure to combine 2 drives to free up a USB port and power outlet. The reason I say at least one is I may buy 2 if I can find what I want at a good price. What I'm looking for is this...

1. External enclosure that houses at least two 3.5" drives which are all SATA (I assume). I'll be talking the drives out of their stock enclosures.
2. Has a USB 3.0 connection to my computer.
3. Can run 24/7.
4. Will show each drive separately on the computer as they do now.

Can anyone make any suggestions? The 1 TB drive is portable so I'll keep that separate.

These are some options I found and are considering.

http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-C...sr=8-6&keywords=dual+bay+hard+drive+enclosure

http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-3-5-In...sr=8-4&keywords=dual+bay+hard+drive+enclosure

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Never mind on the thermal take. I meant to post http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-S...sr=8-3&keywords=dual+bay+hard+drive+enclosure

I was hoping to put both my WD drives into 1 enclosure. By doing this I can eliminate the clutter a little and loose a minimum of 1 USB cord and 1 power cord.

Orange Crane said:

That silverstone enclosure looks like a good choice then. I'm running a similar setup but with a Rosewill dual enclosure that only does USB 2.

Click to expand...

I did check that one out too but want to be USB 3 compliant as I never know when I may get a new server.

I think I have my choices narrowed down between these two. Both are USB 3 and one offers eSATA which I don't have a need for now but might in the future. Both have good reviews on Amazon and Newegg.

What one do y'all think I should try?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392054

Or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256078

The Vantec NST-400MX-S3R is a flop. I just got mine and when I connect it to the computer I am prompted to format my drives. I am using it as Individual Drive Mode. Disk Utility detects both drives just not the partitions.

So I reformatted them both and now they work. That is until they're inactive for a period of time. If I leave them sit plugged in without accessing any content on either drive, the Mac Mini shows as both of them being improperly ejected.

These are not new drives and when I connect them via single enclosure, they both work fine. Both are WD Green drive. One is 2 TB.

A couple Amazon reviewers reported the same issues as me. Any thoughts?

Otherwise, I have this on order to try too. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FVDS62/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00