External Firewire 800 Hard Drive enclosure advice needed?

I've been pleased with enclosures by Oyen Digital and also Macally. I give the Oyen Digital ones the edge, but the Macally ones have been OK.

I think OWC has some, but I haven't used theirs.

I have a NewerTech miniStack which works very well for me. I also like that it has a FW400 port that I use to plug in my old FW400 devices into an new machine without that port.

I've owned 2 OWC enclosures (Mercury Elite Al Pro) and they both performed flawlessly. I got them a few years ago so I got the multi-port one that had USB 2.0, FW400/800 and esata, but if there is a newer model, I would get one with a USB 3.0 port just for the added flexibility.

OWC and inXtron/Macpower/Akitio have good fanless aluminium enclosures.

crowe-t said:

I'm looking at these 2 below. Any thoughts or advice on them?

Macally
http://www.macally.com/EN/?page_id=8510


OWC Mercury Elite Pro
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ME3QHKIT0GB/

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I got the Macally enclosure a couple of years ago off Amazon and it's been great. I use it with FW800.

SuperMatt said:

I have a NewerTech miniStack which works very well for me.

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I forgot about the NewerTech box. I have one and it's been a good. No fan noise problems with mine.

crowe-t said:

What model is it that you have?

BTW, I need the enclosure for an existing Hard Drive that already has files on it. I basically want to plug my hard drive in and be done.

Will the Ministack allow this?

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http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MSQKIT0GB/

You shouldn't have any problem installing your drive.

I don't know about the Macally, but I've got 7 of the OWC enclosures, most are 3 years old or older, and they worked fine. 4 of them are connected to my Mac mini server and run 24/7.

From having both a MacAlly and OWC enclosure, both without issues, I'd say go following your heart, or pick randomly.