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Advice on FireWire 800 HDD enclosure

brdeveloper

brdeveloper

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Apr 21, 2010
2,630
315
Brasil
Hello.

I have a 2010 MacMini and I usually need the entire USB 2.0 bandwidth for streaming digital HDTV content. But I also want using an external backup unit, so I was planning using the obsolete FW800 port which seems to be the ideal solution.

So I need advice for an affordable and reliable 2.5" firewire 800 unit. Another option would be some kind of USB3 to FW800 adapter. I guess it would be a more expensive solution though.

Thanks in advance!
 
I've been incredibly happy with my Macally enclosures that look like a miniature G5/old Mac Pro tower.

These are designed for a 3.5" drive, but a 2.5" will work fine in them.

They have 2xFW800, USB 3.0, and eSATA. They are pricey, however, so probably fail on your cost criteria. On the other hand, they are very high quality.
 
brdeveloper said:
Hello.

I have a 2010 MacMini and I usually need the entire USB 2.0 bandwidth for streaming digital HDTV content. But I also want using an external backup unit, so I was planning using the obsolete FW800 port which seems to be the ideal solution.

So I need advice for an affordable and reliable 2.5" firewire 800 unit. Another option would be some kind of USB3 to FW800 adapter. I guess it would be a more expensive solution though.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

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

It's not 2.5" but cheap enough to add your own 3.5" drive. I used an earlier model with my 2009 for backups. And it makes a nice stack with the same small footprint. Since its for backing up over FW you could go with an low-power, low-heat green drive since you won't need a speedy drive on the older connection.
 
matreya said:
I have 4 of these:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

They are excellent enclosures.
Click to expand...

Yes, they seem to be. I ordered a enclosured from OWC which was never delivered (due to postal services from both Brazil and US). Firstly it came to Brazil and was hold by months by the customs. Then the customs exempted it from taxes, but for an unknown reason it was sent back to USA. I tracked the package in the USPS site and it appeared to be addressed back to OWC.

Last week, I saw that USPS tracking log was deleted and it only presented a message saying that the product was disposed as it's perishable (!!!!). I'd probably eat the enclosure. What really annoys me is that they cleared the tracking history. OWC sent me a refund for the product, but not for the shipping costs. PayPal, in the end, charged me for the refund as I was being paid as a seller. Thankfully, PayPal exempted me from taxes after a phone call.

So I don't know if OWC is the best option. A $72,00 enclosure can turn easily into a $200 enclosure with taxes (or not being delivered at all). I will make a contact to brazilian customs to figure out what really happened in the brazilian side since the enclosure was considered exempt from taxes (I paid $39,99 for it).

At the brazilian Apple Store I can get a 1TB G-Drive unit for $300,00. Seems to be the best, if not only option.
http://store.apple.com/br-hed/produ...57ec0dbcec64ca3789092b6955ed901e19534bb3987ae

----------
marzer said:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MSQKIT0GB/

It's not 2.5" but cheap enough to add your own 3.5" drive. I used an earlier model with my 2009 for backups. And it makes a nice stack with the same small footprint. Since its for backing up over FW you could go with an low-power, low-heat green drive since you won't need a speedy drive on the older connection.
Click to expand...

It's elegant. For $130,00 I can buy a 2TB Western Digital HDD (I'm not a fan of Seagate). It's like buying the G-Drive above mentioned but in a more elegant enclosure and getting twice the capacity. I think I can get this kit delivered to my home for something like $300.
 
PsyOpWarlord said:
How about something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-FireWire-External-Aluminum-Enclosure/dp/B00684WPW8/

http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/CB3-SL.html
Click to expand...

Interesting. I think I can have a 2GB 2.5" HDD installed on it for a total of $300,00 (shipping, importing taxes, etc). As an advantage, it's bus powered. What I really don't know is if I can install another, daisy-chained enclosure and keep both bus powered. But just one seems enough to me. I don't think I need any kind of redundancy.
 
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bunnspecial said:
I've been incredibly happy with my Macally enclosures that look like a miniature G5/old Mac Pro tower.

These are designed for a 3.5" drive, but a 2.5" will work fine in them.
Click to expand...

I bought it after buying 2 OWC/NewerTech FW miniClassic enclosures that were DOA on the FW side. The USB 2.0 worked fine, ut then I didn't buy them for that.
Anyway, contacted OWC to return them for replacement. They returned the same units back to me.
Contacted NewerTech. I didm;t realize they were one and the same as OWC. They returned the units back to me saying they were ok. No, they weren't, not me anyway.

Won't deal with them again and don't recommend them. I'm sure they have lots of people who've had no problems. I wasn't one of them. Feelin' lucky?
 
brdeveloper said:
Interesting. I think I can have a 2GB 2.5" HDD installed on it for a total of $300,00 (shipping, importing taxes, etc). As an advantage, it's bus powered. What I really don't know is if I can install another, daisy-chained enclosure and keep both bus powered. But just one seems enough to me. I don't think I need any kind of redundancy.
Click to expand...

If you did need redundancy they make one that hold 2 x 2.5" drives (JBOD, RAID 1 mirroring, RAID 0 striping, BIG). It can be bus powered off FW800, but for the other connections you would need to use the power adapter.

http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/CB3R2-SL.html

http://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-FireWire-eSATA-2-BayEnclosure/dp/B00P2UAQ3E/
 
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