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Best enclosure for 3.5" SATA drive?

J@ffa

J@ffa

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 21, 2002
689
51
Behind you!
I've been looking, fruitlessly so far, for a good enclosure for a SATA 3.5" drive. I really like the look of the G-Tech drives, but they don't sell them without the actual drive — I already bought a 500GB Seagate Barracuda enterprise drive, so I just need to wrap it up in something good. I've heard OWC mentioned, anyone in the UK have any pointers? I hate the though of waiting for US shipping while the drive just sits there :'(
 
The OWC drive has been the only other drive that I have been considering besides the G-Drive. I, like you, am disappointed that you can not just purchase the G-Drive enclosure separately.

I actually called them yesterday, to confirm this, and they told me you can open it but it would void the warranty; but there really is no need since it comes with a drive already installed.
 
I've been considering getting the OWC Mercury Elite Pro-AL RAID enclosure to pair with my iMac. Buying an enclosure with included drives always seems to be the least economic way to go rather than buying the drives yourselves, separate from the enclosure.

That OWC isn't bus-powered, which would be nice, but I don't think you'll find that often in a RAID 3.5" HDD external setup. Just concerned with how noisy it is. Might use it as double duty for a Time machine volume and a video editing volume.
 
OWC Raid

I have the OWC pro elite RAID enclosure.

2 items I wish could be improved:

Support for hardware RAID 1.
Fan to turn off when computer goes to sleep or fanless design.
The enclosure isn't loud, but you can tell it's there.

I'm considering replacing it with a single G-technology drive (fanless) or possibly a Western Digital Studio Pro external drive.

Supposedly the WD drive spins down when computer is put to sleep.
 
Increasingly SATA enclosures are being made available with USB 2.0, FireWire 400, Firewire 800 and eSATA outputs.
 
I've had an Icy Box for a long time now and I like it. The vented sides and stand let air get around the drive, but if you're putting a loud drive inside beware. I use a Samsung Spinpoint, which is pretty much silent.
 
I just bought a cheap HD USB/FW enclosure with a power brick instead of the internal power supply.
 
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