Cheap Firewire enclosure

[kgian]

I am looking for a cheap single drive firewire enclosure. Computer is a 2011 imac.

I have a spare vertex 2 60gb SSD which I want to use to boot OSX from firewire. After much searching I came upon two solutions:

a)Datatale AT-S111 from ebay at 45.63 Euros , sending from taiwan http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/dataTale-...es_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item2a2324474c

b)Newer Technology miniStack Classic with usb 2 hub. I allready have a 2.5 to 3.5 bracket for the SSD. This comes to about 55 euros with postage. It comes through first class international mail. Possibly I am going to get away with import duties as it is low price and USPS usually goes through customs. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MSCKIT0GB/

Any other low cost options I am missing? I also found some acomdata enclosures on ebay but I read that they have problems booting due to the firewire controller chipset...

 

[Fishrrman]

I would avoid the OWC ministacks -- I had problems with one (of course, others' experience may be different).

You're probably not going to find many (any?) "low-cost" firewire 800 enclosures -- especially when compared to the cost of USB2 or USB3 external enclosures.

Alternative course of action:
You might consider settling for a USB3 enclosure (or a USB3/SATA docking station).

I realize it will work only at USB2 speeds (reads of about 38mbps) while connected to the 2011 iMac. But two consolations:

1. Your boot time will not be as fast as it would be if using firewire 800, but will still be modestly quick, and
2. Once up-and-running, you will notice little if any difference during normal operations (as compared to firewire 800).

And -- when you eventually move up to a newer Mac, you'll have a USB3-ready drive that will run circles around firewire 800.

 

[kgian]

What kind of problems did you have with the ministack?

I allready have a usb3 enclosure. I will try it. As you said it is going to be usb2 speeds but I dont boot too often in osx anyway...

 

[gwerhart0800]

I have two of the miniStack Classics

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MSCKIT0GBSW/

I have had these for several years and they work fine. One of them had a fan that was hitting a piece of plastic that caused it to be very noisy, but a couple of snips with a diagonal cutter fixed that. I will say that the drives in these enclosures hold my iTunes movie rips. They don't get used that often, so they aren't stressed that much. When do work them hard, the fans spin up to keep things cool. I think I paid more than $100 for the empty enclosures when I bought them originally. The current price is much better.