Do I definitely need a Firewire enclosure?

[Ken Masters]

The Hitachi 7k320 is being purchased tomorrow. I'll need to take out my existing drive and put it in an enclosure but there only seems to be one drive on sale which fulfills the criteria of SATA, 2.5" and FW400 and that costs £65 (around $125) found here: http://www.allmacshop.co.uk/proddet..._5__SATA_HDD_Enclosure_Mac_Win__MAC-TB-S120_/

In the US, you can get one for $60 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MSTG400U2/

Am I going to have to bite the bullet and cough up £65 for an enclosure or do I have an alternative?

Thanks!

 

[Fabiano]

Do you really need firewire? If not you can buy a USB enclosure that should be a lot cheaper...

 

[SpookyLars]

Do you really need firewire?

I have an enclosure with both FW & USB and I found that FW takes less CPU power than USB.

 

[CWallace]

I like FW because it can send more power over the wire so while some of my HDDs need extra power when connected via USB2, none of them need it when connected with FW400/FW800.

 

[iShater]

FW speeds are still faster than USB2, and definitely less load on the CPU. I go only with FW unless performance is not that big of a deal.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Look for this MacAlly unit PHR-S250CC
CAN$45 here

 

[iShater]

Look for this MacAlly unit PHR-S250CC
CAN$45 here

I got this baby, I love it. Except the LED light is sooooo bright, I had to cover it!

 

[alphaod]

Look for this MacAlly unit PHR-S250CC
CAN$45 here

Have that too and it's great.

The LED on the OWC enclosure is worse.