External Hard Drive Enclosure Case ~brand

[Rt&Dzine]

Hi everyone. I know there are already threads about external drive cases, but I can't figure out if some of the problems I've read about (specifically Macally) will affect this particular hard drive. It will be used as an extra system backup.

Trying to decide between:

Macally – Good price, but reported power issues.
Icy Dock – Good price, but reported flimsy power cord connection that falls out easily. Also issues with Firewire 800?
OWC (Mercury Elite AL-Pro) – Most expensive.

Has anyone used the WD 6400 AAKS with any of these brands? Any comments welcome. Thanks.

 

[Rt&Dzine]

In case (haha) anyone else is in a similar predicament . . .

I think I'm going to go with Macally. The power issues appear to be with 1T drives and larger. And if worse comes to worse, one reviewer solved that problem by using this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VE7GQQ/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk

Plus, I'm a sucker for the miniature Mac Pro case design.

 

[alphaod]

Personally I'd go with whatever is cheapest that has an Oxford 911/924 chipset.

 

[Rt&Dzine]

Personally I'd go with whatever is cheapest that has an Oxford 911/924 chipset.

Thanks. I can't seem to find what chipset Macally uses in their cases. OWC uses 911 and Icy Dock uses 924.

 

[tbayrgs]

FWIW, I recently purchased the new Icy Dock dual drive enclosure with USB/FW/eSATA for use as RAID 0 setup with my mac mini HTPC via FW 800 and couldn't be happier.

Installation of the two 1 TB drives (Seagate) is a snap--screwless, just slide into each bay. No RAID controller required, type of configuration is setup with switches on the back. Enclosure is very quiet and fan speed is adjustable via dial on back. Design complement mini nicely, no issues with power cord or with FW 800 connectivity. I have the mini networked with an TV and a MacBook and transfer speeds seem very snappy though I admittedly don't have any data to back it up other than I previously used a WD external hooked up via USB to a time capsule and lag when starting a stream from this external to the TV is significantly less now than before.

 

[cgiugliano27]

external enclosure

I saw this one on cooldrives.com and it has a oxford 934 chipset (FW800x2, FW400x1, duolink esata/usb 2.0 with an internal fan) for $89.99!!! www.cooldrives.com/ox93saiihadr.html