And since it takes 2.5" drives, the money you save on the enclosure would be spent on the drives since 2.5" drives are more expensive per GB, and top out at 1TB.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
External hard drive Solution - 4bay enclosure in uk
- Thread starter LERsince1991
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
And since it takes 2.5" drives, the money you save on the enclosure would be spent on the drives since 2.5" drives are more expensive per GB, and top out at 1TB.
Received the icybox and the 2tb drive.
The icybox is pretty decent, use with the fan off, needs to be switched off on the back of the box to fully power down. The hard drive sleeps when laptops off or inactive and spins up when on. Don't notice any noise from it at all, performance is average for any similar hard drive.
Just ordered a second 2tb disk to fill up the enclosure. one disk for media and file archive and the other for time machine to back up the media drive and the laptop internal drive, it will be able to fit the backup in as i wont use the 2tb media for at least a year, then when i do ill get another enclosure.
Sold my 1.4 year old WD 1TB My Book, bought for £70, sold for £45.
When the fans on it is louder than I expected, especially on high.
I have a question though.
How do I know if it needs the fan on or not?
Is there an app to let me know the temp of the external hd's?
If there is I might be able to write a script which informs me when the externals are too hot so I can turn the fan on. Shame the enclosure doesn't have this feature, but simple and decent for the money.
The icybox is pretty decent, use with the fan off, needs to be switched off on the back of the box to fully power down. The hard drive sleeps when laptops off or inactive and spins up when on. Don't notice any noise from it at all, performance is average for any similar hard drive.
Just ordered a second 2tb disk to fill up the enclosure. one disk for media and file archive and the other for time machine to back up the media drive and the laptop internal drive, it will be able to fit the backup in as i wont use the 2tb media for at least a year, then when i do ill get another enclosure.
Sold my 1.4 year old WD 1TB My Book, bought for £70, sold for £45.
When the fans on it is louder than I expected, especially on high.
I have a question though.
How do I know if it needs the fan on or not?
Is there an app to let me know the temp of the external hd's?
If there is I might be able to write a script which informs me when the externals are too hot so I can turn the fan on. Shame the enclosure doesn't have this feature, but simple and decent for the money.
I ordered one of these today http://www.maplin.co.uk/4-bay-terabox-sata-hdd-enclosure-224355
Looks to be very similar to a box by San Digital, TowerRAID TR4MP.
The eSATA cards seem different, but the Maplin one comes with a Mac driver supposedly.
£139 + free delivery
On second glance perhaps I bought the last one as the stock is now nil.
?
Looks to be very similar to a box by San Digital, TowerRAID TR4MP.
The eSATA cards seem different, but the Maplin one comes with a Mac driver supposedly.
£139 + free delivery
On second glance perhaps I bought the last one as the stock is now nil.
?
Yes, it's a case. It's an enclosure that goes inside a PC, but you could have it on top of your PC if you had cables long enough. Yes, it has power and electronics - it takes two molex connections, and from these two power connections, it distributes power to both fans and all 4 drives, and the 4 LEDS on the front, and controls them as required. Look at the specs and the picture of the back.
Currently the molex connections need to be fed from a PC's PSU, but my point is that it has almost all the power electronics required to become a proper external 4-bay enclosure. All the manufacturer needs to do is add a mains transformer.
As it stands, the enclosure needs 4x SATA cables plugged into it, which is why it's an internal enclosure, but from a manufacturer's viewpoint, it could be easily converted to USB.
I never suggested actually using it as it stands. I am just using it as an example of something rather cheap (£56) that could easily be re-manufactured as a 3.5'' 4-bay external for a modest increase in price (say, sell it at £80) instead of the £150+ minimum price points we are seeing.
You're labouring your point a bit RedTomato.
Not only is it a cage, not a case (clue, electronically it's completely passive) - but it's also useless from a Mac point of view. Which Mac has 2 molex and 4 external SATA connections to hook this up?
In converting this from an internal cage to something useful, you'd add a power supply, an external skin (to house the electronics and look pretty) and the USB/Firewire to 4 SATA interface .
Now add a pretty box and a manual (since you're destined for retail - not OEM box builders) and you've added £60+ - placing you back into the price range of all the other external boxes.
Not only is it a cage, not a case (clue, electronically it's completely passive) - but it's also useless from a Mac point of view. Which Mac has 2 molex and 4 external SATA connections to hook this up?
In converting this from an internal cage to something useful, you'd add a power supply, an external skin (to house the electronics and look pretty) and the USB/Firewire to 4 SATA interface .
Now add a pretty box and a manual (since you're destined for retail - not OEM box builders) and you've added £60+ - placing you back into the price range of all the other external boxes.
Can you find a 3.5" 4-bay enclosure for £80 then? It doesn't help much if you speculate or complain about them being expensive, or link products that are not suitable for OP at all. The truth is, we have tried to search for cheaper ones but none of us was able to find one. The cheapest ones in eBay are around 120$ but shipping costs make them about 150$ or 100£. And those are cheap eBay ones so quality and noise for instance can be problems. The cheapest one that ships from UK is 135£.
You're missing my point. You're right that it can't be used with a Mac - that's why I said it *could* be used externally with a PC, not with a Mac. But obviously I wouldn't advise doing this - there are better solutions out there, even if they cost more.
It already has a low key metal external skin, and power supplies only cost a couple of quid, and SATA-USB interface circuit boards are damn cheap. I ordered a box of them from Hong Kong a couple of years ago, and the postage was the most expensive part. No big manual needed - when was the last time you saw a useful manual on a computer component like this?
I do agree that if it was for PC World, yes it'd come in a big pretty box with a woman in a white coat riding a fast motorbike on the front and cost £200, but I still stand by my claim that a no frills external 4-bay 3.5'' box like this should be able to be made and sold via Scan / Overclockers / Dabs etc for around £80.
HellHammer, you're completely right, I can't find cheap decent ones either. I was just moaning about it as I had the same problem as the OP, and pointing out that this shouldn't be the case.