SATA Drive Enclosures

[Sbrocket]

Has anyone ever used this enclosure or a similar one from OtherWorldComputing and can comment on their quality and reliability?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEFW924AL1K/

I'm looking to stick a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB drive from Newegg in it for a backup/external storage solution, but I want to make sure I get a quality enclosure that won't fail on me. If you don't recommend the above one, mention why and which other enclosures you would recommend.

 

[brbubba]

That enclosure looks very nice, but I gotta say, I think you may be going a little overboard when the enclosure costs as much as the drive.

 

[cardsdoc]

I just bought this enclosure for my new MPB and put a Samsung 500gb SATA drive in it. OWC seems to have a good reputation and make quality stuff from the reading I did before buying. brbubba is right that it's pricey, but it seems if you want SATA to FW 800, they're all pricey and not many choices. This one is very nice looking and of high quality construction. So far it works great and large transfers with FW800 are much faster than over USB2. I don't have an eSATA card, but it's nice to have the option in the future.

 

[Sbrocket]

That's what I've seen too. A lot of the enclosures on Newegg and such are USB or USB+FW400. Firewire 800 chipsets must still be expensive, hence the lack of options and height of prices when options are available. I don't really mind the enclosure being the price of the drive, though. It isn't just a box with a lid and maybe a fan; those chipsets can get expensive. Plus once you add up the total price of drive + enclosure it comes out to be about the same price as, say, LaCie's d2 Quadra 500GB only I can take it apart and save the drive if the enclosure fails and it has a 5 year warranty on the drive.

 

[plumbingandtech]

I bought their 60ish$ dollar version that let's you hold two drives. (esata connectors.)

Feels solid. Provides lots of power. Nice fit and finish. I would not hesitate buying another.