what is the difference between moble racks & external enclosures for hard drives

[Sossity]

I have seen icy dock external enclosures & mobile racks, which are less expensive, what is the difference?

& would a mobile rack work for connecting to my macbook pro & for swapping out 3.5 in hard drives as I backup & exchange files?

 

[blevins321]

Not exactly sure what you mean by "rack." Is it one of THESE? I find them pretty stylish . Functionally, there's no difference between that and an enclosure. They work the same way.

 

[Sossity]

Not exactly sure what you mean by "rack." Is it one of THESE? I find them pretty stylish . Functionally, there's no difference between that and an enclosure. They work the same way.

I meant one of these

vs what you posted & this; http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Icy-Dock-MB664US-1S-External-Enclosure-/380326880693?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item588d3fa5b5

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Description
Extended from the MB122 Series, the MB123 Series is an economical drive rack that is also aluminum cooling built to steer clear of drive overheating in protecting the precious drive within. The compatible removable tray with ICY DOCK MB452 Series enables interchangeability between a desktop and a laptop platform. Simply pop the removable tray and insert into the MB452 Series housing to mobilize your storage drive anywhere fast, easy & convenient! It’s another perfect storage device for media storage systems that enables media file archiving without having to deal with the usual hard drive disassembly from your PC.

The above is used for a desktop PC of a certain type/series and can be connected to any Mac via USB or Firewire.
A dock is a better solution if you have many S-ATA (2.5" and 3.5") HDDs flying around.
Enclosures are also good, but the constant swapping of HDDs with one enclosure might be a bit too much.
I have currently 6 2.5" HDDs in five USB enclosures and one Firewire 800 enclosure, then I have two 2.5" HDDs in FW800 enclosures and one FW400 enclosure for some other S-ATA HDDs I have.
It works quite okay for me.

 

[Sossity]

The above is used for a desktop PC of a certain type/series and can be connected to any Mac via USB or Firewire.
A dock is a better solution if you have many S-ATA (2.5" and 3.5") HDDs flying around.
Enclosures are also good, but the constant swapping of HDDs with one enclosure might be a bit too much.
I have currently 6 2.5" HDDs in five USB enclosures and one Firewire 800 enclosure, then I have two 2.5" HDDs in FW800 enclosures and one FW400 enclosure for some other S-ATA HDDs I have.
It works quite okay for me.

thanks for the info, what dock are you using? the only concern I had with a dock was that my hard drives might be exposed to some dust, & if I found I had to use one of my bare hard drives on a computer without the dock it would be awkward, are there some docks that are portable? some of them look a bit bulky.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

thanks for the info, what dock are you using? the only concern I had with a dock was that my hard drives might be exposed to some dust, & if I found I had to use one of my bare hard drives on a computer without the dock it would be awkward, are there some docks that are portable? some of them look a bit bulky.

I don't use a dock. only enclosures.
You could also look into something like this, as docks are quite bulky.

 

[Sossity]

I don't use a dock. only enclosures.
You could also look into something like this, as docks are quite bulky.

thank you, this looks just as good as a dock, would this work if I had to do an overnight back up of a drive connected with one of these kits?

and if I did, where would be a safe place to sit the bare drive to keep it cool while doing a backup?