Which external enclosure?

External enclosure

As far as for HDD, go with the bytecc. They are pretty good, I have one of their mini enclosures rebranded for 2.5 in HDD. Also its the only one with a fan I believe, and a decent size one at that. Its important to allow those HDD to cool, especially a backup drive if it does cloning, copying 120+gigs in one sitting creates a lot of heat. Also optical drive heat up pretty darn fast as well, so any enclosure with a fan is one that i consider. I like the website www.cooldrives.com for HDD enclosures. Good luck! hope i helped!

 

I think the 3rd one you posted is your best bet.

 

I have had decent luck with Bytecc enclosures but my most recent one (a 3.5" Firewire case) has a very noisy fan. I'm fine with fans as long as they make a low-pitched sound. This one is kind of high-pitched and very annoying. I ended up simply disconnecting the fan. This is probably not a great idea since the enclosure is not designed to be run without a fan, but I've been fine so far. It doesn't seem to get too hot.

I'd go for one of the fanless enclosures, since at least those ones are designed to operate without a fan.

 

I had problems with bytecc, and their tech support is horrible. you only have email tech support, and the first thing they say is your hd is bad without trying to even troubleshoot the problem. i switched to a PPA metal gear box with the same hd and that solved the problem


http://www.ppa-usa.com/product_pages/enclosures.htm

 

OWC

Try Other World Computing. They have their own branded lines and carry Lacie, MacAlly and others. Great customer support, great quality and great prices.

http://eshop.macsales.com/

 

Sure, but the extra few bucks is worth the quality and peace of mind. You can find many sale and closeout enclosures for $ off on the site. I bought a 3.5" FW enclosure for $35 a couple years ago, flawless, and a 2.5" FW a few months ago for $40. Again, flawless.

You could buy a Best Buy rebate special then sell the HD for most of the cost you paid, just an idea.

 

I picked this one up recently for my mini and I'm happy with it.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000B3ALF/002-4477815-0173616?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance