hard drive enclosure

glindsey

hi everybody



I need some advice. I've found a decent deal on a Maxtor MaXLine Pro 500GB SATA II (7200 RPM, 16MB cache etc.) for $124 (you can tell me if you think that's a deal). It comes with a 5 year warranty.



Currently I'm looking for an enclosure to put it in, with a firewire 800 and 400, and eSATA interface. USB is not important. So far I've found two to consider, both about the same price. I would like to get people's opinions before I spend any money, as I'm not knowledgeable with this stuff.



Here is my first choice:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other...g/MEFW924AL1K/



second choice:

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/toughtech.php



Both of these have oxford chipsets, which from what I read is preferable. I intend to do video editing and use it for personal file storage and backup. My machine is an aluminium Powerbook 1Ghz G4, which I bought in 2004. If this is the right combination it will be a decent versatile 500GB external hard drive for under $250. What do you think? Any recommendations?



greg

aplnub

I think the first choice is a great enclosure. Second looks fine too but the first has got the right stuff. I like it so much, I just ordered one. Thanks for the tip. I have a SATA 300 GB drive, two actually, at home doing nothing. Enclosures for SATA were hard to find at those prices in stores and on the web until recently.



Thanks for the heads up. I plan on plugging that enclosure into my NAS ethernet drive and expand my NAS.

fongyuen

i have the wiebetech one and i like it. the enclosure acts as a heatsink so it's quiet except for the hdd spinning. it comes with quite a few cables, worked fine out of the box, the only thing is that it doesn't come cheap.



i intended to use it for video editing, too, but just recently, i plugged it into my mbp via FW800 and then plugged my video camera via FW 400 and osx would not mount the drives until i unplugged the camera. well, it was my first time trying it, will look into it some more. anybody know anything about this?

jeffdm

I like the first most, but that's just an appearance thing. Both are reputable companies as far as I'm aware.

aplnub

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffDM


I like the first most, but that's just an appearance thing. Both are reputable companies as far as I'm aware.

I got my OWC enclosure in and working. Very nice! It came with a cable for each (FW 400, 800, ESata, USB, etc.) and looks great!

wing70301

Question...



Can these hard drive enclosures, especially the OWC Mercury Elite-AL, protect a hard drive in a "on the road" condition? I'd really like to get an external HD, but if I get one of these enclosures, I can already use some hard drives that I have laying around. I'm just afraid that the hard drive would be too fragile, even inside the enclosure. So do these offer a harddrive that extra protection it needs to handle being carried around, etc.? Thanks so much!

donebylee

If I am remembering correctly, OWC has an enclosure that is designed to protect HDs. I think it has rubber "bumpers" protecting it....check thier website for it.



I have read several write-ups of the OWC external HDs and enclosures and everyone has been very postive so I don't think you can go wrong with them.



Cheers.



Ok...just checked OWC's site and only found 2.5 "on-the-go" enclosures, so it must have been another company.

glindsey

So I ended up buying the OWC enclosure 2 months ago, which shipped with firewire 400 and 800 cables and a USB cable, no esata cable though, although I don't have the interface. I installed the maxtor 500gb hard drive and so far its been very reliable and very fast. Its an excellent solution for desktop video editing if you're not a professional. I use it with final cut express and there are no issues, its quiet and very fast, FC has no problems retrieving clips. I would recommend it with 5/5 stars. We'll see how it does after a year.



greg