Are all harddrive enclosures bad? / Help needed

[jmdw]

Can someone please recommend me a reliable external harddrive enclosure? (IDE) I read alot of reviews on different harddrive enclosures and i they seem to say the same things.

"This was cheaply/poorly made"
"It's not real aluminum"
"It's made of plastic, not aluminum"
"The fans are cheaply made"
"This fan won't cool your harddrive"
"Beware! This enclosure is cheap! It fried my PC!"
etc, etc.

Are there any good/reliable external harddrive enclosure? Or are they all bad? Can someone please help me out? My 250GB IDE Seagate harddrive needs a good home.

 

[tseska69]

I've been happy with my Vantec enclosure. I've had it for about 2 years now. I think it's for a SATA drive, but I dont think the IDE version (if one is out there) would function differently.

 

[stoner133]

I have a Thermaltake enclosure and I have been very happy with it. Mine also is SATA but I know they make it in a IDE version as well. Heck I have one thats a no name cheapy from NewEgg that has been working for over 3 years that is IDE I almost completely forgot about. Both work with USB and the Thermaltake unit also is eSATA, which is how I use that one. They can get warm if you leave them on for long periods of time. I think the longest I leave mine on for is in the range of a couple hours, with no problems.

 

[Paperdoc]

I have an AZIO unit (bought from Newegg) with USB2 and eSATA connections to the 'puter, and SATA II connection for the HDD. Don't use it much - mainly for periodic full image backups - but it never seems to get too warm with a 500 GB Seagate inside. I think a lot of modern hard drives don't generate much heat and can work well in an external enclosure with no fan. However, I'd definitely think more about needing a fan to use it for a DVD burner.

 

[Shadow703793]

What I did was get a cheap aluminum (make sure it's not too cheap, mine was ~$30 after MIR; IDE to eSATA/USB) and attach a heat sinks to the main ICs on the HDD and cut holes in the aluminum and mount a 70mm fan so air is blown at the HDD.