External hard drive enclosure recommendations

I personally would NEVER mount a SATA HD without a fan or at least a heat sink. These drives just get too hot. As far as the case, are you looking for eSATA, USB, NAS, or what? The case is going to be determinrd by how you intend to connect the drives to your system. If you are looking for backup/archival storage, I would recommend the DLink DNS-323 Network storage. Can be seen at http://www.dlink.com/category/productcategories/?cid=8 Dlink also make a few other models. I have personally used the DNS-323 and like it.

Thanks for the advice. I am using these to make offsite backups. A USB connection will be fast enough. I agree with you about the cooling fan. I have heard that some enclosures have noisy fans though. There is also an issue with the circuitry of the enclosure -- its reliability and drive capacity support. I want to go with 1 or 1.5 TB drives and I notice that some enclosures only support up to 750 GB.

I've been several using VanTec NexStar enclosures such as this one for a few years and have been pleased with them. I like the solid extruded aluminum construction - it seems to do a good job of dissipating the heat generated by the drive. Versions are available with various combinations of USB, eSATA and FireWire connections.

I've recently started standardizing on "green" drives for use in these enclosures because they run much cooler than standard drives. I've never had any problems with standard drives in the enclosures, but less heat is a good thing.

I've used 1TB WD Caviar Green drives (WD10EADS) in these enclosures without any problems. Not sure how much larger a drive they'd support.

Edit - I see in Newegg's description of these drives it says they work with capacities up to 750GB. But I'm sure that's a typo because as I mentioned I've used this exact enclosure (model NST-360SU-BL) with 1GB drives and it works fine. If you look further down in Newegg's web page on the right side under "features" it states that the enclosure supports drives up to 2TB.

Thanks for the specific brand recommendation. That's what I'm looking for. I'll check on the VanTecs at newegg. I do like the WD green drives for their cooler temps. They have always been fast enough for me.

You can check out Onnto's products. I am using Onnto's DataTale RAID and enclosures. I bought it from Oyen Digital. The best design is the SmartGuider which is easy to install, insert and retrieve the disks. It's a pretty cool trayless design. The 4-bay RAID has two fans but I don't feel they are there since it's very quiet, sometimes I can't tell whether the humming sound is from the disks or the fans, I think it should be from the disks. I recommend Onnto's products, easy to use and rich in functions. Good design and quality, I will buy again if I have enclosures or RAID needs. Hope this info helps.