true SATA / USB2 or Firewire enclosure

[woz]

Can't believe it after looking all over the net for hours I can't find one.

I am looking for a well made 3.5 drive exernal drive case with:
- SATA connection (primary use at my office)
- USB 2 or Fireware connection for secondary use (compatability with other comptuers, I travel a lot).
- Can use ATA100-133 drive or SATA.
- I will most likely get a WD <edit> 7k </edit> rpm 200Gb+ drive.
- Must be portable (fit in laptop bag).
I would go with firewire 800 but for now the windows drivers are slowwwwww and my place of work will not be going to SP2 until next year nor would they be happy with a 3rd party venders driver.

The drive enclosures from HighPoint but they use there version of SATA called e.SATA and it uses a Firewire connection and not SATA, I think that's kinda odd and would like to avoid it if possable.

This product would work.. http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/index.php?redir=http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?code=CA-CI80311 but there are no doc's to see if it uses the Highpoint

Highpoint review, http://www.extremereviews.net/data.php?recordID=93&page=1&type=review

Any ideas?

Thanks

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by woz on 09/01/04 06:17 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Croaker]

The largest 10K WD drive is 74Gb unless you go SCSI and not WD!

 

[woz]

thanks wishing about the 10k.. edited post

 

[krazynutz]

I've never seen a true SATA external enclosure that also incorporates USB 2.0. But you mentioned above that you wanted to use either a SATA or ATA-133 drive. Well, e.SATA stands for External SATA, and <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-744&depa=0" target="_new">here</A> is the one that I have. It doesn't take a SATA drive , so I use a Maxtor 120GB ATA-100 drive in it. I use the SATA connection at home, and the USB 2.0 connection when I take it with me. I also bought an <A HREF="http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPLATE1&topbar=topbara.htm" target="_new"> external SATA PCI plate</A> for the back of my machine that plugs into my SATA port on my mobo while providing an external port for my external drive. The setup works great. Hope all that helps.

<font color=blue>This guy here is <i><b>dead!</b></i></font color=blue>
<font color=red>Cross him <i><b>off</b></i> then.

 

[arkus]

Nice simple and stylish solution krazynutz.



<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=2765&st=0#entry21597" target="_new">My Rigs</A>

 

[krazynutz]

Thanks. it's also fanless, so it's quiet - especially if you have a quiet drive.

<font color=blue>This guy here is <i><b>dead!</b></i></font color=blue>
<font color=red>Cross him <i><b>off</b></i> then.

 

[grafixmonkey]

I have seen some external boxes that let you put any device inside. You might be able to get an external box with firewire/usb2 on it, and put a SATA hot-swap bay in it. Then put a matching SATA hot-swap bay in your home PC and you're set.

I like these swap bays, I have some I ordered from that company and they work the best of any of three different types I've tried:
<A HREF="http://www.rackmountnet.com/rmc/c_accessories/tray/tray.htm" target="_new">http://www.rackmountnet.com/rmc/c_accessories/tray/tray.htm</A>
<A HREF="http://www.rackmountnet.com/rmc/c_accessories/tray/br-mbp.jpg" target="_new">http://www.rackmountnet.com/rmc/c_accessories/tray/br-mbp.jpg</A>
<A HREF="http://www.rackmountnet.com/rmc/c_accessories/tray/trayide.jpg" target="_new">http://www.rackmountnet.com/rmc/c_accessories/tray/trayide.jpg</A>

Of course, this setup fitting in a laptop bag might not happen...

 

[woz]

I have researched the heck out of this and from benchmarks there does NOT look to be a noticable performace hit going with an external SATA enclosure with an IDE drive in it. Some people report faster speeds with the same drive in an SATA enclosure because of problems with getting the IDE drive running at 100 or 133 inside there computer.

The real benifit of going with a True SATA enclosure is if you go with a SATA controler and HD that can suport command queing. But even with the database stuff that I am going to use, command queing is not going to offer much to the speed equation (because I will not have a lot a users on at one time) vs the extra compatability of USB2 and Very Fast USB2 at that!

I have seen several reviews that basicly say the same thing.. ( i do not consider this a good review and there numbers are a little low but it's the only one i have benchamarked)
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=250&p=4

There was another review I read (sorry can't find the link) but the USB2 interface was much faster than any thing in the SiSoft Sandra database!

Basicly the way the multi-bus exclosures work is there are two boards one for the SATA interface and another board that's the USB converter. Then there is a simple bridge chip to switch between the two. I am interested to see if I can run SATA and USB at the sime time.. It's unknow if the bridge or switching chip can handle both interfaces at the same time, or what speed drive is needed before the bridge chip starts to get overloaded. But since I have not found anyone who has posted a problem with it then I guess it's a non-issue with current HD hardware

The icey cool drive looks to be almost the exact same one posted in my thread (case is slightly different)..
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-744&depa=0

This looks to be the case I am going to go with. Unfortunaly the build you own case option is not a solution because of portability.

Thanks much every one.

 

[krazynutz]

Hmmm...I don't know if you plan on doing any type of modding to find this out, but by total accident (embarrassing moment) I actually did connect both the USB and SATA cables to the back of my computer at the same time. I'm telling you now, it doesn't work. My computer wouldn't even see the drive. It was like I confused the ever lovin' hell out of it and it just decided if I wasn't going to choose the interface for it, it wouldn't either.

<font color=blue>This guy here is <i><b>dead!</b></i></font color=blue>
<font color=red>Cross him <i><b>off</b></i> then.