Looking for sata HDD stand/adapter/enclosure recommendations

[themadhatta]

Not sure what section of the forum this thread would fit best in...

I have no idea what these things are called. My friend showed me u can take some seagate drives apart and wind up with this little docking station that u can plug any drive into. I forget the name of the power cable used for common HDDs nowadays, but it has that and sata. I later was given something that actually was made for this. Its a little black with usb 3.0 out and a power cable that allows me to plug in any 2.5" sata HDD into it.

I have a lot of drives to organize and am constantly finding them and messing with them. But the one i have has a fan, if i dont use a fan the drives get way too hot.

Does anyone know of any reliable HDD stands like what im explaining that has a fan built into it?
The ones im using keep having problems with the usb cables, and they are extremely unreliable, they dont even work sometimes.
Im hoping for ones with esata and usb 3.0 but they dont have to have esata, usb 3.0 is a must.

Thanks for your time.

 

[ssddx]

there are three types of enclosures that i know of.
-single drive enclosures.
-multi drive enclosures
-hdd docks (bare drives sit in top like an ipod dock)

most external enclosures that i have seen lack fans. you might be able to find a multiple hdd dock with a fan built in or 3.5" casing with a fan (you would need an adapter for 2.5" drives). the only drives which might generate too much heat are 10,000rpm wd raptors or if you are using a cheapo plastic enclosure for long periods of time. i do like the aluminium cases with vent holes front and rear as they do help.

i've never had any issues even with the cheap plastic one i just got for my old laptop 2.5" drive which i paid $5 for. some hdd drives require a seperate power source and can not be powered by one usb port. sometimes they have two usb plugs and sometimes they have an ac adapter. different motherboards might respond differently to the load.

as far as an exact product, i would say search around or visit your local microcenter.