Conclusion
Average users with typical technical affinity and common requirements might not see the value of these storage accessories, but enthusiasts, hobbyists and administrators certainly will. None of these products are particularly expensive, and remembering their existence might come handy during those times when it seems every technical gizmo is out to get you.
Addonics' Mobile Rack takes 3.5" hard drives and makes them hot-swappable. It is robust, well priced and versatile, but we would like it to be quiet, please.
The Quadra Pack by Enhance Tech is a pretty unusual piece of hardware, as it accepts up to four 2.5" SATA drives and squeezes them into an ordinary 5.25" drive bay. It lets you set up your high-density RAID 0+1/1+0 or RAID 5 even in a small-form-factor PC. Unfortunately, Enhance Tech disqualifies itself by installing a fan that sounds like a portable vacuum cleaner.
Scythe's Kama Connect is a universal adapter to hook up any Serial ATA or UltraATA hard drive to any USB-enabled PC. Plug in the power supply and the drive and you get the quickest and dirtiest possible access to any ATA hard drive. It works and it might very well be handy, so let's not complain.
The Quiet Drive by Scythe is an excellent product if you have already conquered all noise sources inside the PC except the hard drive. We found that although it completely encapsulates your drive it will not overheat it, thanks to a sophisticated thermal solution that uses the noise dampening material to conduct heat.
The HD25-S can be used to add a 2.5" hard drive to a desktop PC by installing it on top of a 32-bit PCI slot. Place the drive on the expansion card, screw it tight, attach the SATA cable to your controller, and you're all set.
If you are aware of other storage accessories that you think everyone should know about, please don't hesitate to drop me a short email using the feedback form.
