Looking for a good 3.5 enclosure?

[ingeborgdot]

What is a 3.5" enclosure that is supposed to be a very good one. I want to make another external hdd for my friend because he is going to store and transfer videos for football films to watch and move around from computer to computer. I have used 2.5 enclosures and found Vantec to be good. What is your opinion on this subject? Thanks.

[ingeborgdot]

Re: Looking for a good 3.5 enclosure?

Ever heard of this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817362002

[Darthtanion]

Re: Looking for a good 3.5 enclosure?

Are you planning on using a SATA drive? Your linked product does anyway.

I haven't tested any of the SATA external devices, but using standard IDE drives I have found that both Vantec and Thermaltake have very solid products. There are other manufacturers out there, but these two seem to always have a very solid performance record.

[orangutang91]

Re: Looking for a good 3.5 enclosure?

I have heard the same about Vantec and Thermaltake.

[tuxfreak]

Re: Looking for a good 3.5 enclosure?

I've been using a Vantec NexStar 2 for about two years now with much complaint.

The model you linked seems to be decent, assuming you have the correct hardware to support it, as Darth said. What's strage about this one is that the external port is also sata. You'll need a sata hdd and an external sata port on your PC (or route a cable from an internal port to the exterior). Personally, i prefer enclosures that have both USB2 and 1394 for portability.

Keep in mind how it's cooled too. Overheating has been the death of more than a few HDD's

*I see the NexStar 3 is out now, looks nice :-)

[ingeborgdot]

Re: Looking for a good 3.5 enclosure?

I went IDE HDD. I went with an AMS Venus. Many, many good ratings on Newegg.