External Hard Drive Enclosures?

Posted by Cliff on Tuesday October 11, 2005 @10:45AM from the dance-of-the-storage-peripherals dept.

AdmiralWeirdbeard wonders: "I've been looking to put together an external hard drive for use with my Mac Mini. Obviously, the built-in storage is not sufficient. However, I know nothing about what makes an external enclosure good or bad, and have found nothing but mixed reviews for even the best rated enclosures on Newegg and Amazon. Every model seems to have at least one person complaining of an enclosure that fried the drive through overheating. The literature I've read seems to focus on the pros and cons of the various enclosures for big (50+gb) weekly or even daily system backups. I dont need anything for regular backups, but rather just for storage of my music, movies, and other miscellaneous data. Any ideas on the pros and cons of fan/fanless, construction materials, and different brands out there?"

1 of 82 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

no enclosure by dwater · 2005-10-11 15:16 · Score: 2, Insightful

Consider not having an enclosure.

I have several Wiebetech Drive Docks that work just fine.

I had the drives free standing on their side (to allow convection), or fixed to a big metal plate to distribute the heat. A desk fan would provide additional cooling

Of course, they also sell enclosures, if you must.

--
Max.