Hey y’all, I could use some help. I have an extra 500GB 3.5 inch SATA hard drive that I’d like to move all of my music to so that I can keep one drive solely for video (since my PC is my media server now), but in trying to connect it to my PC internally, I’ve found that my power supply can’t supply 3 hard drives with enough juice to power the PC properly.
Therefore, I was thinking of making this extra HD into an external HD to put all of my music onto it. Therefore, I’ve been looking around at enclosures, but really know nothing about them or how reliable they are.
This is where I need your help. Could any of y’all suggest a good, reliable external HD enclosure that’s reliable enough for every day use? I’ve read some folks have their HD’s fried after using an enclosure, and I don’t want that happening here if at all possible. I have a Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard which apparently does have an external SATA connection (which I’ve never used) and USB ports as well.
Thanks in advance for any advice y’all could give me. I always appreciate it. :)
I’ve had good luck with the Antec MX-100, after a string of bad experiences with a bunch of cheap, off-brand ones, and use three of them in my backup system now. USB only though, which limits performance to around 30 MB/s (not a big deal for music, but in case you think of other uses).
K, wait, this is something I’d want to connect to my PC continuously. That being said, the MX-1 says it has fan to keep the drive cool, while the MX-100 doesn’t. Would the MX-100 be less suitable for continuous connectivity than the MX-1?
Fans are fairly uncommon in enclosures, so I don’t know if they’re really necessary, but it couldn’t hurt either if the price bump is acceptable.
I went with the MX-100 since I wanted something small and as a backup drive it’s idle/sleeping 95% of the time anyway, but I’d trust Antec enough to give the MX-1 a try as well.
There’s a huuuuuge speed difference between USB and eSATA. Huuuuuuuuuge. You want the eSATA. Just check the reviews on newegg to determine which one to get.
I have a small AMS Venus enclosure that has served me well for several years. It has a cooling fan and runs around $30-35 on newegg.
I also like the Antec MX-1, though I haven’t used one personally. I think Best Buy may even carry them in case you want it RIGHT NOW vs. ordering.
In general, I would definitely get one with a cooling fan if this is something you will be using regularly. If you’re just using it for the occasional backup, a fan’s not as important.
eSATA is nice and speedy, but you need to make sure your system is configured properly–i.e. that your SATA ports are set up to run in true SATA mode and not IDE mode. If you’re running Win7 or Vista, you should be fine. If you’re still running XP, your drives may be set up in IDE mode because doing so makes the Windows install a little easier and doesn’t have any significant impact on real-world performance.
Mine’s a little different from that one; however, mine is also rather old and takes an IDE drive so you probably wouldn’t want my exact model anyway.
Since you are using this for music and presumably will be running it a fair bit, I’d go with the more substantial Antec MX-1. Antec makes solid cases and good fans, so I’d trust their design and reliability.
I’ve used Vantec NexStar3’s for holding all my old HDs as they are replaced. They have eSATA and USB2, at least the last time I checked. Right now I have three sitting on my desk. In fact, up until my last build, I used to run my main WD Caviar Black 1TB from a NexStar3 through eSATA and didn’t even have an internal drive.
I can’t tell you how well they stack up to the competition but they’ve worked perfectly fine for me.
This seems like a decent enough place to necro-pose a question: Back in '07-'08 I bought a good quality external 1TB spinny drive, as a backup drive for all my important files. At some point before that I had a stack of DVD’s but I got tired of doing that.
It occurs to me that that drive is now… really ancient. That said, it’s been used for a cumulative total of like… a few hours in it’s lifespan, compared to years of continual use in a PC that I’m actively using. I’ve had two newer spinny drives get problems or fail in this time in my (now also dead) old desktop.
Should I be thinking of replacing this backup with a new model (spinny or SSD, dunno?) or is the low usage of it keeping it relatively young, so to speak?
