Hey Bino-
When I travel, I take a Icydock 3.5" enclosure & a 400GB HDD with me since portable
not on-the-go storage is what I need & 3.5 HDD's are a lot cheaper/GB than 2.5's. :)
I've seen notebook/USB powered IDE or SATA 2.5" Vantec's (and generics) for < $30 on
ebay & Newegg, trick is to watch what bridge chipset is under the hood so caveat
emptor! If you don't need USB powered, look into Icydock 3.5" enclosures.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=vantec+2.5
Icydock makes a neat eSATA dock that fits both 2.5" & 3.5" HDD but it's a cradle not
an enclosure & @$50 is priced way to high vs. a Rosewill USB to IDE/SATA "dongle".
Picked up the Rosewill for service calls after looking at a dozen generically similar
models.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198029
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119244
Reason I'm hot on the Icydock is they make portable, external, and internal models
with interchangeable trays. Doesn't hurt the in addition to being well built, sturdy,
the eSATA/USB2.0 MB559 external is the coolest running fanless enclosures I've used
(<40C under load) despite housing a Seagate 7200.10. Picked it up on a deal that came
with a free spare tray (MSRP $25) for $60 (currently $39.99 after $20 MIR, no spare
tray). Really wanted to pick up the "3to5" internal version this Xmas for my desktop
PC so I can swap drives with the external enclosure but could not justify the $$$.
This is Icydock's I'm talking about:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198011
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198028
Sorry to be so drawn out...
Bino Gopal wrote:
Thanks Jim (it is Jim, IIRC?). I'll have to look at those and see what
people say...
So no one else here travels and needs the smaller enclosures for portable
HDs?! Fwiw, I have two Vantec 3.5" enclosures that do USB 2.0 and eSATA,
and they've been pretty great; nice shiny metal cases (Blue and Black) and
~$33 each from Newegg; from a friend's recommendation and I've been happy
with them for a while now...
But searching for 2.5" ones was producing little results (and weirdly some
listings for the Rocketfish for $3; yeah, the one I paid $55 for!), so
that's why I was curious if anyone here had any they'd personally recommend;
if not, no worries, and thanks guys!
BINO
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of maccrawj
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 6:39 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [H] USB 2.0 2.5" HD enclosures?
WB Bino!
I'm partial to Icydock these days but have not tried any of their 2.5"
stuff.
