external enclosure: 5.25" or 3.5" ?

[Kingnog]

Yallo. I just bought myself a nice Western Digital 160GB 7200rpm internal HD (model WD1600) with all these black friday deals, for cheap. I want to put it in an external case...first question is if it'll fit in a 3.5" case? I've heard both yes and no as answers...

2nd, if it will fit in a 3.5", will it get too hot considering its 7200rpm? I want this thing to be portable, but obviously dont want it to overheat on me and die.

[budz]

2nd, if it will fit in a 3.5", will it get too hot considering its 7200rpm? I want this thing to be portable, but obviously dont want it to overheat on me and die.

get a external enclosure that is made of aluminium with 2 built in fans that would solve the heat problem.

[whomacuddy]

Yes you should ensure cooling is sufficient 7,200rpm drives of that capacity will certainly get hot without adequate cooling .

[Kingnog]

Heh, theres another issue of cost. Something with 2 fans would cost upward of $30 (which would be more than I paid for the drive )

SO, If anyone knows of a 3.5" external drive enclosure that can provide adequate cooling for a 7200 RPM drive, that costs less than $30, please let me know! (I'll worship you)

[Kingnog]

Hmm, I found this, and its very cheap. What do you think?

http://store.yahoo.com/iwin2win/3alichusb20e.html

[budz]

Hmm, I found this, and its very cheap. What do you think?

http://store.yahoo.com/iwin2win/3alichusb20e.html

SO, If anyone knows of a 3.5" external drive enclosure that can provide adequate cooling for a 7200 RPM drive, that costs less than $30, please let me know! (I'll worship you)

the one on that link doesn't look like it's a aluminium case. A aluminium case would also help with the cooling. here's one from newegg.com:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-334&depa=1

[Kingnog]

That one doesnt have a fan

This one is looking pretty good right about now:
http://www.shopampm.com/product_info.php?products_id=161

[budz]

oops!!! i thought there was one.

in my opinion if you want a good quality external enclosure with a fan spend the money to ensure that hard drive will not have heat problems. the drive cost you $30.00 but should it fail due to heat problems then you'll have to purchase another one.

[Kingnog]

Hmm, is a fan really necessary, as long as the aluminum case is dissapating the heat? My old one doesnt have a fan but it seems to be doing fine. Then again, it isnt 7200 rpm.

[budz]

Hmm, is a fan really necessary, as long as the aluminum case is dissapating the heat? My old one doesnt have a fan but it seems to be doing fine. Then again, it isnt 7200 rpm.

in my opinion a fan is important because it lets out the hot air.

[budz]

here's one from compugeeks
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ME-720F&cat=CAS

[Kingnog]

Hmm, that one looks like its firewire only. I want to be able to transfer files between my older computer, also (which doesnt have firewrire), so I'm mainly looking for a USB 2.0 drive.

http://store.yahoo.com/insidecomputer/3usb20hadren.html
That actually looks really nice. It's very cheap, and according to the seller,

Q: Is there a fan inside??
A: No, there is no fan. It is 100% aluminum casing so a fan is not necessary!

My friend also said the same thing about fans. Now that I'm totally confused...I may just go with the fan-less one (less noise, also!)

[Stewart]

I don't know if you're from the UK (nothing in your user profile) but if so try Maplin - they have new nice looking one at £39.99 - 3.5 ", aluminium with fan & external PSU. I am tempted myself.

I have one of their earlier cases (HD caddy) - smaller with mini-fan. My WD 200 GB can get quite warm but it can be switched off when not in use.

[Kingnog]

ah, sorry im in the us. And thanks for helping everyone...I just bought the one in the last link I posted, looks nice.


http://store.yahoo.com/insidecomputer/3usb20hadren.html

[jakol]

hi,
got one almost identical from wat you got, mine gets really hot though esp. when accessing the drive for long periods ex. playing dvd image files. im concerned now of failing drive from heat, maybe not the drive itself coz its designed to take heat but the circuity inside the enclosure where you plug your IDE cable.

and usb 2.0 not fast enough for me...tops only 19,000 kbs on Nero Drive Speed test
while firewire tops around 38,000 to 40,000 kbs. but sometimes fail to write. USB is very stable though.

[SnoopyDad]

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but, how does one go about formatting the hardrive on a firewire connection?

I purchased an external 3.5 drive unit, with one fan (can provide details if anyone interested). Will be used mostly with my laptop, running WINXP SP2; the computer recognizes the firewire card and sees that there is a hardrive in the enclosure - when I tell it to 'populate', is shows 152 gb available (it's a 160 gb drive). The enclosure has the Oxford chipset?.

When I open control panel, it only sees the internal HD, no other hd's. I read on another thread about using fdisk to format, but I'm not sure how to when the computer doesn't show an external drive letter.

Please help.

Thanks in advance

[stiltman]

right click on "my computer" and click on manage
click on disk management

least that's what I do in win2k

[Soopafresh]

I found two external drives in the dead drive pile at work. The reason why they died was clear: the external enclosure had a molded thick lucite exterior, creating a "tomb" of heat for the drives.