External hard drive cases....

[kenmo]

I'm in the market for an external 3.5 case to house an hard drive via usb.

My vendor has two types. One is hard plastic with a fan the other is all aluminum with no fan. The aluminum case appears a it will house the hard drive little snugger.

I like the look of the aluminum case but will there be an heat issue with no fan?

At some point I also hope to procure a 5.25 case for a dvd burner. Again which type of case would be better for a burner?

Thanks in advance

Ken

[TBoneit]

Sticking my oar into the water:

I have sold both and used both. Pros and Cons below.

In our store the aluminum case was smaller and had an external power supply

The Plastic case could take a optical drive or a hard drive and has a fan withbuilt in power supply.

So the Plastic case seems better to me. Standard power cable and cooling fan and more versatile.

The aluminum case depends on the heat transfering from the drive where it screws down to the aluminum for heat transfer and cooling and thus the drive does run hotter but quieter as no fan noise and a less secure power connection and the power supply that looks like a Laptop power supply will need to be somewhere.

Summary? I now use only the Plastic 5.25" case and once a year or so I pull them from service for maintanence. Open case clean out dust, blow out fan, Remove fan, Pull label and drop of oil in bearing.

FWIW on cheaper Sleeve bearing fans a drop of oil a year under the label into the bearing keeps them humming along too. Any fan that makes noise that goes away as it warms up needs oil or replacing as that noise when cold is bearing noise and the oil is temp fix.

Hope this helps with your decision

[TBoneit]

Before I forget the plastic case seems to be all over as a ME-325 external case.

[kenmo]

yes...very helpful... Much appreciated... What type/grade of oil is Ok to use on these bearings??? Is something like WD 40 OK...???

Cheers

Ken

[TBoneit]

One other thing to think about there also a Plastic case that is smaller for 3.5" only that has a external power supply also.

For oil I use marked as, 3 in 1, Special Blend for 1/4 HP motors or larger, Then below Motor Oil and lower still SAE20.

Made by WD-40

[redwudz]

I'd use something non-pressurized like '3-in-One' oil. Then you won't be spraying it all over the place. You can get it or something similar at most hardware stores. Some hard drives run fairly hot. Some models of Maxtors come to mind. I wouldn't want to run one of those in a small case without a fan.

[Fairhope]

I purchased the AMS Venus external harddrive case about a year ago and have been very pleased. It's a 3.5" aluminum case with a fan which is positioned directly underneath the harddrive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145656

[SingSing]

Good looking case and hardware. Why they still ship a driver CD with it ?

[TBoneit]

People still using older OS's would be my guess.

I use a external laptop drive case that powers off of the USB port. It has a driver disk. I need that disk in Win98 to read the drive.

[Seeker47]

I purchased the AMS Venus external harddrive case about a year ago and have been very pleased. It's a 3.5" aluminum case with a fan which is positioned directly underneath the harddrive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145656

Similar appearance and price to the Coolmax line of enclosures I have favored for a few years now, except that the sled or tray part is aluminum also. Only the faceplate is plastic. I like the with-fan models: cooler is always better for HDDs, maybe for optical drives too.