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    Building external ATA-100 Seagate 250gb external HD

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by gd-student, Nov 26, 2006.

  1. gd-student

    gd-student Notebook Consultant

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    Yesterday I bought two Seagate Barracuda 250gb, Ultra ATA-100, 7200 RPM, 16mb cache, 3.5'' drives for $60 each during Black Friday at Best Buy. Currently I am seeking an external HD solution, to be made from these two ST3250623A-RK model drives.

    What external enclosure (USB 2.0) would you recommend I buy for both my HDs?

    Is there a dual-HD, single enclosure option available on the market?

    Which enclosures are vertically/horizontally stackable?
     
    gd-student, Nov 26, 2006
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  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Two of these, or one of these if you are willing to make it a network storage device.

    I believe the single drive enclosure (the first one) might be stackable.
     
    Greg, Nov 26, 2006
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  3. gd-student

    gd-student Notebook Consultant

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    The 1st seems to be too poorly designed to let out heat and too pricey for such a simple looking enclosure. The 2nd has more usability than I need and is nice. But $100 is too pricey.

    Is there a reliable, well-cooling USB 2.0 dual-HD enclosure without the bells & whistles overhead costs?

    Is there an enclosure that feeds off of USB only, skipping the power plug?
     
    gd-student, Nov 26, 2006
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  4. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    No 3.5" enclosure is going to power only off the USB bus. 2.5" usually requires 1 or 2 powered USB ports to give it the power it requires, and 3.5" drives require even more power.

    Anyway, I use that first one. The device is a little warm, but not too hot. Admittedly, there might be some better ones out there.
     
    Greg, Nov 26, 2006
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  5. gd-student

    gd-student Notebook Consultant

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    Then again, that Netgear enclosure seems promising, a solution very useful with two HDs, if used correctly with a laptop and a wireless router.

    edit-which wireless router would you recommend to work with the Netgear enclosure?
     
    gd-student, Nov 26, 2006
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  6. gd-student

    gd-student Notebook Consultant

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    gd-student, Dec 15, 2006
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