HDD Enclosures

F

Frankincense

New Member
Hi guys, I want to buy a 3/4 bay 3.5'' HDD enclosure that I can use externally to my server (as its a small mITX server).

Are there any enclosures that you guys recommend?

I might have to buy a new motherboard, or a USB3 PCI-e card, or an eSATA PCI-e card, as they all seem to use USB3 or eSATA. But if you can find one that uses regular SATA that would be fantastic.

RAID is not necessary as I intend to use them as separate HDDs. But If I can, I would like to merge them into JBOD.

I currently have one 3.5'' HDD, but I intend to get more soon.


Would it be better to just use an internal backplane like an icy dock and just keep it outside the server?

Many thanks
 
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You should not have to buy new hardware if you're looking to use USB 3.0 because it is backwards compatible with USB 2.0. As Far as enclosures go I can say that Ultra seems to be a good brand.

I have an Ultra 2.5" USB Enclosure that I broke this past weekend after it was a year and a half old. It was entirely my fault that it broke, and either way it worked perfectly well for me before.

If I were you, I would get one with an aluminum case because the aluminum tends to help dissipate heat much better than plastic ones. Under full load mine would become pretty warm. Also if possible you should use a 2.5" drive or a laptop drive. Laptop drives are much more resistant to fall damage than 3.5" drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817366041 (2.5" enclosure, oops.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392009

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817366031
 
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