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Which FW 800 HDD for my mini?

I recently bought one of these cases after some research on the internet, I have the 2.5 Drive enclosure as well, but the 3.5" one works as a media reader and 2 port USB Hub on top of my 5 port USB hub, it is quiet and does not get hot, also it has a vertical stand or it will lay down flat. I got mine on ebay for $18 bucks. I installed my 500 GB Seagate in this in roughly 5-7 minutes I was up and running using it for my Time Machine Backups.

http://rocketfishproducts.com/pc-11...ve-enclosure-kit-for-35-sata-hard-drives.aspx
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
I'm a fan of Icy Dock enclosure http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198006 Has $30 mail-in rebate if purchased this month. It looks much better in person though. Couple that with a SATA HD fast enough to saturate FW800.

P.S. Put a square piece of black electrical tape over the indicator light and it'll dim enough to be unannoying.
Click to expand...
I own this enclosure w/ a 1TB WD Green and it works great, is super cool and quiet. Owh, the last review is mine ;)
 
OT: Mildly off topic ...

JayLenochiniMac said:
P.S. Put a square piece of black electrical tape over the indicator light and it'll dim enough to be unannoying.
Click to expand...

What the heck is wrong with the guys who design these external drives ... every stinking one has an overpowering indicator light that out shines most night lights!!!

BTW, a small square piece of duct tape is also a great light blocker.
 
A general comment ...

Most (if not all) of these external USB/FW400/FW800/eSata combo units use some form of Oxford chipset. I think both the IceDock and Rosewill cases referenced above use the same 924 Oxford chipset. Curiously, the 924 is not listed in the current set of products at the Oxford website.

I have not seen any performance numbers to indicate what differences there are in the various Oxford chips except for what types of connections that each chip series supports.

Best of luck in you search ... may your desktop be cluttered with drive icons!
 
gwerhart0800 said:
Most (if not all) of these external USB/FW400/FW800/eSata combo units use some form of Oxford chipset. I think both the IceDock and Rosewill cases referenced above use the same 924 Oxford chipset. Curiously, the 924 is not listed in the current set of products at the Oxford website.

I have not seen any performance numbers to indicate what differences there are in the various Oxford chips except for what types of connections that each chip series supports.
Click to expand...

Oxford 924 chipset used in Icy Dock and Rosewill enclosures is SATA-based. Oxford 911/912 chipsets are IDE/PATA-based. Unfortunately, many built-in external enclosures are still using IDE/PATA drives and the internal interface is usually unspecified. Some manufacturers (e.g. WD MyBooks) even have a hard drive lottery where they reserve the right to supply either type of drive in the enclosure depending on availability.
 
hard drive enclosure

LagunaSol said:
My enclosure design has a backplate that drops into a slot at the rear of the enclosure (held in place by the removable top plate where you add the drive). This backplate contains the connectors (and circuit board) for your specific needs. Want a quad interface? No problem - buy a quad plate. Only need USB 2.0? Simple - USB 2.0 back plate. What about Firewire 1600 someday? No big deal - there will be a drop-in plate with Firewire 1600 someday. No reason for the enclosure itself to ever become obsolete.

Order the enclosure, the back plate you need, and add your own drive.
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LagunaSol, could you tell us the make/model of the enclosure that you use? I'm not familiar with any that have that flexibility. Thanks.
 
rvmeush said:
LagunaSol, could you tell us the make/model of the enclosure that you use? I'm not familiar with any that have that flexibility. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Sorry, this is just my fantasy enclosure that I had drawn up with the lofty hope of having it manufactured, but decided there probably weren't enough people out there interested in a high quality (thus not bargain-priced) enclosure to even cover the tooling costs, let alone all the other costs involved. These days people just buy the cheapest heap of junk enclosure they can find on NewEgg and call it a day.

I still like to dream about it though... :)
 
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