I just purchased a 3500a and am thinking about purchasing a FW 1394b (800) / USB 2.0 external enclosure for laptop connection. I already have purchased a 1394b card for my laptop. Any thoughts on the best brand to purchase?

Thank you very much

I believe that an exclosure that uses the Oxford 911 chipset is the way to go, from what I've read.

The 1394b enclosures are very expensive, around $200 I think. Anyway, I have ordered a 1394a enclosure for my 3500A. I will be receiving it and my 3500A on the weekend. If you want, I could post some tests when I get it.

Please search for 3507 (Prolific ChipSet) in the NEC forum. IT WORKS...

This is the enclosure I have ordered.

I've been using a vipower external enclosure for my NEC-3500 and its burning very happily at 12x using a firewire cable.

I haven't tried 16x because I don't have any media that burns at that yet.

I purchased the Kingwin "KH-525UF-S" external enclosure.
This model has both USB2.0 and Firewire (1394a - Oxford 911).

This is the NewEgg link. It also comes in a model with just USB or just Firewire.

I put it together with the 3500a last night, and it's worked great.
This is my first burner though, so I have nothing to compare the setup to.

There is a review of it here.

It also gives the otherwise plain OEM, a more impressive look.

if the enclosure is going to only be used for the burner, then in theory there's no reason to spend the extra money on a "b" enclosure, but of course a real world test burning to your "a" enclosure at 16x would prove that to be true.