Do these work? Are they worth buying for spare HDs.. should i be buying one with certain specs.. thanks

Yes they work. Make sure you get usb2.0. For optical drives, you need to look for prolific chipset.

Or a FireWire/IEEE1394a enclosure (if your PC is equipped with such a port).

They work like a charm. Just plug'em in and off you go. They should work in every OS that supports your controller. I use mine in both Windows and Linux on 5 different machines and they all work like a charm. Easy, speed is pretty much okay and not too expensive. Perfect I'd say.

Only problem is the transfer rate is about half that of a current fast HD so be prepared for a slow down if you do a lot of transferring.

Here's the place to go

thanks for the info.. are fans necessary?? ive seen them with or without.. thanks..

Heat kills electronics. I personally would go with a fan, even though it may not be entirely necessary, because the cooler it runs, the longer it will last. I know that people do this without fans all the time, but it has to have some effect on the life of the electronics.

i`am using a mentor enclosure, its on 24/7 and doesn`t get very hot.

If you go with Dealsonic, they have one built in. At least the two I got do.

Here are the two that I have. The small one naturally being one for a HDD and the other has my DVD-Rom drive in it. These both came from Dealsonic for approx. $22.00 US and both have fans in them.

Dear uronmy49311,

I have two, both contain hard drives. They can be a valuable part of your storage strategy. I plan to use them for multimedia files, or carrying big files to friends' computers here in town. Backing up your operating system could work, but I've never tried it. Units that are below 128/137 GB probably still come as FAT32 but you can reformat to NTFS (remember, Linux can't read/write NTFS very good yet).

I have a CompUSA unit that looks A LOT like ako's Mentor. CompUSA SKU 312100, barcode number 8 41808 00145 1. Insert your own HD, no fan, no firewire (though there is a sister unit w/1394). I can't get USB 2.0 drivers to install for me (98SE), so it's not that great, but other Windows versions don't need drivers for usb HDs, so you might have no trouble at all. Does get warm after a while, sorry to say.

I also have the Acomdata with the CompUSA logo on it (came with 80 GB FAT32 WD Caviar inside). Failed right out of the box, warranty replacement is just fine. Drivers installed great. Not warm, air gap between drive and case.

No fan on either one.

yeah, i also use a Plumax for my external DVD writer (can also be used as a HD case).
works great.

BTW: It's got the chipset your looking for and no freakin' wall wart;
straight-up IEC standard.
I leave mine off.
Flip the power switch and "boing!" it's ready to go.

You should get one with a fan like someone said before it affects the life of it. Also make sure you get one with USB 2.0 there shouldn’t be a speed difference since USB 2.0 transfers 480 Mbs. Make sure you have a USB 2.0 on your computer if not and you have 1.1 then you will notice a speed difference because it's 12 Mbs. I have used a DVD burner in external enclosure on USB 1.1 the only problem was that it did burn as fast.

thanks to everyone.. i appreciate the answers and opinions...

I use them for mass storage.. More convenient to store 200GB on a removable HDD than across 45-50 DVD's

Got that one as well... it's quite okay. Came quite cheap, came with a fan and has been working for almost a year without a single problem.

where did you get that enclosure!?! i cant find it anywhere...thanks

i suggest youll get one of those all of em aluminum made and have a quiet 80mm fan

ams venus usb2/firewire for ide
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145657

ams venus usb2 for ide
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145656

ams venus usb2 for sata
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145659

gladiator computers, the odd thing is it was only £20 when i brought one a month ago, its now at £32.99 but they have an almost identical Akasa case for £20.