I just spotted this and I thought I would pass it on as I have never seen another unit like this and certainly not at this price.

Looks like it is a 3.5 inch HD case that works with IDE or SATA drives and it also will connect with USB or with SATA. If you look at the included cables, there doesn't appear to be any configuation it cannot handle. As a bonus, it comes from Dealsonic and Plumax, some of the best enclosures I have owned.



http://www.dealsonic.com/plpmbl3cosea.html

Nice find chas!

The SATA controller in that enclosure is JMicron and FYI the JMicron JMB363 in my mobo works fine with PX-760SA.

I get the feeling this could be adapted to optical drives with only a little adjustment. I am very tempted to get one and see what it can do in a 5.25 case.

Thanks for the tip on the JMicron chip. This could be the future of SATA external drives.

Ditto on the nice find chas...appreciate it!

And zevia, thank you for the additional info.

I just ordered one... ...$39.98 delivered, Fedex grd - 5 business days

I find it curious that it says:
Hot-swappable (USB Only)

That's not a problem but I thought SATA was hot-swappable.

I check with Dealsonic as they initially stated it was SATA hot swappable and they said that was an error and changed their website. I agree that SATA is supposed to be by default but there are numerous reports of problems so I will have to assume that it is not.

maineman, you have to let us know what you find.

Will do...

How long is the SATA cable that came with the enclosure??? Even with the external SATA adapter, You need at least 2 foot long cable unless you are running the mini midget case.

If it is not long enough for anyone, these guys have 36" cables for $3 and cheap shipping. 39" is the upper limit according to specs. The one in the pic above looks fairly long.

http://svc.com/sata36.html

AFAIK, hotswappable requires sata power connections.
http://www.directron.com/patasata.html

I would not buy a 3.5" plastic enclosure such as this, it's basically a heat trap for your HD. And yes I know it has a fan, but it's practically worthless, it moves almost no air and is mounted in a poor location on the bottom (and it is still virtually worthless if you turn the enclosure sideways). I have 2 older Plumax enclosures, one is the same design except it's strictly USB 2.0, the other is a 5 1/4" enclosure. The 5.25" enclosure is decent, but the 3.5" is a POS. Buy an aluminum enclosure, fan or no fan. The aluminum will remove alot more heat from the HD than a fan from a 3.5" enclosure. Good idea, poor design if you care about the health of your HD.

I almost bought this but went with a 5 1/4 Plumax for the 320GB Seagate I just ordered today (thanks to chase0039) for the same reason, my older 3.5" enclosure just got way to hot.

I agree about the heat. The part that is attractive is the SATA capability. Given that it would be for fast back up work, mostly large images of the entire system, heat would not be a problem. I would only have it on for short periods.

Maybe a power drill would solve some of the heat trouble?

I read the article and I can't see the reference to power? I know SATAe has a power connection at the juction between the internal and external connection, but I also see a lot of SATA drive trays that are hot swapable as well. Probably something in their bus as well that provides additional power.

SATA is also hot-swappable meaning that devices can be added or removed while the computer is on.

The only thing I dont like about SATA is the cable, some are inflexible and they dont have the lock and sometimes it get loose because there is no clamping lock. I bought the Hitachi drive yesterday from Fry's electronics, prolly a go back and I'll get the seagate instead. I still trying to figure out what is wrong with the drive, everytime I try to open up a folder on that drive, it freezes for a few seconds, and no I did not set my drive on idling, and my system is not idling. It freezes and but after 15 seconds or so, it resumes normal but I have to double click on the folder again if I want to access it. So I dont know whats going on, all drivers are up to latest version, windows XP all updated to the latest. This behavior did not occur on my maxtor drive that the hitachi takes its spot. And I dont think power supply is weak since I am using 600 Watts PS running 2 WD HDD in Raid 0, NVIDIA 7800 GT single card, Opteron 170 dual core, 4 optical drives/burners. I am gonna go research on this problem, but my quick solution is return this drive and get seagate, hope it doesn't run into the same problem, no problem for the maxtor drive

After reading scoobiedoobie's and MegaDETH's replies...I thought the same.

A little swiss cheese may be in order...

edit: Like you, will only utilize for short periods.

I should have the case in just over a week

ghetocowboy


I had the same series of problems a year ago and every SATA drive I tried would disappear and slow down and start and stop. The only thing that solved it was changing the cables and power connectors (molex). My power supply was fine, just connectors that were sloppy. Also, look to SVC.com for connectors that have a locking clip. I just got two new connectors with my ASUS board and they are very snug. Things are getting better.

Personally, I have never had a problem with my 3 sata hdds in about 1 1/2 years now. I have 4 sata cables (originally pkged with my asus board) and I don't see any manufacturer ID, at least not that I recognize. The actual connectors do have "Crimping SATA" stamped on the ends though. They just push on...nice and snug once they're on.

how do you put a dvd drive in a 3.5 case?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145164

Sledgehammer the drive down to size?

Otherwise you don't, as zevia said his motherboard uses the same chipset as this enclosure.

not a lot of 5.25 e-serial cases yet?

The Mapower case above is a good aluminum case. Only problem is it won't work with an IDE drive and you need to get a backplate SATA adapter to connect to the motherboard (even SVC.com doesn't have one). If they matched this case to the Plumax chipset and cables, it would be perfect.

an ide drive in an e-serial case, no way jose! Pure serial all the way.
Bring on the 5.25 e-serial cases. It will come, usb2 and firewire are obsolete.

You could be right, but they will be here for a long time yet. Newegg only has 1 SATAe case and it is very badly made, as well as overpriced.

If the motherboard makers start to add it in I agree. If it is left to the tinkerers like us to add the adpaters, it will be like a lot of other good ideas that never sold.

BTW, most of the SATA drives sold were just IDE drives with a different connector on the end. I won't get to fired up about "pure" SATA. If the throughput is good I don't care how they did it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817124012

here's what possible if needed

or this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816150012

a year ago I only found one external serial drive