What are the big brands in external hard drive enclosure?

[student_sol]

Hi, I've noticed WD, Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung, etc are the major players with good reputation in hard drive industry...So what are the WD/Seagate equivalents for the external hard drive enclosure brands?

There are so many brands out there (thermaltake? vantec? icy dock?) and I must say I'm confused. From what I've seen, many countries seem to have their own local brands and I can't tell which is which! So is there any big international brand I can trust? I'm planning to get an external hard drive and an enclosure but I'm kinda worried because I've never used one before...

 

[Guest]

Everyone's jumped on the bandwagon recently so I'd tend to look at models from the same brands as the drives inside. Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate.

Brands which have been in the external drive market for a long time: LaCie and Iomega.

 

[student_sol]

I see. I've checked LaCie and Iomega out but unfortunately they don't seem to sell enclosures separately... Too bad since I like their designs

I may be wrong but I don't trust the all-in-ones from the manufacturers cuz they never seem to specify what hard drive they're using. I've checked out the Seagate Freeagent Desk and had to search all over the net to find out that it uses 7200.11 instead of 7200.12.... I don't know about WD though.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

This just makes so much damn sense, to my mind, it's hard to consider anything else.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153112&cm_re=BlacX-_-17-153-112-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071&cm_re=BlacX-_-17-153-071-_-Product

Of course if looking for a pure backup solution, I agree with the assessment here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hdd-backup-recovery,2450.html

 

[student_sol]

Thanks JackNaylorPE. I've checked BlacX ST0005U but they don't seem to enclose the entire hard drive... I may be a paranoid but I don't like the idea of half the hard drive being exposed to dust on my desk. They do look very convenient though. I personally don't like their designs but I don't care as long as they're reliable and do their job properly.

And most of the enclosure links I've seen so far is from newegg, is that like a specialized site for computer parts?

 

[pjmelect]

I have just bought a 640Gig Seagate USB hard drive, and the case has to be the prettiest one I have seen. It is a work of art with a large spiral design on the front that emits a bright pulsing white light in a spiral design (can be turned off).

 

[godofdeath]

That is why I never trusted already made externals, seeing as how we don't know which harddrive they use. For all we know it is refurbs inside