[SOLVED] What are the pros and cons of building an external hard drive as opposed to getting a pre-built external hard drive

[MasterYoda327]

I plan to build a new gaming PC. I also use an external hard drive for data backup purposes. All of my previous desktop external hard drives have been pre-built brands such as Eagle, Western Digital, and Toshiba. I recently learned that I could put a regular internal hard drive into an external enclosure and use it as an external hard drive. I am considering going this route for my next external hard drive but I would like to ask what would be the pros and cons of going this route and whether I would be better off building my own external hard drive or sticking with a pre-built name brand external hard drive. I would also appreciate recommendations on reliable external hard drive enclosures if you say building my own external hard drive is the better option.

Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 2783327]

My personal experience, prebuilt never last long. Ive had maybe a dozen over the last 10 years. The more I used them the faster they failed.
I run a server with two external enclosures. A two bay USB-C enclosure which supports 240MB/s transfers over USB-C. And a single Aluminum enclosure. All have 10TB drives. Never had problems with either of them. I only buy the 10Gbps+ units

For prebuilt's - I don't know whether the issue is the cramped plastic cases or the 2.5" drives are just less reliable. Regardless, I've never been able to have one survive a year as a backup drive used daily. Other people will have had different experiences.

In summer, when the single drive is being used for large backups I occasionally put a desktop fan in front of it because I'm paranoid about high temps, but it's probably not needed.

I suggested the powered enclosures as you're using them for backups, so I figured portability is not an issue.

Make sure you check out the maximum drive capacity on the enclosure. I've been caught out with that before, trying to install a 10TB drive in an enclosure that only supported up to 8TB.

I prefer powered devices rather than those powered off USB. I don't really know why

I've only ever had one fail - A Startech model - don't recall exactly which

 

[MasterYoda327]

Thanks for your input, if I went with a build my own external hard drive, would I be better off with a case that has a built-in fan or no? I understand metal-based cases handle cooling better than plastic. If possible could you provide recommendations on reliable external hard drive enclosure models or brands? I plan to use only a 4TB hard drive for storage.

 

[popatim]

I have a couple of these that are about 2yrs old https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFFN/dp/B013WODZH0

 

[mdd1963]

If you have an unused 5.25" bay in your case, this might provide an alternative, as the drive can simply be powered off except for when you wish to do your backups...(holds both a 2.5" SSD/HDD and a 3.5" drive up through 16 TB...) *I've used an older similar Icy Dock bay unit for 3 years without issue

https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=283