Best external hard drive enclosure?

[sygyzy]

I know there are dozens if not hundreds of external hard drive enclosures. I've waded through them on Newegg. My question is, which is the best? In every external drive thread, people always say "Buy a cheap hard drive and a $5 enclosure, voila!" In my experience, that's not exactly true. I have a Maxtor external hard drive and my friend has a WD one. They both are quieter and perform "better" than the enclosures I've bought seperately and put a hard drive into. They get detected quicker, their status lights always work, they have fast transfer rates. Build quality is much better than the generic ones.

I know about the firewire chipset thing. I have purchased both USB2.0 and FW and paid up to $35 for them. They still suck compared to the commercial ones.

So which one(s) have you guys had luck with?

Thanks.

 

[mercanucaribe]

I'm with you. I love my WD My Book. I can't even use one of my separate enclosures because one of the pins in the power connector bent.

 

[Bob Anderson]

I've an Acomdata aluminum enclosure that came with a 80 GB WD. It has worked perfectly for nearly 4 years. I also have a Seagate plastic enclosure with a 120 GB Seagate drive. It is about a year old and works perfectly, too. The Acomdata makes some minor noise which I attribute to resonance of the aluminum enclosure. I can 'feel' the resonance. The Seagate is dead silent and does not resonate. Plastic has its uses.

Neither get warm even though they are both fanless.

-Bob