So who has the best enclosure of the pre-rolled external drives?

[ileneh]

I also needed a new FW single drive enclosure this month. I tend to look for reliabililty, good service, long-term use, and price. I have OWC, Maxtor, LaCie, Iomega, Western Digital, Hammer Storage, and WiebeTech drives here. The Iomega and Hammer were new in late 2008, and so far have been fine; the others have been one hassle after another. I also, in an emergency, bought a CompUSA enclosure, which has given me nothing but trouble.

One older drive that's never gone down, never needed recovery, and has never given me an ounce trouble is my 5 year old OWC drive. I also have a OWC Mercury Elite-AL Quad Interface eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB 2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit I bought in 2007 that hasn't as much as hiccuped in 3 years of use.

So, when I needed a new enclosure, I bought another OWC Mercury Elite-AL Quad Interface eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB 2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit. I like having the option of using whatever cable is handy on whatever Mac I'm using. The one I got was on sale, and is no longer available, but these two are reasonably priced:
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Oxford 934 FireWire 400 & USB 2.0/1.1 OR
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Quad Interface eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB 2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit <-- most similar to the one I bought.

As previously said in other threads, I now work for the company; but that's because I believe in their products from personal experience. W

Hope this helps!

OWC ilene