[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] Sans Digital TowerSTOR TS1CT+ Firewire 800/Esata/USB 3.0 enclosure

[Speedy]

Robert M. and GGD, great reviews. I hope you don't mind but I combined your two reviews and posted them under my name on Amazon.









j/k

[Paul F.]

jdc wrote:
You could add the extender cable to get eSATA on your MP

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20T...y/MPQXES2/

I'd kill any one of your for a good Mac Pro right now....



OK, not really... but I'd whack someones funny bone with one of those little rubber hammers doctors use to test your reflexes! And I'd do it moderately hard, and with only a little bit of remorse!

[RAMd®d]

I ordered two of these enclosures.

The no-spindown thing won't be a problem for what I'll use them for, as one will need to write almost all the time, and the other will have it's On/Off switched used.

But for any other uses, I'd want the drives to spin down when idle.

[RAMd®d]

I've been using a fine product called Light Dims for pesky bright LEDs.

They're a sheet of 100 for $5. Peel, stick, and the offending light is dimmed by 50% or more. Stack them for more light reduction. Blackout versions are also available.

[bazookaman]

RAMd®d wrote:
I've been using a fine product called Light Dims for pesky bright LEDs.

They're a sheet of 100 for $5. Peel, stick, and the offending light is dimmed by 50% or more. Stack them for more light reduction. Blackout versions are also available.

I just use electrical tape.

[Zoidberg]

Paul F. wrote:
[quote=Golfer]
I still say the best single drive external enclosures you can get are from our sponsor. The Mercury Elite Pro and Elite Pro Mini are awesome enclosures backed by a company you know you can trust. I'd rather pay a little more and have something I know will work and work well.

Don't disagree... I have (between work, home, and my Mom's backup drive) six Mercury Elite Pro's. Love 'em.
They just didn't have the right mix of features for me this time.

You DO have to admit, that at the sale price Robert M. got that case for, it's a pretty darn nice deal.
No deal is a good deal if the enclosure is unreliable. Not making any slander to Robert M, or to any enclosure in particular; I haven't bought a non-OWC-sold enclosure in at about half a dozen or more years after a string of problems with others back when. I've had a few hiccups along the way but any problems I've encountered with the MiniStacks, Guardian Maximuses, On The Go's, etc. have been blue harvest moon variety. (Or, more likely, the drive inside.)

[Robert M]

Hi everyone,

A followup... I can definitely see the drive not spinning down when idle being an issue for some. Definitely would be for me if this was a drive that isn't always actively in use. Fortunately, that's not an issue in my situation.

I also concur that OWC Mercury Elite and Mercury Elite Pro enclosures are great pieces of hardware. Definitely rock-solid top-notch and highly recommended. Still, my gold standard is Weibetech enclosures. I had Baydock enclosure that served me amazingly well for a very long time. The only reason it isn't in service is because I made the mistake of letting someone borrow the enclosure and he broke part of the internal connection system. To say I was ticked off is an understatement as the Baydock was an expensive enclosure.

I replaced the Baydock with a frankenchassis system made out of an OWC 5.25" enclosure and an Incessa SATA drive chassis. Works great! Not cheap but the enclosure is good - not as good as the Mercury Elite series or Weibetech boxes - but sufficient and flexible. I like that the enclosure has a cooling fan and that the Incessa chassis makes it super easy to swap drives.

Here's a link to the frankenchassie:



Robert

[Robert M]

Zoid,

I agree. This is why I avoid generic enclosures. Each one I've used has failed. But, OWC enclosures aren't necessarily the be all and end all either. While some like the OWC Mercury Elite aluminum enclosures are fantastic, others are not nearly as good. The OWC Mercury 5.25" quad interface enclosure that is a part of the frankenchassis is not in the same class as the Mercury Elite enclosures. The Sans Digital enclosure from this thread appears to be a higher quality enclosure, too. but, the OWC Mercury Enclosure is a good box. Not great but good.

A travel enclosure I bought from OWC for a 10 gig ATA drive was nothing but trouble. It's an older variation of this model:



It refused to work reliably under bus power. When it did work, copies of significant amounts of data stalled while in progress. I swapped the mechanism into a different box and had no troubles with it at all. I've had problems with other enclosures and docks from OWC (and NewerTech) as well.

The key difference was the support behind the box. One of the reasons to buy an OWC enclosure is because they will take excellent care of you in the event of an issue. No doubt about it. The same cannot be said about the company behind a generic box. Good luck trying to get support and/or a product replacement.

I'm hoping I don't have any trouble with the Sans Digital enclosure. If I do, I'll contact them an hope for the best. And, I'll definitely report back to the forum. If there is an issue...

Robert

[C(-)ris]

Depends on the intended use. You wouldn't want a RAID array to be constantly being put to sleep and started up again as it would have to initialize every time leading to a very long delay in initial writting. Also, if a drive spun up to slow the array would degrade. With a multi disk RAID case you absolutely do not want it to go to sleep.

[Black]

I have been using various Nexstar enclosures for years and never had a hiccup out of any, even through some are in use 24/7.