Macally PHR-S100SUA Hi-Speed eSATA/FireWire/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5-Inch SATA HDD | List Price: $79.50
Discount Price: $35.52
|
Brand: Macally
Binding: Electronics
Features: - Solid Aluminum body for excellent heat dissipation and protection to your hard disk drive Macally PHR-S100SUA eSATA/FireWire/USB2.0 Enclosure
- Designed for all 3.5-Inch SATA I and SATA II hard disk drives Solid Aluminum body for excellent heat dissipation and protection to your hard disk drive
- Supports IEEE 1394A Firewire connection up to 400Mbps Dual Firewire ports for daisy chain Hot plug and play*
- Horizontal position for stacking, and space saving vertical position with stand Active LED to indicate power and data access status Auto switching(110~240V) AC adaptor included
- System Requirements : Windows ME/2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista Mac OS 9.2, Mac OS X 10.1 to 10.5 and above for USB and Firewire connection; OS X 10.2 and above for eSATA connection*
Good drive, why oh why do they place the cables upside down? [Posted on 2008-06-18]
First off, Amazon's 2 day shipping was great. My order actually came a day early.
I trust the MacAlly name and have several of their enclosures, including 2 of these. The cases are sturdy and appear well-made. They have two rubber decorative strips that prevent slippage on your desk. And MacAlly generously provides 3 cables - SATA, USB2, and FireWire. They also include a little plastic stand that lets you position the case vertically. Very nice.
Here are some other details about this drive, the good and not so good:
1) You have to unscrew the case to open it and insert your drive (of course). Unfortunately whoever screwed the case together fastened the screws really really tight. I have had to return more than one MacAlly enclosure because I couldn't get the screws off!
2) Once the enclosure is open, you attach 4 cushioned screws to the side of your drive. These fit neatly into a metal rim in the case and provide some shock absorption for your drive - a very nice touch.
3) There are two cables you attach to connectors on your SATA drive. The connectors themselves slide easily into their sockets on the drive. However they are on cables attached to the innards of the enclosure and IMHO very poorly placed. To attach each cable, you need to twist it upside down. One of the cables is very stiff. It makes it tricky to place into the sockets. It also stresses the cable and makes it rise up rigidly. Then to close the case, you have to press really hard to squish the cable down, all the while wondering if you are damaging the cable or other components. Most enclosures, MacAlly or not, have a small space to work in. This one puts a lot of cable in a small small space.
Delicate innards [Posted on 2008-07-13]
There's a lot of strain on the two internal cables that connect the drive to the circuit board. That might not be a problem if you place a permanent drive inside this enclosure. Hence, why not simply buy an external drive such as MyBook, FreeAgent, etc.? There are tons of those on Amazon, Best Buy, Tiger Direct, etc.
I might need to occasionally swap out the drive once it's full of HD video. Because my Macs need a firewire drive to run Final Cut Pro, I can't use the ubiquitous USB2 enclosures on the market. I won't return the Macally...I'll take my chances. It looks as if Amazon has a one-year warranty on this, so I'm covered when the cable snaps. Meanwhile, I'm looking at other enclosures. Nevertheless, I gave it four stars because it works well and has some positive attributes.
Great product for old hard drive [Posted on 2008-08-09]
This enclosure works great. It was simple to install the hard drive and took nothing to set it up (at least for a Mac). This is a good device to make use of an old hard drive. Or in my case, I had another enclosure go bad, so I just took that hard drive and installed in the new case.
You get 1 USB and 2 Firewire 400 ports on the back, a USB cable, a Firewire 400 to 400 cable, and the power cable.
Opt for macally's other sata drive enclosure [Posted on 2008-09-06]
I like Macally's products and have their 3.5" and a 2.5" IDE drive enclosures. They look good and work fine.
So i thought this case would be equal to the task. I read a few reviews criticizing the pin connectors and the way the wires had to be bent to fit. Well, they were right. It was too tight a fit, and the case pushes down on and bends the very thin, delicate connecting pins. After having to take the HD out of the case a few times, the pins did indeed break, rendering the drive and enclosure useless.
A friend recommended a case that looked like a small Mac pro. Looking it up, i found it was a Macally case (model G-350SUA). I returned the defective case and got the other Macally case. The HD slips into the connectors, without wires, which makes for a smaller case, and an easier install. Price was about the same.
Both are nice looking sturdy cases on the outside, but the G-350SUA (looks like a small Mac pro) is preferable.
Click here for more details and discount information...
|
){kind=link}