I'm in the market for a couple of these to turn 2.5" HDDs into external USB drives. However, I'm having difficulty finding any that don't look like they'll just crap up the drive. Does anyone have any suggestions on decent quality ones that wont break the bank?
How about something like this... http://www.maplin.co.uk/2.5-inch-sata-ide-hard-drive-esata-usb-enclosure-221180
I am using one of these: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/icy-box-ib-231stu3-g-external-aluminium-enclosure-fits-25-sata-ii-3gb-s-hdd-1-x-usb-30-bus-powered-g Well I think mine is a slightly different version but looks the same and is USB3 - it works great. Although I'm not sure what you mean by:
A lot of the cheaper Chinese ones look like they have some poor electronics in them, that's why I wanted to know if anyone had any they'd recommend That one on scan, is it USB powered? It shows a 5V in on the picture.
I got one of these from Scan a few months ago: http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/node/1245 I would recommend it, USB 3, bus powered, great tool free dive mechanism and reliable. Looks like Scan do not stock it any more though.
Is USB 3 that useful with a spinning drive? I'd have thought the HDD was too slow to make full use of it. Especially as most my spare 2.5" drives are 5400rpm.
Using USB 3 with the part I recommended I have been reading/writing at around 50MB per second using a Samsung 5400rpm source drive, USB 2 would top out at around 20MB. In my opinion it is far better. Obviously if your board is not USB 3 capable there is less point, however it seems to me that the price difference between usb 2 and usb 3 solutions are negligible and I think the USB 3 power spec is improved which could aid stability.
USB 3's not a problem as my laptop has a couple ports for it. Think I may go for the Sharkoon. I have a similar caddy that came with one of the Kingston SSDs I bought once, and that's been pretty good so far.
My drive gives much faster speeds over USB3. And yes it is bus powered (mine is anyway) they often put a DC socket for laptops that don't have as many powered USB sockets
I had an absolutely cheap as chip one that worked fine for years, even though I was using it to swap between a whole bunch of different drives. (I gave it to my brother in the end, still going strong) Go for one that's about £5 more than the cheapest and I don't think you'll go wrong.
