[pastusza]

Ok, I was just utterly surprised by my wife, who got me a 17" PowerBook. Well, just 2 months ago I put a 200 GB HD in my PowerMac G4. So I am thinking of yanking it out and sticking it in a external FW enclosure so I can continue to make use of it.

So, my question is, what's a good enclosure at a resonable price? What's the best chipset to use? If the drive is an ATA/133 drive, will FW800 give me any better speeds than FW400 will? (The math says no, but I would like to hear personal experience.)

Andy

[zigzag]

www.barefeats.com did a FW test showing FW 800 speeds at about 50-60% higher than FW 400. Macworld did a test with much worse results: http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/revi...wire800drives/

The most common chipset is the Oxford. I've had good luck with these (also available in FW 800): http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_It...em=OWCMEFWU2A6 . Compact, sturdy, nice feet, and they have power switches (easier to deal with than power cords when you need to power up/down).

However, I bought one of these for only $43: http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3710616 (here's a better look: http://www.sanmax.com/products/index...part=HD-337-CB ). It's more compact and sleek, if not as rugged, as the OWCs. I read somewhere that it uses a Genesys chip instead of the Oxford. As far as I can tell, performance is equivalent, but I haven't run any numbers. I found out the hard way that the case is easy to scratch. Also, no power switch or FW 800. But very nice looking for $43.

[Weezer]

http://www.dealsonic.com/plcoideusb2...7-0-0-0-1cd99h

[Captain Obvious]

Originally posted by Weezer:
http://www.dealsonic.com/plcoideusb2...7-0-0-0-1cd99h

Prolific Chipset / High Performance IEEE 1394 to IDE/ATAPI Bridge

Pass on that, go for a case with Oxford

[SSharon]

I have a 160gb 8mb HD in one of these and it works very well. Its not the smallest but the case is metal not plastic and cools well. Its an Oxford 911 chipset too.