[l008com]

I'm trying to find a 3.5" FireWire 800 enclosure with an SATA internal interface. I've looked high and low, it's like these things don't exist! It needs to be FW800 and SATA, because the whole point is for me to get the maximum possible speeds when I'm connecting hard drives to Macs. It also has to be 3.5" (or 5.25" I suppose, but not not not 2.5") because I need the power supply for 3.5" drives. Also, I'd ideally like an aluminum enclosure because that will be easier to customize. And hell, while I'm at it, hows about throwing in a good price? Anyone know of such an enclosure?

What I do with my enclosures is I tear it apart, so I have the bridge board and the power supply. My current one is a fw400/usb to IDE enclosure (well the guts of one). Then I have a bunch of adapters, like IDE to laptop IDE and IDE to SATA. So when I, for example, upgrade someone's hard drive, I then hook up their old hard drive externally to copy their data over to their new drive. But the 40 pin IDE connectors are so fragile, my adapter is falling apart. Plus I've found firewire to SATA adapters to be so much faster than firewire to IDE. And since all Macs that have firewire, have had firewire800 for years now - and since 50MB/sec is easy to hit even on laptop drives, I want firewire 800.

Also my hope is that I can get a nice aluminum enclosure that I can chop up... basically cutting like 5" off the enclsoure, and putting the end cap on. That way only the board itself will be in the case, and I'll just cut a new hole for the sata power and data cables to pass through. It would be nice to have it neat like that, but at this point I'm asking for a whole lot. Kinda sucks that fw800 is forgotten by peripheral makers, even though it's what every mac has, and has had for a long time.

[l008com]

I kept searching and found this one:
Amazon.com: Macally GS350SUAB Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch…
A little expensive but that might be as good as it gets. I wish there were more pics so I could see it's insides.

[CharlesS]

Since you want the maximum possible speeds, you're going to want an Oxford chipset, which is known to be the best performing FireWire chipset available. Macally uses Initio, I believe.

Here's the enclosure I have. It's pretty nice, has FW800 and eSATA, and uses Oxford for the FW800 side. I've had this one for a few years now, with no problems so far.

This one on the same site is incredibly cheap for a FW800 enclosure, and uses an Oxford chipset. Seems to actually be a IDE enclosure with a SATA-to-IDE adapter though, so it's probably not what you want.

This one's about $10 cheaper than the OWC enclosure, and uses an Oxford 924DSB chipset according to the manufacturer's web site.

There are a few Rosewill enclosures that are cheaper yet while still using an Oxford chipset. They might be worth looking at, although the reviews seem kind of mixed.

Here's another nice cheap one that uses an Oxford 934DSB.

[l008com]

The cool drives one is priced pretty good and the case is perfect. The question is, is it a nice case? Or is it a piece of shit hong kong knock off that is probably missing parts and doesn't work by design? I searched all over newegg for enclosures, and those rosewill ones never came up, kind of strange. Maybe because I didn't use your special affiliate link ;-)

[CharlesS]

Not sure what you're referring to by "special affiliate link" — those are all just links I found by doing searches on OWC, Newegg, and CoolDrives. They're all using Oxford chipsets for the actual FireWire bridging, so the electronics should be good in all of them. The only difference will be the sturdiness and heat dissipation qualities of the casings. I don't have that CoolDrives enclosure, so I can't comment on that, except that it looks like it's made of aluminum, which should hopefully at least make it dissipate heat decently.

[mduell]

Newegg.com - Rosewill RX81-MP-SC- BLK 3.5" SATA to USB & 1394 a/b & eSATA External Enclosure (Black)

[l008com]

yes thats the one he already linked too. Funny thing is every time I search newegg for fw800 enclosures (many many times), that one has never come up. But yeah that's probably the one I'm going to get.

[amazing]

I'm currently using the Rosewill enclosure that mduell linked to...good price, great connection options.

Don't know yet about the longevity of the power supply.

[cgc]

I've got a similar CoolDrive enclosure and it works like a champ. Had it for 3 years and highly recommend it.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by l008com 

yes thats the one he already linked too. Funny thing is every time I search newegg for fw800 enclosures (many many times), that one has never come up. But yeah that's probably the one I'm going to get.

It's listed as 1394a because it has both sets of ports

[tightsocks]

Not cheap but...
WiebeTech Micro Storage Solutions - UltraDock™ v4 - Hard Drive Docking Station, IDE Drive Dock, FireWire and USB Hard drive imaging

[l008com]

Originally Posted by tightsocks 

Not cheap but...
WiebeTech Micro Storage Solutions - UltraDock™ v4 - Hard Drive Docking Station, IDE Drive Dock, FireWire and USB Hard drive imaging

So overpriced. Thats what I'm basically going to have when I'm done, for less than half the price.

[l008com]

Sooo I need another enclosure for a totally different use. This one is just going to be used for a 3.5" sata drive. The 2 TB drive is currently in a macally 3.5" firewire enclosure and it gets absurdly hot. It doesn't help that the server room (closet) gets a little toasty, but this goes well beyond that. This thing gets too hot to touch. There is no fan in the macally case, and hardly any ventilation slots. So what I'm looking for is a firewire 800 (400 will suffice but 800 would be better) SATA enclosure, with a fan. Even a 5.25" enclosure would be no problem at all. This hard drive is going to live connected to a mac mini server. So keeping it cool is much more important than having a neat looking enclosure. A 5.25" optical drive enclosure with a small fan would be perfect!

[l008com]

The best one I can find is a 5.25" with fan Bytecc one on newegg for about $64. But its only fw 400. Amazon has the fw800 version of the same model for about $95 which is too much. So unless anyone knows of another secret one, maybe another one hidden on newegg like those rosewills, i'll just get the bytecc.

[BLAZE_MkIV]

I have an old steal 5.25 scsi case, $0 with a bridge board in it.

[l008com]

Bridge boards cost as much as enclosures though.

[l008com]

Soooo.

I bought one of those Rosewill cases from Newegg. My attempt at mod-ing it failed. There was some awfully fine wires to solder. So I need a new one that I'm not going to mod, I'm just going to use straight.

But all the links in this thread are out of stock or discontinued (except the $75 one from OWC).
The cooldrives one was reduced to $60 but it's out of stock. Too bad, that would be a nice one.
So anyone know where I can get a fast fw800 enclosure with an internal SATA interface, for maybe $60 or less? Ideally another secret one that's on newegg but doesn't come up when you search?

[l008com]

Note: Must be a 3.5" or 5.25" enclosure, no 2.5-ers

[l008com]

Newegg.com - BYTECC ME-535Limited-BK Aluminum 5.25"/3.5" Black USB 2.0/e-SATA/Firewire 400/Firewire 800 External Enclosure Support Blue Ray, Oxford 934DSB Chipset

This is the best one I can find. It's a 5.25" enclosure though. Not a great form factor for trying to cram into an already packed work bag.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by l008com 

Soooo.

I bought one of those Rosewill cases from Newegg. My attempt at mod-ing it failed. There was some awfully fine wires to solder. So I need a new one that I'm not going to mod, I'm just going to use straight.

But all the links in this thread are out of stock or discontinued (except the $75 one from OWC).
The cooldrives one was reduced to $60 but it's out of stock. Too bad, that would be a nice one.
So anyone know where I can get a fast fw800 enclosure with an internal SATA interface, for maybe $60 or less? Ideally another secret one that's on newegg but doesn't come up when you search?

FireWire is a dying technology. Future high-end enclosures are likely to use Thunderbolt rather than FireWire. If you need a FW800 enclosure, it might be a good idea to snap one up now, while you still can.

There used to be some enclosures that were slightly cheaper than the $75 OWC one, but as you can see from the links in this thread, they're all dead products. With the current state of things, the OWC is probably the best price you're going to find.

If it's any consolation, it is a really good enclosure though.

edit: even with the OWC enclosure, you may want to hurry, because the one linked to in this thread no longer shows up in OWC's list of enclosures or in their search results. It's been replaced by this one, which is $92. If you follow the direct link in this thread to the old $75 one, it appears to still be available — but that could change at any time.

[l008com]

FireWire might not be the future, but it is the present. Nearly every mac has FireWire, very few have ThunderBolt (referring to the "installed base", not just the currently available models). If you want a fast enclosure that you can use with pretty much any Mac, FireWire is the only option. Plus how many ThunderBolt drive enclosures are available?

[reader50]

macally G-S350SUAB2 USB2, eSATA, FW800.

$70 + ship

[l008com]

I found that macally one for $66 free shipping on another site. I wish MacAlly still used their previous enclosure design. Simple aluminum with rounded edges. So much nicer than this stupid baby mac pro look.

[Stogieman]

Have you thought of using a dock instead?

Amazon.com: Voyager Q Quad Interface Hard Drive Dock (FireWire, eSATA, SATA I/II, USB 3.0): Electronics

[l008com]

Yep docks are out for these reasons:
A more cubicle, less flat form factor makes them a lot harder to slip in a work bag.
Much less flexible. With an enclosure, you can easily use a SATA to IDE adapter to hook up IDE drives. With a dock, you can't do that.
Most docks are more expensive than enclosures.
That dock doesn't ever mention if it's firewire 400 or firewire 800.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by reader50 

macally G-S350SUAB2 USB2, eSATA, FW800.

$70 + ship

Huh, that's a good deal. Macally charges $100 for that enclosure on their website.

[Thorzdad]

WHile not an enclosure, I just bought this quad-interface SATA dock, and I'm very happy with it. Price was right, too.

[amazing]

The problem with the Newertech Voyager Q dock is that it caps out at 2 TB. That may not seem much of a limitation now, but in a year you might be wishing that it could handle a 3 TB drive.

[Thorzdad]

The Voyager Q can handle up to a 3TB drive, per the packaging and booklet that came with mine.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by amazing 

The problem with the Newertech Voyager Q dock is that it caps out at 2 TB. That may not seem much of a limitation now, but in a year you might be wishing that it could handle a 3 TB drive.

The only way I can think of that a size limitation would make sense would be with regards to heating. The 3 GB probably runs hotter than the 2 GB drive, thus the limitation, but a 3 GB drive a year from now may be cooler than today's 2 GB drive, due to the inexorable march of progress, making it moot.

The OWC enclosure I have is, I'm pretty sure, the same one as the $75 one linked in this thread — same model number, same chipset. However, when I bought mine in 2007, it said it had a 1.0 TB limit, whereas it now lists a 2.0 TB limit for the same model — and I just put a WD20EARS in it with no problems.

I'm sure that putting a 3.0 TB drive in the unit a year or two from now would be fine, as long as you made sure to get a "green" drive.

[reader50]

I don't see how the size limits could be real - they're just the biggest drive the manufacturer has tested in the enclosure.

However, some multidrive enclosures include a built-in RAID function, and claim a 2 TB limit. In those cases, I expect the limitation is real - a symptom of cheap drive controllers. Limit might not apply if you disable their RAID function.

[Eug]

Some file systems do not support anything over 2 TB.

[mduell]

There is a real issue at 2.2TB (10^12, 2 TiB 2^40) due to software or bridge chips that only use 32 bit addressing (for 512 byte sectors) unlike some previous limits (between the 2^28 137GB issue and 2.2TB) that were just "that's all we can test today."

[Eug]

Don't expect to run 3 TB on Windows XP either.

Originally Posted by mduell 

There is a real issue at 2.2TB (10^12, 2 TiB 2^40) due to software or bridge chips that only use 32 bit addressing (for 512 byte sectors) unlike some previous limits (between the 2^28 137GB issue and 2.2TB) that were just "that's all we can test today."

Heh. I'm still running an old G4 20" iMac with an old Firewire enclosure containing a 120 GB drive. That enclosure won't support anything over 137 GB, hence that drive. However, I don't care, since its only purpose is to back up the ancient iMac which doesn't have a big drive either. And my still-working Cubes have 120 GB or smaller drives as well because of that 137 GB limitation. OTOH, my NAS supports 3 TB drives using ext4, and can do 6 TB RAID0 too. (I'm using 2x2 TB RAID1 though, because the 3 TB drives cost too much.)

I'm rather amused I have real-world working hardware that spans the < 137 GB and > 2 TB generations.

[amazing]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

The Voyager Q can handle up to a 3TB drive, per the packaging and booklet that came with mine.

Perhaps it's a new version with different chipset/bridge? In which case, given the discussion on size limitations in the thread, you now have a mission:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try a 3 TB drive in that Voyager dock. This post will self-destroy in 30 seconds.

.....

The fact that Newertech came out with a new model may not be too surprising, since the discount and bargain sites got access to some stock and were selling the Voyager off (but the discounts weren't very attractive.) Somebody seemed to be liquidating excess stock.

[l008com]

Yeah so I'm probably just going to go with the MacAlly enclosure. Its just too bad they made them so ugly when they switched to firewire 800. Their firewire 400 cases were so much nicer looking.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by amazing 

Perhaps it's a new version with different chipset/bridge? In which case, given the discussion on size limitations in the thread, you now have a mission:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try a 3 TB drive in that Voyager dock. This post will self-destroy in 30 seconds.

I'll try it in the OWC enclosure if someone wants to donate me a 3 TB drive.

[amazing]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

I'll try it in the OWC enclosure if someone wants to donate me a 3 TB drive.

Darn, it looks like my post didn't self-destruct in time.

Well, this time next year, 3 TB will be dirt cheap...we can wait.