[kelesh]

I currently have an ATA 160GB hard drive and a SATA 160GB hard drive. I am about to buy 2 500GB hard drives to store my iTunes library on. One 500GB drive will hold my active iTunes library, and the other 500GB drive will hold a backup of it.

I don't want 4 external enclosures with 4 power plugs, and 4 usb cables.

A 4+ drive multi-bay enclosure that uses SATA would be best, but IDE is okay. I think firewire to my Macbook Pro would be best? I'm not sure if it matters.

What do you guys recommend?

[mduell]

eSATA ExpressCard + multibay SATA enclosure with Port Multiplier support is cheaper and faster than Firewire.

[kelesh]

its just going to have mp3s on it, so speed is not an issue. I don't want to have the eSata expresscard sticking out of my laptop and another cable coming out of it on my desk. I hadn't thought of that solution, but it isn't what I want.

[kelesh]

ended up splurging on a minig external enclosure because it looks so cool and 2 seagate barracuda ata100 drives.