HD external enclosures (with good cooling)

OspreyO · 8 Nov 2007 at 14:48

I've notice a lot of external enclosures don't seem to have very good cooling. Even the larger drives. When you copy lots of data to them, or do backups to them, they seem to get quite hot. I've had a couple of drives fail, and while I had backups its still a pain. I suspect heat was what killed them. I'm wondering what enclosures other people are using that have some active cooling. I had some 3.5 enclosures that had small 40mm fans, but even then the cooling was great. I'm wondering are there other enclosures, even 5.25 ones that have better cooling and ventilation. If you have something good a photo would be cool.

Secondly do all externals have power saving features? Or does this rely on the USB chipset in the enclosure or the HD itself.

OspreyO · 12 Nov 2007 at 09:09

No one?

rpstewart · 12 Nov 2007 at 09:26

I've only had one actively cooled enclosure and it was so noisy I ended up replacing it.

Both my Lacie and IcyDock externals get warm in use but not to the point where I'd be concerned. Mind you they're only powered on when in use which helps.

memyselfandi · 12 Nov 2007 at 13:43

I've got several Antec MX-1 enclosures, (from OcUK). It is actively cooled with a reasonable sized fan in the bottom of the enclosure keeping the disk cool, (I have 500GB Samsung drives in my ones). It is also very quiet to.

jimblowscash · 12 Nov 2007 at 17:52

i would be worried if my drive didnt get warm! i use the lacie d2 drives, there made of solid alloy and are designed to draw the heat away from the hdd, they get hot to the touch but i have had very few failures with them

in coomparrison both my freeagent and mybook are cool to the touch however all the heat is retained in the casing.... the drives are cooking themselvs. my freeagent litterly cooked its self partly due to the silly poxy transformer in the base of the casing..i refuse to buy another or have it repaired as its a real worry. if i blow into the casing of the mybook and feel the temp of the air coming out of it ( although un scientific ) it is a lot hotter than the air coming from the lacie's fan...

OspreyO · 13 Nov 2007 at 11:50

When I run a usual synch its no problem, or when the disk is idle. But when say wiping a disk and recopying everything to it, say 250GB in one go, they get very hot. Of course I don't often do that.