Vantec NexStar 3 3.5" SATA to USB & eSATA & FireWire 400/800 External Hard Drive Enclosure

Comment:
one of the best enclosures i've used. cool that it has all those plug ins.i would have liked usb 3.0 at this stage in the game, but the current usb 3.0 enclosures don't have the other plug-ins.great for western digital greens since it'll stay cool.no fan, but it doesn't say it has one, so it wasn't expected.solid build.

Comment:
I needed a box that had fire-wire to connect to an eMac I picked up. I put an 80gig drive in it to use with the Mac's automatic backup program called Time Machine. Easy to setup, Works flawlessly.

Comment:
This was the worst piece of do-do I ever purchased. The first one came defective and wouldnt spin up any of 5 different hard drives. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and ordered a second unit as a replacement and it arrived with the same defect. I returned it for a full refund. Then I checked the other online sites for reviews and realized I never should have purchased it in the first place. Multiple users had the SAME issue as me. Sounds good on paper, but doesnt work in real life. Dont buy this or youll be sorry.

Comment:
I bought this drive to pair with my older FW400 drives, since FW allows daisy-chaining. I put a 1TB (WD Green) drive in this external and it seems fine, and works just as well as the other three Vantec products I own. One thing I like about this drive enclosure is its flexibility, no matter what you need to connect it to, you can do it, FW800/400 good to go, eSATA (bracket and cable for a desktop included), and USB2. Of course there is a price to pay for this flexibility, it cost $96 when I bought it. Good solid enclosure though and I will buy another one should I need more external storage.

Comment:
It does what its supposed to, but it gets way to hot. My WD 750GB 7200 RPM drive overheats if left running to long. Needs active cooling or maybe smaller drives ?