External HD enclosure help?

[kcnychief]

Mine is completely flush, I would take a picture but the woman is away for the weekend and she hijacked my camera!

 

[X-Istence]

Mine is completely flush, I would take a picture but the woman is away for the weekend and she hijacked my camera!

I don't really mind. Was planning to mod it from the start . Going to dremel out a piece from the front, and install a small fan to aid in cooling the drive since I am going to be in Arizona. If I do get time to indeed make my modifications, I will post them here.

 

[kcnychief]

Thing runs really cool actually, but in AZ that may be different

 

[lancer]

x make sure all the internal wires are out of the way... that usually happens because of that.

 

[X-Istence]

x make sure all the internal wires are out of the way... that usually happens because of that.

Okay, checked that, and made sure all the internet wires were out of the way. I glued them down so that they could not get in front of the drive, and it is still has a gap. Albeit a lesser gap than before.

 

[rotjong]

Okay, checked that, and made sure all the internet wires were out of the way. I glued them down so that they could not get in front of the drive, and it is still has a gap. Albeit a lesser gap than before.

Stupid question but did you slide the drive forward as far as you could? Then fold the unused cables down behind the drive but in front of the connectors on the back, of course. I just set them up generally right and then as I got the case to the pt they reached the cables i pushed them down and slid the casing closed over them without any issues. And those tabs can be a pain but it keeps the enclosure tight.

--

I just purchased the CoolMax after reading this thread. I got it and installed my 180 gig drive. I must say I haven't used an external enclosure before so I can't compare it with other brands.

(1) Construction-wise it definitely comes across to me as being a bit cheap in quality. Someone in this thread already noted the connections seeming a bit weak. If you aren't careful you could rip them right off. I definitely would not want to be switching diff hard drives in and out of this enclosure on a regular basis. It's a tight fit but the wires, if handled right fit w/o leaving a gap. You *must* be very careful when sliding this closed, however. If you don't the tabs won't slide outside the aluminum enclosure and you could possibly rip the plastic end piece right off!

(2) My 180 gig drive (not SATA) definitely heats this sucker up. I was a bit surprised how hot the casing got to the touch. I didn't expect it to be ice cold, mind you, but I expected heat to dissipate a bit more quickly. Of course this also explains why the fit is so tight. The casing physically contacts the drive on the top and sides and draws the heat out and away.

One of the reasons I purchased the CoolMax was because it didn't stand upright. I also liked the nice black colour and most of all I liked it's ability to handle ATA and SATA along with Firewire and USB2. I'm not sure if I would purchase another of of these, however, without first checking out another brand.

Functionally it is flawless so far using USB2.

rotjong

 

[Gus K]

You know usb 2.0 is about as fast as firewire you know, have you thought of that?

For what it's worth that's not the case, although the specs allude to similiar speeds. Plus USB drives tax the cpu much more. A Firewire drive will usually run at least 25% faster than USB2.