Just as an FYI, I've run across a single-bay external drive enclosure that'll accept either a SATA or an IDE drive, and has FW400, USB 2 and SATA 150 outputs - all three on one enclosure - for $70.

http://www.cooldrives.com/combo-sata-drive-enclosure-firewire-and-usb.html

This gives us future SATA capability (when SATA express/34 cards are available for the MacBook Pro) while offering FW400 & USB 2.0 for current MacBook compatibility and offloading onto your clients' systems, etc. It's the first one I've seen, and was exactly what I'd been looking for.

I thought I'd share my experience. I have this drive, and the FW400 port reliability is questionable. Could have been a bum unit, but overall, the build quality on this unit is pretty shabby. I bought it anyway since I needed some way to access SATA drives on my Quad G5 until a PCIe card came out. I had to prop the Firewire cable up to ensure proper contact with the Firewire jack, and watch file transfers carefully.

Now I have the Sonnet PCIe card and all is well. I'd still think FW800/USB2.0 drives would be a speedier way to go, and there are lots of high quality solutions out there.

Any problems with your CoolDrives unit or did I just get a bad egg?

yikes. Thanks for the review!!

I just wish they didn't use a powerbrick.

I had to prop the Firewire cable up to ensure proper contact with the Firewire jack, and watch file transfers carefully.

Now I have the Sonnet PCIe card and all is well. I'd still think FW800/USB2.0 drives would be a speedier way to go, and there are lots of high quality solutions out there.

Any problems with your CoolDrives unit or did I just get a bad egg?

I am reminded of standing in the living room, holding rabbit ears with aluminum foil... <g>
FW800 wasn't an option, since I have a MacBook Pro.
As for mine, I'd already placed an order by the time I read your post, but they haven't arrived yet. I'll follow up when they do. As soon as the Vydeo express/30 card comes out (supposedly next month), I'll be switching to SATA.

BTW, thanks for all the posts, Steev. They're really been helpful to me.

Here's what the doctor ordered.

www.barefeats.com/hard71.html

It's not FW800, but I'd imagine that's coming real soon. Anyone have any updates from NAB? Of course, with the new 17" MacBook, if you haven't bought a MacBook yet, the 17" has FW800 built-in.

why do they call it "coolgear", where there is no fan to keep the hdd cool?

i don't even see any vent holes to circulate the air inside.

Here's a SATA enclosure that has FW800 and USB connectors; made from a reliable and quality source - MacGurus:

http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/firewire/U6SATA.php

I like the look of this 'system' -- a swap drive with multiple interfaces that can also function as an external ...

http://www.addonics.com/products/Saturn/

GB

Robert--

What do you think of this unit as a solution for storage and backup for large HVX 200 video files (rather than the FW 800/USB enclosure you linked to)?

http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/sata/satakits.php

If I don't have to have this storage portable, doesn't this make sense?

Thanks for any help!

Just as an FYI, I've run across a single-bay external drive enclosure that'll accept either a SATA or an IDE drive, and has FW400, USB 2 and SATA 150 outputs - all three on one enclosure - for $70.

http://www.cooldrives.com/combo-sata-drive-enclosure-firewire-and-usb.html


Well, my original post is now moot...they're out of stock and have no anticipated restock date. At this point, I'm pretty impressed with the look/idea of Granite Digital's aluminum enclosures. Anyone want to comment on personal experience with them?

Scott,

Be Warned:

"CoolDrives.com" is not a reputable dealer. They have multiple unresolved complaints against them at the BBB, they have no direct contact phone number (they even state on their website "no phone communication") and they have poor and in some cases aggressively nasty and argumentative customer service. Basically, they're a rip-off con-artist shop who sometimes actually delivers what they sell but most often lies to it's customers and has less than honorable business tactics. Godzilla would squash them - if he had time.

Bill,

I'm using those exact enclosures from Mac Gurus for my original clip storage/archiving/project backup solution. My working files live in (2) of the Burly 5-bay enclosures for a 5-TB RAID-0 array on my G5 with the Sonnet E4P card.

I spent 2 weeks researching all the SATA enclosure manufacturers with info from Bare-Feats to AMUG and my own direct communications with the companies; Mac Gurus is by far the best made products, the best live-person helpful customer service and, the best supported devices.

Outside of Mac Guru's I'd trust either Sonnet, Addonics (assembly required) or Wiebetec - the latter being high quality but very, very overpriced.

Wiebetech also has some quality stuff. They were one of the first to offer FW800 enclosures.

-gb-

http://www.wiebetech.com

Wiebetech also has some quality stuff. They were one of the first to offer FW800 enclosures.

Hey Greg,

I did mention Wiebetech in my post, however it's important to point out that while they make great stuff they charge exactly double what the other reputable competitors do - with no added value. Example:

Wiebetech makes a 5-bay Port Multiplier SATA enclosure that's built like a tank (which I like) that sells for $1000. MacGurus makes a similar bay with or without the LCD status panel for almost exactly half that. The Sonnet and Addonics bays are also in the $500 range for the same bay arrangement. Same build quality, same ultra-quiet fans etc.

It's the same dollar-for-value arguement that we've had about the current HD cams: Why would you pay $10k for an H1 when the Z1, HVX and HD100 are all half the cost - or less?

I'm not knocking WBT's products, just their pricing concepts.

Hey Greg,

I did mention Wiebetech in my post,...

Ooops, that was meant to add to your post, not ignore it. I stuck the word 'also' in that sentence out of habit. Yes, they are pricey and I would just ask them where their justification is should I order from them.

-gb-

Scott,

Be Warned:

"CoolDrives.com" is not a reputable dealer. They have multiple unresolved complaints against them at the BBB, they have no direct contact phone number (they even state on their website "no phone communication") and they have poor and in some cases aggressively nasty and argumentative customer service. Basically, they're a rip-off con-artist shop who sometimes actually delivers what they sell but most often lies to it's customers and has less than honorable business tactics. Godzilla would squash them - if he had time.


Thanks for the uh-oh.
Anyone want to comment on Granite's enclosures? Anyone? Beuller?

I'm using those exact enclosures from Mac Gurus for my original clip storage/archiving/project backup solution. My working files live in (2) of the Burly 5-bay enclosures for a 5-TB RAID-0 array on my G5 with the Sonnet E4P card.

I spent 2 weeks researching all the SATA enclosure manufacturers with info from Bare-Feats to AMUG and my own direct communications with the companies; Mac Gurus is by far the best made products, the best live-person helpful customer service and, the best supported devices.

Outside of Mac Guru's I'd trust either Sonnet, Addonics (assembly required) or Wiebetec - the latter being high quality but very, very overpriced.


Unfortunately I have to recant what was I said here. I ordered and have been furiously testing (2) of the MacGuru's Burly 5-bay SATA PM enclosures. I wish I could say that the experience has been good but unfortunately it hasn't. Here's what's been wrong:

(all testing has been done with the Sonnet E4P firmware 2.0 in my Quad-core G5, OS 10.4.6)

- None of the cases shipped with instructions or even setup guides, just a case, power and data cables. If you dont' know what you're doing you'll be left in the dark. Hardly what I'd call 100% thinking.
- One of my cases didn't ship fully assembled; it was missing a SATA data cable.
- Using the KONA System tester, the best READ rate I could get out of 1 of the bays in a RAID 0 setup (5 drives in the case) was 90mb/s. This is horrible and is just barely better than a single internal drive. It should be at least 225 mb/s for 5 drives based on BARE-FEATS and AMUG tests with similar PM enclosures.
- I'm using the WD5000YS drives (500gb, 16mb cache enterprise version); when the Burly bay is powered on not all the drives will mount. It takes several re-boots with the Burly bay turned on before all drives will mount.
- If you remove the LCD trays and reinsert them they don't connect internally reliably. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. Even with lots of jiggling and shimming the drive trays it still doesn't connect 100% of the time.
- Since my enclosures were shipped without drives, MacGurus admitted that they did not test the bays before shipping. Seems that most if not all of these issues would have been caught had they tested them.

MacGurus wants to blame the WD drives as the point of failure, but based on the testing we've done so far that just doesn't hold up. 12 drives can't all be bad.

I'm returning the Burly bays and will try this same PM setup with a different manufacturer, most likely the Datoptic or Sonnet.

MacGurus is adamant that I'm the only customer with these type of problems (again, pointing to the fact that I'm using WD drives instead of Hitachi or Seagate) but at the same time there are zero reviews of these bays by AMUG, BARE-FEATS or even other customers who can back up their claims.

At this time I cannot recommend MacGurus; the lack of proper setup, instructions, testing and quality control all leads to 70% thinking - just like Focus Enhancements. Rick and Brian are both very helpful, nice guys but unfortunately the product just doesn't iive up to the hype, not even close.

Stay tuned...

I don't have personal experience with Granite Digital, but they have been heartily recommended to me by the founder of San Francisco Final Cut Pro Users group & author of "Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro" Kevin Monahan. i think he swears by them.
They seem pretty together and make an awesome firewire cable.