Looking for Dual Bay External Enclosure

[CityK]

I've been looking for a while for something along the lines of the following:

http://www.cooldrives.com/fii13usb20co.html

Unfortunately I cannot find a reputable dealer that carries such a product. The only place seems to be these jokers (QCUSA) from Florida who have what seems to be 3 or 4 different website/stores (firewiremax, cooldrives, coolgear....and all with different prices). One look at their resellerratings (can't remember which name they're entered under) and you know to stay the hell a way.

So, I'm looking for a:
1) Black, dual bay external IDE with a 1394 (preferably with an Oxford chipset) and usb2 backpane
2) from a reputable dealer
3) who ships internationally (i.e. I have little expectation of finding this product in Canada)
4) and who does not price their merchandise a la granite digital style

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Howell]

Do not let international shipping or lack of kill the deal.

You are reallly dealing with a niche product so expect niche pricing.

 

[CityK]

True enough. I'm just surprised at the degree of dearth.

 

[Bookmage]

I have been searching for things like these for quite a while.
I've seen the cooldrives one and the firewiredepot one, but the price has been a bit high for me; that and the reseller ratings haven't been great.

I picked up my dual bay enclosure from compgeeks when they had a sale on them a bit over two year ago. They've been great except they maxed at the 120GB drives. They don't have a manufacturer, but they look a lot like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=167&item=5171299033&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
I haven't bought from them yet, but they have a lot of positive feedback. They also offer 4 and 8 bays in both beige and black. They are mainly firewire, but you could also buy the usb2/firewire controller card separately and buy just the enclosure, although that costs a bit more.
it's really hard to find a multi bay enclosure with both usb2 and firewire.


The only other place I've heard that's good is granite digital, but they are outside my budget... for now....

 

[Platform]

Will this work? US$129 for a RAID-0 (RAID function within external drive enclosure).

• With transparent, built in RAID-0 Array (not spanning or JBOD), the PRO Z-RAID was designed to immediately start helping digital video & audio content creators, graphic pro and prosumer as well as digital data storage solution. Based on the industry leading Oxford 912 chipset base w/ onboard RAID level-0, which appears to any Mac, PC or Linux workstation or laptop as a single big and faster FireWire800/1394b disk drive. Adjustable feet allow Pro Z-RAID to stand, horizontal or vertical...

Details at:

http://www.firewiredirect.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=16605&cat=431&page=1

FirewireDirect
7000 Cameron Road,
Suite 101,
Austin, TX 78752 USA

 

[ddrueding]

pretty sweet. For an extry $10 you can get non-RAID

 

[Fushigi]

Platform, that doesn't appear to have USB2 as CityK desires.

CityK, what about something from Lacie? The products come with the hard drives so they'll cost a hair more than the do-it-yourself route, but you should be able to find just about anything you want. Here's a 1TB External for under $1000.

 

[Pradeep]

Platform, that doesn't appear to have USB2 as CityK desires.

True, but RAID-0 would be wasted with the bandwidth of USB 2 or FW 400.

Thanks for the link Platform, that is cheap for a FW800 enclosure (especially a two drive with integrated RAID 0).

 

[mubs]

IIRC, the Lacies are two drives in RAID-0. There are plenty of horror stories of data loss in this kind of set up, regardless of the manufacturer/assembler.

 

[CityK]

Thanks for the links people!

you could also buy the usb2/firewire controller card separately and buy just the enclosure

As a matter of fact, that is one idea I've considered with the exception that I was thinking that if I'm going to do that then I might as well make an interesting project out of it --> outfit an old Shuttle SFF case with a bridge board, make some custom HDD cages, and put in a nice fan and PSU of my choice.

Will this work?

That is a nice looking unit Gary, but I neglected to mention that I'm looking to place a dvd burner in the unit too. It's too bad FirewireDirect doesn't have many product images on their web page (or at least not much is being rendered for me) - as I would like to have a look at some of the other stuff they have there.

what about something from Lacie? The products come with the hard drives

Naw, don't need the extra storage, as I'm going to just employ/recycle the drives I currently have.

I happened across another model. It Lacks the firewire, but looks interesting.