SATA to Firewire enclosures info please ???

[kudzu]

I have 4 x SATA 3.5" HD's lying around in need of a home. The interface needs to be Firewire 800 or 400. Can any 'Slutz recommend an enclosure that could hold the 4 x SATA HD's ?
My system is G5 dual, 2Ghz (1st gen)

Appriciated

[dkatz42]

Wiebetech makes very high quality stuff that I use exclusively now. Great customer support (they sent me a free FW bridge even though I blew it up by being stupid.) A whole range of products, from single drive (fanless!) portable enclosures to ten tray hardware RAID boxes.

Highly recommended.

http://www.wiebetech.com

[XSergeantD]

Whatever you find, be sure it has a built in power supply. Nothing worse that someone coming to a session with their drive and forgetting the PS. If it's a standard IEC plug, then every studio will have one of those, but if it's a center pin, or 5 pin or 4 pin, then you'll probably be SOL

[Jax]

Avastor. I can't recommed them highly enough. Impeccable customer service. For instance, I called the company I bought it from to ask how the case is opened (it was easy) and before I knew it, I had a call back from the guy who started Avastor explaining just how it's done. How's that for CS?

Their enclosures have a built-in PS (detachable IEC jack, same thing as your computer plug) and FW800, FW400 and USB2.0 ports. The case also slides open (no screws but very secure) for quick drive changes, and the thing is very quiet. I don't work for them, even if I sound like I do...

I got mine from these guys:
http://www.usrecordingmedia.com/usre...re/avfidr.html

They also make a drive carry bag, which doesn't seem necessary at first, but I'll be getting one.

[headz]

Originally Posted by Jax

Avastor. I can't recommed them highly enough. Impeccable customer service. For instance, I called the company I bought it from to ask how the case is opened (it was easy) and before I knew it, I had a call back from the guy who started Avastor explaining just how it's done. How's that for CS?

Their enclosures have a built-in PS (detachable IEC jack, same thing as your computer plug) and FW800, FW400 and USB2.0 ports. The case also slides open (no screws but very secure) for quick drive changes, and the thing is very quiet. I don't work for them, even if I sound like I do...

I got mine from these guys:
http://www.usrecordingmedia.com/usre...re/avfidr.html

They also make a drive carry bag, which doesn't seem necessary at first, but I'll be getting one.

hm, very much looks they use IDE drives and not SATA in their enclosures...technology has changed a bit since they released their products ;-)

[KBOY]

Why not keep it sata? Why firewire? Just curious. This place http://www.cooldrives.com/ has a lot of cool stuff.

[kudzu]

Originally Posted by KBOY

Why not keep it sata? Why firewire? Just curious. This place http://www.cooldrives.com/ has a lot of cool stuff.

I have 3 x UAD-1 cards in ma G5 ... so no PCI slots left ....

I ended up getting a Magma 4 Chassis ... 3 PCI slots for UAD-1's and the 4th PCI slot for a 4channel SATA Raid controler to deal with the spare SATA drives ... there's 4 x 3.5" HD bays in the Magma chassis ... how cool ! ... connects to one of my G5's PCI slots ... frees up 2 PCI slots for whatever ... Also I've read that UAD-1's work a bit better @ high res. when installed in a magma chassis ... we'll see ... They're NOT cheap ... over £1,000 for SATA raid controler+Magma4 ... need to work hard this month to justify expense ...

[XSergeantD]

Another nod for Avastor

[T_R_S]

Originally Posted by XSergeantD

Whatever you find, be sure it has a built in power supply. Nothing worse that someone coming to a session with their drive and forgetting the PS. If it's a standard IEC plug, then every studio will have one of those, but if it's a center pin, or 5 pin or 4 pin, then you'll probably be SOL

External drives with biult in PSU's heat the drive up a lot more and usaually require a fan. Plus if the PS goes you have to replace the whole case.

[Jax]

Originally Posted by headz

hm, very much looks they use IDE drives and not SATA in their enclosures...technology has changed a bit since they released their products ;-)

Maybe you missed it.

From the USRecording site:

"Available in various combinations of USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 and SATA interfaces"

[XSergeantD]

Originally Posted by T_R_S

External drives with biult in PSU's heat the drive up a lot more and usaually require a fan. Plus if the PS goes you have to replace the whole case.

Never once had a power supply go bad. They don't all need a fan, they get just as hot as an external PS adaptor which we know is not hot at all.
Once had a drive go bad (discovered the problem when I came to tell the engineer I couldn't get the enclosure up and running then the producer chimes in with "Is that the one you dropped?").
Twice had a bridge board go bad.
Countless times had clients bring their drive and forget their power supply.

[Mitch Manger]

Why are there absolutely no SATA II-accepting (throughputting 300, not 150) enclosures that output Firewire, USB, and SATA II? Emphasis on the “II.”

Has SATA II just not been out long enough for enclosure-manufacturers to catch on?

I’ve been searching for the past 2 hours for one…to no avail. Even that colddrives site didn’t have one. Couldn’t find one on newegg either.

This cannot be a RAID enclosure. It’s for ONE DRIVE ONLY. I want to have a hard drive archiving system for the future (i.e. zipping up the old drives in static-free bags), and use little 80GB SATAII drives that will work quickly and not get bogged down or die out from years of use, like a 500GB would. As a result, I want a single drive enclose in which I can just swap SATAII drives, one per project or two projects.

Please help, oh knowledgable slutz.

[kudzu]

Originally Posted by kudzu

I have 3 x UAD-1 cards in ma G5 ... so no PCI slots left ....

I ended up getting a Magma 4 Chassis ... 3 PCI slots for UAD-1's and the 4th PCI slot for a 4channel SATA Raid controler to deal with the spare SATA drives ... there's 4 x 3.5" HD bays in the Magma chassis ... how cool ! ... connects to one of my G5's PCI slots ... frees up 2 PCI slots for whatever ... Also I've read that UAD-1's work a bit better @ high res. when installed in a magma chassis ... we'll see ... They're NOT cheap ... over £1,000 for SATA raid controler+Magma4 ... need to work hard this month to justify expense ...

Magma chassis working like a dream ... WD rapture 10,000rpm HD's spinning their little hearts out in the Magma ( 32 tracks @ 88.2Khz/24bit , loadsa edits, HD working @ 30%, now thats more like it) ... Firmtek SeriTek/1V4 Internal SATA-1V4 also working v. well ... The whole setup was expensive but it works ...thumbsup
UAD-1's ? ... wouldn't ya know, they do work better in the Magma .... Down side ... Magma front fan very noisey, just disconnected it ... there's a fan at the back next to the power supply ... seems to be enough ....

[Fruition2k]

Originally Posted by Mitch Manger

Why are there absolutely no SATA II-accepting (throughputting 300, not 150) enclosures that output Firewire, USB, and SATA II? Emphasis on the “II.”

Has SATA II just not been out long enough for enclosure-manufacturers to catch on?

I’ve been searching for the past 2 hours for one…to no avail. Even that colddrives site didn’t have one. Couldn’t find one on newegg either.

This cannot be a RAID enclosure. It’s for ONE DRIVE ONLY. I want to have a hard drive archiving system for the future (i.e. zipping up the old drives in static-free bags), and use little 80GB SATAII drives that will work quickly and not get bogged down or die out from years of use, like a 500GB would. As a result, I want a single drive enclose in which I can just swap SATAII drives, one per project or two projects.

Please help, oh knowledgable slutz.

Been looking for the same thing, being my ASUS P5ND2 SLI has SATA out on the
motherboard. So far this seems to be the only one with SATA II.
I'm using a P4 D830 dual core w/ Western Digital WD2500KS for nearly a year
with great results for audio, but mostly video production. After reading SATAII
drive info, it seemed that they would be faster an external Firewire drive...
Firewire being 400/800 megabits (100MB) vs SATAII over 150 to 300MB sec?
Did you see this enclosure...?
http://www.cooldrives.com/sarehadrenfo.html

[jwh1192]

Kudzu ...

may i ask what system you are running ... prot tools / nuendo / other ???

the magma thing sounds cool ... 4 sata drives and 3 UAD cards ... impressive .. and 32 tracks @ 88.2

thank you

john

[kudzu]

Originally Posted by jwh1192

Kudzu ...

may i ask what system you are running ... prot tools / nuendo / other ???

the magma thing sounds cool ... 4 sata drives and 3 UAD cards ... impressive .. and 32 tracks @ 88.2

thank you

john

Front end - Tascam FW1884+2xFE-8s and RME FF800, Apogee Rosetta + Big Ben, ISA 428, Benchmark DAC-1, Logic 7.2, G5 2Ghz, 8 Gb ram ... I think the Firmtek card is doing good work inside the magma chassis, keeping everything tight ... it was only $120 .. great value ... I've seen people put them inside a G5 plus 2 extra SATA drives, giving u 4 internal SATA drives ... I wasn't brave enough to do that. Hope this helps

[Mitch Manger]

Originally Posted by Fruition2k

Been looking for the same thing, being my ASUS P5ND2 SLI has SATA out on the
motherboard. So far this seems to be the only one with SATA II.
I'm using a P4 D830 dual core w/ Western Digital WD2500KS for nearly a year
with great results for audio, but mostly video production. After reading SATAII
drive info, it seemed that they would be faster an external Firewire drive...
Firewire being 400/800 megabits (100MB) vs SATAII over 150 to 300MB sec?
Did you see this enclosure...?
http://www.cooldrives.com/sarehadrenfo.html

That thing looks...cool, the best I've seen so far, but I don't know the price. Does it only have eSATA and USB 2.0? Does it do a 300 throughput, or only 150 and just "supports" SATAII? Have you tried it? Is it noisy? Why the hell isn't there a purchase button? Why can't i find it anywhere else on the internet?

Added bonuses would include:
- pullout rack rather than a screw-on/screw-off rack.
- silence

Basically, if these models had firewire and SATAII 300 throughput (and looked sturdy), I'd buy one of them because they're cheap too: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custra...82E16817145237
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817185006

But obviously the Avastor is best in the flexibility department, but unfortunately expensive. Does it have eSATA out? But it doesn't say on the webpage for this specific case whether it supports SATA drives and up to what size SATA drive (500gb?):
http://www.usrecordingmedia.com/usre...dtpousabd.html

...though it does say "Available in various combinations of USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 and SATA interfaces" on the general drive page...Also, the Avastor site says it supports a transfer rate of only "Up to 60MB/s"...which is nothing compared to SATAII

Really, the Glyph GT 050Q is the best out there from what I've found, and you can put in SATAII drives, though I don't think it takes full advantage of the throughput. However, it has FW400, FW800, USB, and eSATA, which is FANtastic. Too bad it is so expensive. i can get a Maxtor Onetouch III 300gb for $200, and the Glyph 300GB 050Q costs $399.