On Sunday 15 Mar 2009, Keith Lofstrom spake thus: > I bought a new toy for $40 at Frys: > > http://wiki.dirvish.org/index.cgi?DriveDock
I got this about 8 months ago for 30 € including shipping: http://www.textorm.com/boitier-hdd-externe/textorm-boitier...3- pouces-1_2-%5Bf1826%5D.html It's quite handy, especially since it handles both PATA and SATA drives. I recently tried out the SATA option (having at last replaced my 7 year old machine with a new one) and compared write speed with my WD 500Gb eBooks (or whatever they're called). Writing 1Gb from /dev/zero using dd to a file on the drives went something like this: - In the disk's own enclosure, USB2 connection: 28Mb/s - In the Textorm enclosure, USB2 connection: 35Mb/s - In the Textorm enclosure, SATA connection: 110Mb/s - To one of the machine's internal SATA drives: 110Mb/s. Despite the speed difference, I haven't yet taken the plunge - i.e. ripped the WD disks out of their enclosures and switched over to the Textorm: - Speed isn't that essential in my case: I only use these disks for rotating "offsite" backups, and while a disk is synching up, I just go off and do something else. - Same as you I am a little concerned by the lack of robustness of the connectors. Mine is worse than yours in this respect, especially when switching USB2/SATA/PATA connectivity. Then again, I really did intend it only for very occasional (home) use. If I had your kind of system, I would have switched though, because it's a lot easier to swap disks. A future investment perhaps. ;-) Cheers, Eric -- Eric Mountain http://erina.nerim.net/ Stop talking! I'm out of aspirin!
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