OL-

Do you have any fan cooled HD enclosures (FW & USB) that are quiet? I'd rather spend the money with you than elsewhere....

Thanks.

I posted this half a page down, but I thought the ministack fan was quiet (almost very quiet). I can't remember now if it was variable too. For a fan enclosure, the fan noise was on par with the drive noise, so not that big a dif than with the same drive in a fanless enclosure. It was a very tight fit, so that was the only issue I had with it.

why not fanless?

my 2 OWC AL cases have been working great with 300 gig drives -- dialy use

Stick with an all aluminum enclosure, fan or fanless, and you'll be good to go. I have one aluminum 3.5" HD enclosure that has twin ball bearing mini-fans, and they are virtually silent; my other two enclosures are fanless, all aluminum units and they've worked 24/7 for about 2 years with no problems. Plastic cases are sometimes difficult to assemble/disassemble, and I don't recommend them.

I sure like the OWC Mercury Elite FireWire/USB enclosure, even though it's pricey, because of its aluminum construction and slick G5-like design. If you buy from OWC that's the one to get.;)B)

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What's the difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make some sense.

The OWC ministack has some considerable fan noises. I've got it set to adjust speeds as extra cooling is needed, but it almost always runs on high. I've also got two of the dual fw800 raid cases (all aluminum) that each have a very small little fan that is next to silent.

There's no reason to have a fan blowing on an external hard drive. There are too many good enclosures to have to tolerate a fan, no matter how quiet it claims to be. What do you need an enclosure with a fan for? If you're in a hot room, you need to cool the room better.

I have a rev 1 MiniStack, and I don't hear the fan anymore than I do the one in the Mini.

I've got a 7200 installed in it....

I didn't adjust the fan settings, but if I had, it would have been to be on all the time. I hear the DRIVE seeking far louder than the fan in the box, assuming I even hear the fan in the MiniStack!

Hi-

I think the first question should be - what hard drive are you installing into the case?

The suggestions for the aluminum construction drives we sell is excellent, they offer passive cooling and do not need a fan at all. The miniStack drive is great if you want a small footprint, and a fan, but if a hot mini is on top of it, the fan does run more often than if it were a freestanding drive by itself.

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Good Luck!
Jamie Dresser
Other World Computing

I second blusubaru's suggestion of the dual drive setup from OWC. That fan is so quiet I can't even tell it's running!

While it's in a room with a DP 867 MDD, the tower's under the desk and back, so fan noise has to really "get out" of the area for me to hear it, whereas the enclosure is right next to my monitor, and I probably sit closer to my monitor than I should.

I've also got an OWC fanless enclosure (Mercury Elite Pro) that's perfect for the 200GB HD that's in it. I haven't gotten the ministack v2 up and running yet that I got earlier this week.

~A