External drive for backup

speedlever · Post by **speedlever** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:13 pm

I have an Asus P5B-E mobo with 2 internal sata ports and 1 IDE port. They are all filled. The IDE port has a older 300 Gb Seagate which is getting full (my backup drive).

The largest IDE drive I find on NewEgg is a 750 Gb Seagate 7200.12.

I'm considering my options to replace that older drive and with the size limitations, am considering an external enclosure. My P5B-E offers both USB 2, 1394a, and esata external ports.

NE has a 24 hour sale on a 1.5 Gb WD green drive which I'm considering. But I am concerned about heat issues in an external enclosure unless it's actively cooled. All I've found is a Rosewill 358 and an Antec MX-1 (with reports of fan reliability issues). Both are a bit pricey at ~$50.

I would like a cool and quiet external drive. Does the WD green drive need active cooling? I currently have 2 fans in my Antec Solo case blowing over my existing 3 hard drives.

Do you have any suggestions?

speedboxx · Post by **speedboxx** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:41 pm

Unless you live somewhere hot or if you have multiple drives crammed into a tiny enclosure, active cooling really isnt necessary. I would say for the WD Green, you definately do not need to actively cool them in an external enclosure.

speedlever · Post by **speedlever** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:45 pm

Thanks. Although I'm not in a tropical climate, the summer hardware temps will still climb 10-15*F or so (compared to winter temps).

I've already had a Seagate HD fail in an external enclosure... although it was an older drive. Still, I thought it may have failed due to heat. So I'm a bit skittish about not having active cooling. OTOH, I just had my OS drive (WD raptor) fail after 3 years in service.. and replaced under warranty. And it has a fan right in front of it.

I have no experience with these green drives. So maybe they will be ok in an external enclosure.

Right now my 3 HDs in my case with 2 fans on them are showing anywhere from 26*-34*C.

Any suggestions for a good external enclosure that will do a good job with passive cooling, sata internal connections and USB/esata and/or Firewire external connections?

speedlever · Post by **speedlever** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 6:55 pm

Update: I ordered the 1.5 Tb WD green drive on 24 hour sale at Newegg and plan to get the Vantec Nexstar 3 USB/esata enclosure locally. (passive cooling).