macally G-S350SUA Aluminum 3.5" USB & 1394 & eSATA External Enclosure

Pros: Good heat conductivity

Cons: Soft switches go bad, and case won't power on - lost two in the past month.

Pros: Great Box for the money.

Cons: Fails after about a year.

Pros: Looks good, worked as advertised while it lasted

Cons: Should last longer than 13 months

Other Thoughts: After just over a year (just outside the warranty - convenient) the drive fails to mount, even though the firewire interface gets detected. At first a couple of reboots seemed to solve it, but the drive becomes inaccessible after a short while. Replacing it with a OWC Mercury Elite Pro

Pros: Looks good, seems solidly constructed

Cons: Poor sevice life
Circuit board failed
Power Supply possibly inadequate
Macally doesn't standby product.

Other Thoughts: Mine died one week after it was ayear old. How convenient that it is just out of warranty. They (Macally) tell me that my circuit board is probably blown and I can buy a replacement for $30 plus shipping. Seriously?! I can buy a whole new unit for $39.00.
I was using mine to house a backup drive for my small bus. server
When I informed them of my displeasure with their response, they have chosen to ignore me.

Pros: Sleek looking, solid construction, multiple connection options (eSASTA, USB, firewire), and descent price when compared to other enclosures with similar options.

Cons: Does not last long enough. I have bought four of these in the past few years but three of them have already died in about 3 year of use. The symptom is intermittent disconnect of the drive until it totally gives out. Took out the hard drives to test and proved it's the enclosures that are dying, not the hard drives.

Other Thoughts: I would hope these can last longer until I can throw out the old disks and their enclosures when they both come of age. Now I have to buy new enclosures for the 640 GB hard drives that are limited by today's size standard but still too young to be tossed out.

Pros: Great looks, good connectivity, power/activity light is not annoying. NewEgg is the best!

Cons: Worked fine for 3 years, then it would not mount on my computer. It was hooked up via firewire, so I tried USB and the same thing happened. I called their customer service, they were helpful but made it sound like it was a common problem. The warranty is only for 1 year, so if you want to repair this enclosure, they sell a replacement board. The board is as much as a new enclosure.

Pros: One of the best external enclosures I've ever used.
Can be daisy-chained together through Firewire 400 ports.
The case is pure aluminum, which really helps keep the HDDs cool.
No cheap plastic, and using the Firewire will not result in data corruption like other older/cheaper enclosures.

Cons: A bit pricey, but totally worth it if you need a quality, pure-aluminum enclosure.

Other Thoughts: Looks like a miniature PowerMac or MacPro, and goes together well when paired with one.

Pros: I was honestly expecting this one to junk out after a month, but it's still going strong. I needed Firewire, and this was my cheapest option, so far I'm very pleased!

Cons: None

Pros: Runs cool (when it runs), looks nice, good connection selection.

Cons: My original unit worked great until it failed in just less than a year, and Macally (to their credit) did accept it and send me a replacement. Unfortunately, the replacement unit (which appeared to be new in box) is exhibiting the same behavior as the one I sent in: failing to be recognized on any of my computers/devices.

I thought this surely couldn't be the case, so I tested various combinations of hard drives and enclosures, but it was confirmed: the only time any drives failed was when they were put in this enclosure. I double- and triple-checked all my connections, but never could get any of the drives to work.

Other Thoughts: I've contacted the RMA department to see if I can get another unit, but I'm not paying shipping on this one, and if they refuse, I wouldn't be heartbroken: I've already ordered another enclosure that costs half as much and has better reviews, so this would just be an extra.

I was a stalwart Macally fan for 7-8 years and still have several of their enclosures, but I've read online that their quality has taken a dive recently, and my last couple products seem to confirm that. I will be looking elsewhere for hard drive enclosures from now on.

Pros: Nice design - looks great with other Mac hardware. Power button with multiple connections. Seems well built - everything fits together nicely.

Cons: Normally, I praise Macally for their products, however, this gets a goose egg. when you plug the power supply in the enclosure, it power arcs - every time. in addition, the firewire doesn't work at all. USB works but that isn't what I bought it for. It would be great if the internal electronics actually worked as advertised. Like I say, I hate writing something negative about Macally but i can find little positive about hardware that doesn't work correctly.