macally PHR-S250UAB Aluminum 2.5" Silver USB 2.0 / 1394 External Enclosure

Pros: It was a great, easy to use, 2.5 HDD external enclosure. Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 weren't on the market yet when I bought it, but it wouldn't have mattered. I love the 1394b, I don't understand why it never took off. Anyhow, I would like to buy another one, but it has been discontinued.

Cons: No longer available.

Pros: The chipset is reliable and fully functional. And this unit supports IEEE 1394B FireWire800 connections as well as FW400, USB 1 and 2.

The case is well made and acts as a heat sink. Little rubber strips stops the sliding and provides some cushioning.

For me, a very important part of this product is the DEDICATED, SEPARATE USB power cable. No one else supplies a dedicated, separate USB power cable. Look at the other vendors and see how they handle the need for additional power. Look at Vantec... who thought up that clumsy cable? BTW, I have 3 Vantec enclosures as they were quicker to market for SATA 2.5" HD enclosures. I like the Vantec enclosures for the eSATA port, but I still have to borrow the Macally power cable to get power to them.

Cons: The 2.5" SATA hard drive MUST NOT exceed the 9.5mm thickness requirement. You'll never get the case put back together if your drive is thicker than 9.5mm. Which really isn't a problem nowadays. But do check your HD, to be sure.

Hey, where's the leatherette case that my other Macally enclosures came with?

Other Thoughts: The only real reason to purchase this enclosure is the chipset and the FW800 capability. Mac Users have FW800 ports and I've got them on my Mini and Mac Pro.

In addition to the USB power cable stated above, you get one of each cable for each I/O port. The length of each cable is about right for how I am using the case.

Do note how the HD attaches to the board... don't crank down on the screws attaching the HD to the board. If you do, you won't be able to slide the pieces back together.

Pros: USB and a couple of FireWire interfaces -- handy if you're running out of USB ports.

Cons: Runs pretty hot. I haven't measured it or checked it against the environmental specs on the 500GB notebook drive I have in it now, but it's significantly warmer than I've seen a drive get in a USB-only enclosure or a laptop. I wouldn't be comfortable using this as a long-term external drive solution for something important, like a backup volume.

Other Thoughts: Throughput seems pretty good, but I haven't actually benchmarked it. I couldn't install MacOS on it (it wouldn't boot after the first stage install).

Pros: Bus powered! This is a great compact 2.5" enclosure that supports FireWire 800, 400, and USB 2.0. Cables for all interfaces are supplied, including a trendy 1m clear FW800 cable. There is a second FW800 port included for daisy-chaining other devices (use the outermost port for normal use). Aluminum outer shell is good for heat dissipation, and includes silicone "bumpers" on top and bottom, which are arranged to allow neat stacking.

Installation was straightforward. Make sure you use the four supplied screws to secure the HD to the board.

But the best part about this enclosure is the speed! With a 640 GB 5400 RPM drive I was able to achieve 86.5 MB/s read and 72.1 MB/s write moving a 6 GB file to/from a RAMDisk (OS 10.6.8). That read rate is essentially 90% of theoretical speed, which is very good. Other tests reveal the interface can support a 90 MB/s raw data rate!

Power support is also good. The drive will spindown after a few minutes, but automatically wakes when ne

Cons: I took away one egg because the drive can get a little hot with extended thrashing. I saw a 42ºC idle temp with my Seagate drive, but that went up to a max of 54ºC after a few hours of constant I/O. That's hotter than I like, so you might consider putting a fan nearby if you're doing long-duration I/Os. But for typical use it should be fine. Temps are slightly lower if you use USB instead.

External lettering could be smaller.

The inside of the case is a pretty tight fit (less than 1mm clearance). Drives larger than 9.5 mm thick won't fit. Drive scrapes when you slide it in if you don't use the four screws to secure it to the board.

End covers are plastic. I would have expected them to be metal.

Other Thoughts: For the price I think this is a very good value considering the speed. There's not much sense in putting anything faster than a 5400 RPM drive in for typical use, but you could use a SSD if you need really fast access times. Due to the thermal concerns, I have reservations about putting a 7200 drive in this.

I tested the USB speed of this enclosure and got about 27.8 MB/s as you would expect. This effectively makes the FW800 about 3x faster in case you were wondering! The single USB cable worked fine on my MPB, but if you use the drive on a Windows machine make sure you use both cables since most non-Mac USB ports don't put out enough current.

I was also able to get SMART data working after installing the OS X SAT SMART Driver. You can then monitor it with your favorite SMART program.

Those of you having trouble with the disk spinning down should use pmset disksleep to change the time to a longer value. If that doesn't work, it might be a firmware setting in the drive.

Pros: Works as advertised with my Early 2011 17" MacBook Pro and Crucial M4 CT512M4SSD2 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) and the 750GB hard drive that came with the MacBook Pro. Good price.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I used this to clone my internal drive to the Crucial M4 CT512M4SSD2 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) before installing the SSD in the MacBook Pro. Afterward, installed the old 750GB HD in the MacAlly enclosure and now have a nice firewire/USB external drive as a bonus.

Pros: Impressively fast, 76MB/s sequential write on FW 800Mbps.
Rubber footy-things to keep enclosure planted.
Firewire 800 cable included.
Kind of matches my MBP.
Runs cool with a good drive.

Cons: End caps are plastic.
No indication of what 1394B port you need to plug in to get 800Mbps (outboard one).
Internal design is a bit clunky.

Other Thoughts: Bought this to house the original disk drive from my Macbook Pro after an SSD upgrade. I've never used firewire before, but I am very impressed with the throughput, compared to USB2 enclosures I've used in the past. 39MB/s at 400Mbps, 76MB/s at 800Mbps. I initially thought it was garbage due to throughput with an SSD installed, maybe it just doesn't like SSDs? Maybe my testing methodology was flawed.

Pros: looks good

Cons: controller limits throughput

Other Thoughts: Using 1394b 800 I found the data throughput was limited a lot by the controller and don't see much point in this so I returned it.

Pros: Excellent Drive Enclosure
Sustained Transfer Speeds (30+ MB/s)
Sturdy Design and Multiple Input Options
Self Powered (Firewire) or through 2 USB Cables
No drivers needed for operation

Cons: Over extended use, this drive will heat up. I'm using a 1TB Samsung HDD, and the heat produced by it is NO JOKE.

One issue I've been having with the drive is that I need to constantly eject it and plug it back in for use when it goes idle (MacOSX Power Management). I tried shutting off that feature but the drive still idles and must be ejected/plugged back in to be used. I hope this doesn't cause too much wear and tear on the drive. I know the heat is one factor I need to take into consideration.

Other Thoughts: Overall an EXCELLENT Driver Enclosure.

Pros: Firewire 400/800 and USB2.0 Connectivity
Works flawlessly on all Apple Products
Fits Harddrives up to 12.5mm, which is great.
Doesn't require a separate power supply. Can be powered through Firewire Cable, or through 2 USB Connections.
Plug and Play Connectivity

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: I Purchased a 1tb Samsung Spinpoint 5400rpm Drive for this enclosure. I needed an enclosure with Firewire 800 for my Powerbook G4 as External HDDs powered through USB would not work.

Pros: Slim, portable, speedy on firewire 800

Cons: keeps the drive a little warm, but nothing to really worry about