macally G-S350SU Aluminum 3.5" Silver SATA USB 2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure

Pros: Mostly solid construction and very attractive finish makes this drive stand out from it's gaudy race-car styled brethren. eSATA is an awesome.

Cons: While the front and sides are aluminum, the back plate is indeed plastic. Though this did not seem to me to cause any significant structural problem. No eSATA cable is included, only a USB. (This is noted in the product description, but it sure would be nice to have included).

Overall Review: In regards to heat, forget the silly "heat dissapating aluminum" marketing. This is a fanless case, it is what it is. Like all fanless externals, don't put high RPM drives in them and it won't be a problem. It's not a tank, but it is still a fairly good external. The very attractive styling makes this worth buying again for me.

Pros: Nicely styled. A well placed on/off switch uses a subdued blue LED (IOW, it won't keep you up at night like some searchlight-bright indicator LEDs). Installation is really easy and requires the removal of only a couple of screws. It looks like it will hold up to many HD changes. eSATA connection is a critical feature for speedy transfers, and doesn't cost much extra than units with USB only.

Cons: "Aluminum for excellent heat dissipation" is misleading at best. There's nothing here resembling a heat sink or any other effort to wick away heat -- just vents at front and rear -- so there wouldn't be a practical difference if this was built out of some supposedly lesser material like plastic or steel. Temps reach over 42 deg C on a normally cool-running Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB (this HD runs 15-20 deg cooler in my PC case), so I'm not inclined to leave this unit on, or to use it for anything but backups. There is a single screw holding each foot down. Since I move this unit around my office, the screws constantly comes loose and allow the feet to spin freely, which is really irritating and destroys any perception of quality of the unit. Furthermore, the self-adhesive rubber strips that go on the bottom of the feet cover up the screw forever after installation. I ended up cutting away the central part of the rubber strip. (That ugly bracket doesn't do much, either.)

Overall Review: The airflow-friendly looks and sales puffery regarding the aluminum belie the fact that disks will get hot in this case. Frankly I kind of hate this thing, and wish I bought something else with stable feet and active cooling. It will do for now, though. If you like the looks enough to ignore its shortcomings (as we do with other things in life), just be sure to buy an eSATA cable seperately.

Pros: looks nice, runs fairly cool.

Cons: flimsy power cable, no sound/vibration dampening. if this is going on your desk for the long haul, it makes a decent amount of noise.

Overall Review: If macally simply installed some rubber washers and/or installed some rubber channels in the case construction it would eliminate all of the noise instantly.

Pros: Just received two of these for a nework backup. Easy to install drive, quality feel. They also dissipate heat quickly. I don't think you'd want one to carry with your laptop, but for a stationary solution, these are great! I'd definitely buy again.

Cons: None that I can see.

Overall Review: Admittedly, I'm using the USB 2.0 connections and haven't tried the eSATA.

Pros: I am quite pleased with this enclosure. I like the button on the front for the ablilty to turn it on or off easily. It has a powersaving feature that will power it down after a few minutes of no activity. It stays nice and cool and relatively quiet. Looks great too.

Cons: I wish the power saving feature could be turned off.

Overall Review: I think the powersaving feature is nice for occasional use like backups, etc., but for heavy regular use it can be annoying. The Macally SATA/ usb / firewire model may not have the power saving feature for anyone interested.

Pros: Very nice looking. It cools down the installed drive very nicely. It's small and works wonderfully under Windows 2003.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Highly recommended.

Pros: Aluminum components, multiple stand options, easy to install HD, looks awesome, and good cooling. Comes with eSATA and usb cables as well as AC power.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Took 5 minutes to install and setup.

Pros: This is a great product. Works perfect on XPSP2 with my Seagate 1TB drive. Quality metal enclosure that looks great. Power button on front is a great feature and one that is lacking (or hard to reach) on many other enclosures.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Seagate DiskWizard did not recognize the drive as Seagate when in the enclosure. Had to connect directly to motherboard for the software to recognize as Seagate drive and to be able to use the utility.