External USB 3.5 Hdd Enclosure

[KIT786]

Got myself a new 500GB SATA Hard drive since it was going cheap and so have a spare 200GB IDE Hard drive. So what I was thinking of doing is using the 200GB as a "backup" drive aswell as storage for music, videos, etc..
However I would like to use it as an external drive so I can take it around with me when going to uni or around a mates house.

So I've had look at some external encloses but don't really know what to go for in terms of price, cheap or expensive?

I've seen this, which I quite like:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/High-Quality-USB-External-3-5-Hard-drive-Enclosure-BLK_W0QQitemZ320245053301QQihZ011QQcategoryZ86758QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

which is under ?30

but is it any different to something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-5-External-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-Case-Enclosure-USB2-0_W0QQitemZ250242282984QQihZ015QQcategoryZ86758QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

which only costs ?12

Don't mind spending a bit more (max ?30) as long as the job is done well, and is it a cae of the more you spend the better you'll get?

[randombs]

Well the £30 one has a heatsink so is apparently better for drives that run hotter.

You're mainly paying for the build quality of the case itself, as the circuitry will probably be similar across the board (maybe some will be marginally quicker than others). Build quality is more important if you're going to be opening and closing it a few times, changing hard drives and whatnot.

One thing to bear in mind, though, is the IDE controller built into the case could also be better/worse depending on how expensive it is. For a 200GB hard drive it won't matter, but for example, the £30 one says maximum hard drive size is 500gb.

The £30 one definitely looks a bit better, though. The cheapness of the £12 one is apparent. Mind you, I bought a £12 one about 2 or 3 years ago and that's still fine now, but you can see from the wiring (power plug and IDE cable) that it wouldn't handle too much hard drive swapping

[KIT786]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not quite sure how hot it actually gets so thats worth checking out, and I also don't plan to keep swaping the drives. Then again since the £30 is bound to be better quality, that if/when the time comes that I may need to swap drives in/out form it I can do it without worrying too much that it might get broken.

I'll also have a look elsewhere to see if I can get anything better.