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I saw branded external hard drive case and unbranded.

Questions about unbranded:

  • Must i check first if case supports S.M.A.R.T.?
  • When it comes to S.M.A.R.T. should I consider branded rather than unbranded?
  • Do external cases have a limit of hard drive capacity, or does every case supports any capacity?

Are there other things I am missing?

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    Make sure it's has a big fan (more than 6 cm.) in it. Some don't have fans, and the drive ends up overheating (don't believe the salesperson who tells you that this isn't a problem). Some have tiny fans (2-3 cm.) that just don't seem to last very long, and then the drive ends up overheating in these as well. With a big fan you usually get better airflow and a drive that lasts longer due to not running as hot.
    – Randolf Richardson
    Aug 14, 2011 at 7:28
  • Question updated
    – Boris_yo
    Aug 15, 2011 at 6:31

3 Answers 3

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I guess it depends on how you're planning to use it.

If you're going to leave it running all the time cooling is important. If you want the best future proofing then usb 3 might be worthwhile. If it's going to be portable then shock proofing. Sound proofing might also be useful.

I think external drives might struggle with 2 TB drives unless they specifically mention support.

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  • Question updated
    – Boris_yo
    Aug 15, 2011 at 6:32
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Its not the branding that matters, it is the chip that is used to do the USB to Pata or Sata conversion, branding does not insure that they choose a better chip for the job, sometimes this is difficult to determine which chip is inside, but it is how I choose which enclosure to use.

The chip brand/model determines what hard drive support it has, most enclosures sold these days are very compatible with all hard drives up to 2TB. You might have to do more research when it comes to enclosures for over 2tb support.

I have always used unbranded, did the research to find which ones had the best chip at the time.

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Oxford chipset on a wd passport studio 1 Back in the day this ssd to firewire card was the best option for formating Old macbooks with a back then expensive ssd. Right now im looking forward into thi chipsets one for ssd to usb c wich was ranked the fastest 2. And the second 3 for nvme , m.2 sata to thunderbolt wich its also ranked the best when I open them I´ll tell you what theirs specs and chipset model

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