External hard drive enclosure or docking station better for minimizing heat?

Question

Which one is better for minimizing heat on an internal hard drive that I want to setup in an external enclosure - an actual external enclosure or a docking station? I got a gut feeling about this but wanted to get actual confirmation.

Just for background, I am planning to use this as network storage connected to my router and so it's going to be stable on my office desk. There isn't much concern about moving it around or it becoming damaged in a docking station. Also, I recently picked up a green drive (the Samsung F4 2TB to be specific). These drives ought to run a little cooler anyways. I hope to run the drive not necessarily 24/7 but for pretty long times (maybe shutting it off a few times a week).

Answer 1

If you're not going to move it around you can put it in pretty much anything that allows some air to circulate. I have an older sata disk connected to my router with a sata2USB-adapter ^*. It sits in a small cloth bag and works just fine. The cloth also helps with suppressing vibration sounds.

^* The cheapest I could find.