Comments on: Acomdata Samba 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Enclosure for PATA/SATA IDE Hard Drive SMBXXXU2E-BLK

By: Andrew Sun

Andrew Sun — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:18:47 +0000

I bought the black model recently at a local store. Setup was easy. Initially, the hard drive didn't work because I set it to the IDE master (as per instruction manual) - it worked after I switched it to cable select.

Here are some thoughts on the device.

Pros:
- Exterior construction is solid. The black exterior in the picture is a big chunk of aluminum. The front and rear panels are plastic.
- No fans! The large aluminum block seems to do a good job dissipating the heat.
- Takes a PATA(IDE) or SATA hard drive. I'm using IDE, but the SATA option makes this case flexible for future drive.

Cons:
- The interior tray is mostly plastic. I mention this because I originally intended to swap out hard drives with this case to use some older drives. However, the interior construction isn't that stable and I don't think it will survive if I repeatedly swap the drives.
- Doesn't power down with PC. It uses a physical switch in the back, so the drive stays on after your PC has powered down.

Overall, I recommend this drive enclosure.

By: Chuck Hunt

Chuck Hunt — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:05:55 +0000

This case is excellent, very quiet, doesn’t get that hot, and looks very stylist. If you are looking for a USB enclosure for your Hard Drive, look no further and buy this one. It comes in Black, Red and Blue colors. Very easy to put together. I give it 5 out of 5 Stars.

By: dormition

dormition — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:20:54 +0000

When the motherboard in my old computer suddenly died, this product was suggested to me as a way of recovering data off the hard drive. The enclosure was simple to set up; the new computer didn’t recognize it at first, but then I switched the jumper settings on the old drive to “slave” and that was it. Transfer speed is great. The old drive had Windows XP and the new system is Vista, but this didn’t pose any problems. I am very happy so far – I can’t speak for long term use, but as a data recovery tool, this worked perfectly!

By: Walcolm

Walcolm — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:39:38 +0000

cool device but it is fragile on the inside. found it pretty easy to set up and it has worked okay thus far

By: L. Gildart

L. Gildart — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:30:00 +0000

This is a nice, solid drive enclosure that is very easy to put together. Some enclosures are really tight. This one has enough room to work without leaving anything loose or rattling around. It's quiet, but it gets a little warm. Not hot. Just warm. I've been using mine for a 1 tb drive that serves as my time machine backup, so the drive has to spin up every hour or so. So far, so good over about three months of constant - always on - use.

I deducted two stars because the thing is always warm. Again, not hot, but I wonder what kind of power consumption is going on and why it doesn't cool down when the drive is not being accessed.

UPDATE

I would give this another star if it were possible for me to update the star rating. While this is still my newest drive enclosure, it is performing quietly and reliably. It does stay warmer than my other enclosures (including my other fanless enclosures), but it cost about $10 less than those.