So i was in the market for an external enclosure to make media transport a more seamless task. For some reason, I ended up with 3 different enclosures to mess around with and I just wanted to share my experiences w/ other who could use them.

So here's the rundown. Everything was tested with a samsung 60GB 2.5" notebook drive (highly recommended by the way; quiet and fast).

Vantec NexStar (NST-250U2)
someone's review

This is actually a nice case. Out of the three I bought, this was the slimmest and lightest. It can easily fit into the back pocket of my jeans or various pockets of my laptop bag. The build quality is quite nice and seems like it'll hold up for quite a long time. I believe it is made of an aluminum alloy. A green LED stays on when the drive is getting power.

Of course, the smaller form factor means some features have to be sacrified. This drive only features USB 2.0 and the cushioning is nonexistent. Power is sacrificed via the USB bus.

I can't say I had any of the problems the guy linked above described, so performance-wise, i'd give it a positive rating. Speed was excellent and transferred 30 gigs of mp3s in about 26 minutes.

Package included a cheap pleather case and USB cable.

macally USB 2.0/ FireWire Aluminum (PHR-250CC)
commercial link

This case is on the bulky side, but with the extra heft comes extra features. As the name implies, this enclosure does both USB 2.0 and Firewire for a robust selection of connecting options. There is also a bright blue activity/power led which stays blue when on and flashes red when there is disk activity. In addition, there's a switch for turning the drive on and off if you ever need to. I personally don't use this feature, but its nice to have.

One of the best features of this drive though, is the fact that macally decided to include rubber mounts for the HDD. In an abusive environment like a car, the mounts probably won't help much, but still better than nothing

This drive operates flawlessly on 4-pin, 6-pin firewire and USB. The transfer test clocked in at about 24 minutes for 30 gigs.

Macally did a fantastic job with designing this case and tossed in some nice extras. The box included a wide assortment of cables, for both USB and firewire operation, and a cheap pleather case. If you only have access to a 4-pin firewire port (most laptops have this; no power goes through the missing 2 pins), you can use the included USB to power cable to run the drive.

SanMAX USB2.0/FireWire External Enclosure (HD-227-CB)
commercial link

This one sucked. Plain and simple.

Everything works like it should, but the build quality of this thing is extraordinarily cheesy. The cheap plastic casing is prone to cracking and the seams are not held together well at all. I wouldn't be surprised if someone using this enclosure had their drive fall out during transport. The drive is fastened by screws to a PCB, but the whole thing is so flimsy that the entire assembly would probably fall apart.

In terms of physical dimensions, this case fell in between the other two. Its a good size, but that doesn't change the fact that it sucks.

The package included a lame ps2 power passthrough adapter for people without access to a 6-pin firewire port. I say lame since I would personally prefer using a USB adapter since they're more universal on laptops.

Here is the problem.

The most common machine to have a 4-pin firewire port is a laptop, and coincidentally, they also happen to be the most common type of machine not to have ps2 ports. lame.

Performance for this enclosure was on par with the macally.

Conclusion
Ok, so this review didn't turn out to be quick, but I hope it helps nonetheless. I ended up going with the macally enclosure and returning the other two.

For mounting, I simply velcroed the enclosure inside my glove box. Having the ability to transport your media libary is awesome and I'm beginning to wonder how I ever did without an external drive.

If you absolutely must have a slim enclosure and don't mind giving up some features, the Vantec NexStar is quite good, and I would recommend it. Clearly though, EVERYONE should stay away from the Sanmax case. They make several variations of this case (firewire only, usb only, combo, 3.5", etc.) and I have no doubt they all suck. Interestingly, the sanmax also costs MORE than the other two. For anybody considering purchasing this case, i'd recommend that instead, they stick a pencil in their eye; it'd be a less painful ordeal.