Looking for a FW800 external HDD case...

[B Gallagher]

Hello all,

I'm just wondering if anyone would be able to help me track down an external HDD case which supports FW800. I've had plenty of luck finding ones which support FW400 and USB, but sofar I've only found one FW800 case (from Yodobashi Camera) - which cost 16,800\.

I've tried looking on kakaku.com but its search function isn't too good for external HDD cases.

The obvious thing in my mind would be go to up to Akiba for the day. Does anyone know if I would actually find much there, and if it would be substantially cheaper than buying it elsewhere?

Alternatively, does anyone know anywhere else where I might be able to pick one up for cheaper than that? I've seen them on newegg.com for aroud $90 USD, but the problem is that newegg.com only ships within the states.

Thanks for your help.

[Charles]

I'm going through the same search (here in the US, can't help you with Akihabara). I think I'm going to go with a dual drive FW800 array in a box, that way I can pull the 2 drive RAID from my old machine and put it in the FW box to attach to my new Mac. Other World Computing has a nice little 2 drive FW800 RAID box for $120, and they ship overseas too. That might work for you, it could be cheaper to use 2 small drives than 1 big drive (faster throughput as a RAID too).

You might as well get a FW/USB2 drive even though it will cost a few extra bucks for the additional USB, as it will give you more portable connectivity options (not everyone has FW but everyone has USB). OWC has a nice FW800/USB2 box for 2.5in (laptop size) drives for $85. Also I found a FW800/USB2 enclosure for regular 3.5in drives for $108. Some friends of mine have used these drives and are pretty happy with them.

Anyway, if you look around further, you might also search on the term "1394B" as that is the official designation for FireWire 800.

[B Gallagher]

Nice.. thanks for the reply Charles. The $108 enclosure you suggested looks pretty good. Think I might end up going with that. Just wish that FW800 RAID enclosure had USB as well.

Thanks for your help!