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admin
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 Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:40 am Post subject: Dock for SATA Hard Drives |
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Dock for SATA Hard Drives
Friday, October 19, 2007
Posted by: Glenn
This has to be one of the neatest little products that I've seen in a while. Let's say that you have a couple of spare 2.5" or 3.5" SATA hard drives just laying around doing nothing. I currently have two myself after upgrading a Mac Mini and MacBook. Now, wouldn't it be cool if you could put those drives to use by simply popping them into a dock? You know, like you do with your iPod. This would eliminate the need for multiple enclosures or using one of those ugly looking universal drive adapters with a bunch of cables. Well, now you can with something called the SATA HDD STAGE RACK. It's basically a docking station that allows you to connect 2.5" and 3.5" SATA hard drives to your Mac via USB 2.0. I'm not sure who actually makes the product, but it's available on a site called GeekStuff4U for $47 / €33. Pretty cool, don't you think?
http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/786.html
Last edited by admin on Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:41 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Yvan256
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| Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:37 am Post subject: |
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Very good idea, however I don't have a single SATA drive, only old ATA drives. Quite a bunch of them in fact. 
Since we're on the topic of 2.5" and 3.5" drives, here is something I found yesterday: Dual 2.5" to 3.5" HD Adapter Converter Kit.
Could be nice to fit two 2.5" drives inside a miniStack or similar, to keep the whole setup quiet. |
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Ben Tex
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| Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:42 am Post subject: |
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I bought a Rosewill SATA and IDE adapter when upgraded my Apple TV, but I would rather have one of these. I would actually keep it out on my desk. It's pretty cool looking.  |
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Sipper
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| Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:10 pm Post subject: |
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Hmmm, I see it only uses a USB interface, but a brilliant idea anyhow, and cheaper than a conventional caddy.
Sipper |
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Ben Tex
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| Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 2:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Sipper wrote: | | Hmmm, I see it only uses a USB interface |
I'm a big fan of FW and eSATA too. USB-only devices always bum me out a little bit. I would never buy a traditional external drive without at least FW 400. |
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Airborne2k4
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| Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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yeah, but the data transfer rate of USB 2 and FW 400 is actually the same, so you wouldn't be at a huge loss to get one of these. It just really boils down to taste of preference
Personally, I would go either way if it were FW 400 or USB 2. Both are very reliable, and for the purpose of using the dock to access your files on your old drive, it sure beats having to connect in a case and worry about cables and where everything is going
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-Mac Mini 1.66Ghz Intel Duo Core
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-Final Cut PRO-->can't get it to work on the mini 
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JohnnyBoy
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| Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Airborne2k4 wrote: | | yeah, but the data transfer rate of USB 2 and FW 400 is actually the same, so you wouldn't be at a huge loss to get one of these. It just really boils down to taste of preference |
Hold on there, Airborne. Have a quick look at the read test and write test results in this article - you might get a surprise.
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devo
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| Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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| JohnnyBoy wrote: | | Airborne2k4 wrote: | | yeah, but the data transfer rate of USB 2 and FW 400 is actually the same, so you wouldn't be at a huge loss to get one of these. It just really boils down to taste of preference |
Hold on there, Airborne. Have a quick look at the read test and write test results in this article - you might get a surprise. |
It's all about sustained throughput. I've never owned a dual-interface drive that had its USB 2.0 interface outperform firewire. |
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johnodd4
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| Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 1:29 am Post subject: |
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Great idea..
But why isn't it in firewire???
why would you spend 50.00 for a inclosure and not make it firewire?? |
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Airborne2k4
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| Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 7:58 am Post subject: |
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| devo wrote: | | JohnnyBoy wrote: | | Airborne2k4 wrote: | | yeah, but the data transfer rate of USB 2 and FW 400 is actually the same, so you wouldn't be at a huge loss to get one of these. It just really boils down to taste of preference |
Hold on there, Airborne. Have a quick look at the read test and write test results in this article - you might get a surprise. |
It's all about sustained throughput. I've never owned a dual-interface drive that had its USB 2.0 interface outperform firewire. |
Absolutely. I agree with both of you! But for the purpose of marketing this to the average individual who doesn't know the difference between the two interfaces or doesn't care for that matter (which is decreasing because of how technologically sound people are becoming), its the perfect crime. It probably won't be a huge hit, but there will still be a market because some will not know or care.
I just read the article. They developed this on the architecture of your home computer, or the "master-slave" setup. Why they didn't go ahead and develop for FW is up in the air for me
As I said, I could go either way. USB is good and all, but the sustainability of FW is far superior, so I probably wouldn't buy this based on that fact.
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-Mac Mini 1.66Ghz Intel Duo Core
---100GB hard drive
---2GB RAM
---8x Superdrive
-MiniStack v2 250GB
-Adobe CS2 with Studio 8
-Final Cut PRO-->can't get it to work on the mini
-iPhone, 8GB |
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devo
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| Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Airborne2k4 wrote: | | (which is decreasing because of how technologically sound people are becoming) |
I think that is true for the most part. It does seem like the average person is becoming a little more tech savvy. And this is good news for us geeks. It's keeping these companies on their toes and starting to prevent them from releasing such dumbed-down products. |
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zen
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| Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:24 pm Post subject: |
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| I think this is a great idea for a product. Very practical. |
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zaphraud
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Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:11 am Post subject: |
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| Yvan256 wrote: | Very good idea, however I don't have a single SATA drive, only old ATA drives. Quite a bunch of them in fact.
Since we're on the topic of 2.5" and 3.5" drives, here is something I found yesterday: Dual 2.5" to 3.5" HD Adapter Converter Kit.
Could be nice to fit two 2.5" drives inside a miniStack or similar, to keep the whole setup quiet. |
Alas, if only IDE (ATA) drives all had their back plugs in exactly the same spots... but, as a builder of PCs, I can tell ya from experience, they don't.
I take it that SATA drives do? Thats awesome! |
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