Antec MX-1 USB/e-SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive Enclosure

I bought mine about a year ago and paid around fifty dollars at the time. Around forty is probably a reasonable price these days. This is a very well made external enclosure for SATA hard drives. It is made of very durable plastic. It has a light that some people don't like because it doesn't shine in your face, but I really like it because you can see it but it doesn't light up the whole room like some do. The light is on the front and shines downward. It is a thoughtful design that gives you light without blinding you.

It probably took me about 15 minutes to install the drive. It's a snug fit, but that's how it should be. I've owned several external enclosures over the years and this is by far the best. It is solidly built and looks good. It easily slips into a briefcase or bag and I've never had to worry about it getting damaged because it is so well made.

Some have complained about connectors coming lose. I haven't found this to be an issue at all. Mine have stayed snug through several trips. I have used it with several motherboards and it does have problems with a few chipsets when connected to eSATA but this is the fault of the motherboard makers, NOT this device. USB works fine and is USB 2.0.

The fan is a real plus on this device. It moves a lot of air and is very quiet. I'm a real stickler for noise and was surprised how quiet this fan is.

Overall, I highly recommend this external enclosure. It's only weak point is that it isn't designed for to switch hard drives easily within this case the way many are starting to be.

the enclosure is very nice. the rubber dampeners in which the hard drive sits on really help keep the noise and the vibration down. the biggest problem is the fan. the fan is obnoxiously loud. i had to unplug the fan because it was driving me crazy. i understand this isnt the highest qualitly case but they could have put a slightly quieter fan in there. wish i got the macally usb 2.0/esata enclosure instead

I love these MX-1 enclosures - I presently have three of them and they are all working very well. The price is a little high when you consider what it is, but even that has gotten better as of late, decreasing from around $60 to $40 over the last year or so. One of my MX-1s is attached to my Tivo S3 holding an ESATA drive so it is always on and the case does a great job of keeping the drive cool, though you may want to use a higher-end ESATA cable for an application like that where keeping the connection is critical - I use a Siig (also from Amazon) and have been very happy with it.

Poor Instructions - But sooner or later you figure it out - then works very good - this one has an internal fan - the other one doesn't-eh!!

So I initially wished to purchase an external hard drive as opposed to an enclosure/internal hd but since I am planning on building a new desktop soon it made more sense to go with the latter. As I stated in the title this product is fantastic, cooling is great, the whatever sound (if any) is obliterated by the sound of my laptop fan. It currently houses a WD640gig 7200rpm drive and is doing fine.