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USB Enclosure vs In-case?

F

Fif23

Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
354 (0.06/day)
System Specs
System Name The Browser
Processor AMD FX-8350
Motherboard Asus 90 Aura Gaming
Cooling Noctua D14
Memory Crucial Balistix Slim 16gb
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Storage Crucial MX 240gb + 2X3TB WD Reds
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Power Supply Seasonic G-650W Gold
Mouse Corsair M65 RGB
Keyboard Corsair K70
Software Win 10
So, I bought myself two 18TB Ultrastar (auto-mirroring for redundancy) hard drives, and I am trying to figure out if I should put them inside my PC case or in a nice metal dual-bay USB enclosure.

What are the benefits of buying a 100$ dual bay usb-c enclosure for them rather than sticking them inside my case? I do like the option of slapping on some of my older drives periodially and backup data onto them, without opening the PC, before returning them back to an offsite-closet.

I use this drive as a TV server.

Thanks :)
 
Last edited:
Fif23 said:
So, I bought myself two 18TB Ultrastar (auto-mirroring for redundancy) hard drives, and I am trying to figure out if I should put them inside my PC case or in a nice metal dual-bay USB enclosure.

What are the benefits of buying a 100$ dual bay usb-c enclosure for them rather than sticking them inside my case? I do like the option of slapping on some of my older drives periodially and backup data onto them, without opening the PC, before returning them back to an offsite-closet.

I use this drive as a TV server.

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
USB can lose connectivity sporadically, causing data loss. Usually not an issue, but if you are going to connect these huge drives and fill them with media, then the more reliable internal interface is the way to go. ESPECIALLY for a RAID setup.
 
You have to have one of the proper USB enclosures with RAID support on the enclosure. I think Sabrent made them. When Seagate launched their expansion series there was not too much time before the drives with the enclosure were cheaper across the stack because they had a high failure rate. Of course if you are a TPU user you knew that once you cracked the egg open there was a SATA HDD inside that worked perfectly from your MB SATA port.
 
Why not NAS?

Local network should offer a few positives over having them gyrating away inside your PC. Latency and isolation prime among them.

Ease of access alone might be worth the expenditure. 2x18TB HDD aren't extra super cheap to start with.
 
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