Macally PHR-100AF FireWire External Enclosure (IEEE 1394a) Review

The rubber mounts in the PHR-100 reduce noise and vibration and provide shock protection. The external power supply would be easy to replace and keeps its heat out of the enclosure.

It concerned me that the enclosure has no fan. I taped a thermometer probe to the metal cover of my Hitachi drive before closing the Macally box. As I copied 250,000 files, the temperature rose to 43 C. Idling, the drive rose to about the same temperature. Hitachi says this drive uses 4.9 W idling, so any drive that idled at about 5 watts would probably have a maximum temperature about 20 C above room temperature in this enclosure.

Last year's Google study found that drives that averaged 36 - 46 C had a failure rate of only 1%, while the rate at 20 C was 8%. In other words, if the enclosure had a fan my drive would be more likely to fail.

Shock mounts, good operating temperature, external power supply, quiet operation: I like it! The PHR-100AF works as a boot drive for my Mac.

Buy it here now!