Thermaltake A2396 Silver River 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 IDE/SATA Hard Drive Enclosure

1. it's difficult to swap hard drive with this enclosure.2. when "unplug" thru Windows, it won't spin down.3. Not just it won't spin down, it will "reconnect" again to Windows as if I just plug it back in.

This case works well for both SATA and IDE drives, has USB 2.0 and ESATA connection capabilities and a LED on the front. I haven't made up my mind about the LED yet as it's kind of cool (it flashes different colors when in use and is that classic "LED Blue" when not) but also seems a bit "seizure inducing" as it flashes so frenetically when the drive is spinning. Otherwise the case is fairly solid though I think the price should be closer to $25 than the $40 I paid.

this case is great I love it, no fans but no problems either, sata or ide with usb or sata connection open lots of doors for us.

I use three of these for back-up drives that are rotated weekly - and was initially quite happy with them.The problem:Drives are only held in the case by plastic mounts located on the front of the case. Empty space at the back of the case is designed to allow the drive to remain cool. Because I switch drives weekly, the plastic mounts failed after about 7 months and the drives slide backward in the case - making it very difficult to connect - and defeats the cooling feature.What it needs:Side mounting screws to hold the drive securly in place - metal to metal not plastic.I am replacing all three.

I'm using this for a demanding application - housing a drive for a DVR. The drive is running 24/7 and it's in a room without air conditioning. In Southern California. I was quite concerned about the enclosure's ability to dissipate the drives heat.After all, the case is fanless. It has no vents. And..., it works pretty well! The case is 8-10 degrees (f) above room temperature. And even a slight breeze quickly brings the case down to 4-6 degrees above room temperature. (Sometimes I direct a very low speed fan at the case and the sat box it's connected to)A benefit to the ventless, fanless design is the low noise level. I can barely hear the drive running.I've only used the case a few days so I can't speak of it's long term durability. If it breaks, I'll try to amend this review.The build quality seems high.I'm very clumsy when it comes to assembling things like this - everything was easy except for poking one wire into place. That got sorted out after a few attempts.The activity light is bright! Makes a good night light.I'm glad I spent an extra $10-15 on this compared to the really cheap enclosures that were on the shelf next to it - still, $35 is a lot for an aluminum box, a power supply and a simple circuit. So I can't give it more than 4 stars.---------- Update 10/10/2010 ---------Still working fine. Is able to keep the drive cool enough even on VERY hot days I was worried about. (with the help of that low speed fan* I mentioned on those VERY hot days).*a basic desk fan at the lowest setting. Anything else that would make a small air flow would work.

Pros: accepts SATA & IDE HDD, USB & eSATA connectivity, works with Linux, attractive design.Cons: cramped installation, poorly translated manual, no SATA I/II selectivity switch.This is an excellent enclosure for housing an old 3.5 inch desktop HDD as it accepts either SATA or IDE HDDs. The aluminum case uses a fanless, radiant design to dissipate heat. I put a WD Caviar Blue Edition HDD (a typical desktop HDD) in this case and it runs cool to the touch. I wouldn't put a high performance HDD in there as they tend to run hot. I'd get an enclosure with a fan for that.The enclosure is sleek and attractive. It has a logo on the front of the unit that lights up blue when the unit is on. This same logo turns red (really more of a pink) when the disk is being accessed (read/write). For some reason the access indicator only works when connected through USB. It stays a constant blue when connected through the eSATA port. Id prefer it work with eSATA as well since this HDD is real quite and you can't hear the disk access over the noise of my computer.I would use this case for a HDD you plan to install and leave in there. This is not a good candidate if you plan to swap out HDDs routinely. There are better enclosures for that. The case itself is cramped and provides little space during installation. The supplied internal cables (data & power for both SATA & IDE) do the job. The SATA data cable is thick and stiff. This made it more difficult than I liked to carefully attach it and slide it into the enclosure. It worked without a problem, but it made me nervous because I've heard the data connectors on SATA drives are fragile and easy to snap off. The mini motherboard on the rear of the enclosure also appears fragile, so I would be careful when attaching/removing cables from it. Like I said, it is fine for a single install but can potentially wear out quickly if you swap a lot of HDDs in & out. The HDD itself is mounted to the enclosure using the standard 4 screws supplied with the HDD.I run Linux and this enclosure works flawlessly with it. It is hot swappable with both USB and eSATA. This surprised me as I'm using a PCI card (Adaptec AUA-5020) that is only SATA I compatible. I thought the hot swap ability didn't come along until SATA II but it is working for me.This does bring up one problem I had with the drive/enclosure. After I first installed it, I couldn't get it to work with a SATA I port on the computer. This is because The enclosure and HDD are both SATA II while the port on the computer is only SATA I. Apparently SATA doesn't auto-adjust like USB 1.1/2.0 does. I had to open the enclosure again and set a jumper to set the HDD to SATA I mode. This is a problem if you have both SATA I & II computers. I would have preferred connecting the HDD jumper to a switch on the enclosure to enable SATA I/II. That doesn't sound like too much to ask for. After all, they already have a power switch when many enclosures don't. But really, I don't know of any enclosure that offers this option. You are not going to get a boost in speed from a single HDD by running it as SATA II versus SATA I, so you might as well set the jumper during installation and connect to all your computers this way.Overall it is a versatile enclosure and I would recommend it to any one using it the way I described above.

I just replaced my Windows PC with a MacBook and bought this to move data from my two internal hard drives to my new laptop. I swapped the two drives several times and now use them as back-ups. The drives swap easily and work flawlessly. I chose the Silver River because it works with IDE and sata drives. The enclosure and cables are of good quality and the thing should last with care.