Macally GS350SUAB Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD

by Macally

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9 x 2.5 inches ; 2.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001J4R7U2
• Item model number: GS350SUAB
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,455 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004

Product Description

Macally GS350SUAB Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD. Supports both IEEE 1394B FireWire 800Mbps & IEEE 1394A FireWire 400Mbps connection.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Really nice enclosure, really weak PSU, June 24, 2009

By 

Z. Komon (Santa Barbara, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Macally GS350SUAB Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD (Personal Computers)

Out of the box, the enclosure looks great, easy to install a HD, but the weakness is the power supply. It ships with a 2A supply which is barely enough for todays drives. The result is the drive stops working after a while and you need to power-cycle the enclosure to get ti working again. This generally results in an OS error about disconnecting the device improperly and potential data loss. This was partially avoided by turning off the option in the OS to spin down hard disks when possible. However, after a few days of use it still failed to function. And you can tell the drive is not spinning when this happens.

There is a solution though! The Kinamax AD-LCD12 LCD Monitors 12V 6A 72W AC Adapter Power Supply can be used instead of the included PSU. This gives 6A to the enclosure. I haven't had a problem since. So 4 to 4.5 stars for the enclosure itself, 1 star for the included PSU. You shouldn't have to buy one separate, Macally.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beauty'n B-standard, October 19, 2009

By 

Master Chief "BlueStitch" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Macally GS350SUAB Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD (Personal Computers)

One of the best looking external HDD enclosure. Period, NOT (sorry..^^). Specification-wise, this enclosure is very good, except the fact that it does not provide a daisy chain of Firewire800, since it only has one FW800 port. I gave only one star for "Ease of Use" category, since this enclosure disconnects itself for some reason and the time-machine on my Mac Mini fails very often, which slows down my Mac OS . The only remedy for this was disconnecting/re-connecting power cable. Every time this happens, I also checked the integrity of the enclosed HDD, but the disc did not have any problem. I contacted the customer service (very prompt response from them, I liked that.), but they did not seem to know the reason for that. BTW, I also tried other power adapter with different current output, as other reviewer mentioned on the web, but I experienced nothing different. I just returned the enclosure for something else after one-month-usage, and now I don't have such cut-off problem. I still do not know the reason for the problem, but for now I would not recommend this product, till they find solution for disconnection. Since this enclosure does not have a fan, it can get very hot, if you do not use automatic HDD sleep. For a final word, did I mentioned that this enclosure looks gorgeous? For some, this is definitely the reason to buy this enclosure, though. I don't blame you. ^^

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars works, looks good, power button, only 1 FireWire 800 port., July 6, 2009

By 

Jared Ning (ok usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Macally GS350SUAB Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD (Personal Computers)

it's a very nice-looking design. it caught my eye because it looks like a mini mac pro. I had to have FireWire 800 and this was cheaper than others that also had FireWire. this is my 2nd macally enclosure and the other one I've had for a few years is still going strong. I also have a macally keyboard that has really nice clicking, but I digest....

cons: there is only 1 FireWire 800 port which means if I have to daisychain, this has to be the caboose. not a showstopper though. it comes with 2 kinds of stands: plastic extensions you screw on horizontally or a metal clip-like stand. I tried the clip stand first and did not like how easily the enclosure could slide in it. the stand's bottom is slide-proof from whatever it's on, but the enclosure itself slides pretty easily on the clip -- too easily in my opinion. I may try the 2 plastic extensions next even though they don't look as cool. the power adapter seems bigger than it needs to be, which means there can be some plug management issues at the power strip. but maybe that's a safety thing.

pros: it works, so that's a good start. installation was fairly simple for a guy that doesn't like manual labor. the power button is nice to have. pluggng and unplugging my laptop makes it necessary to eject the drives. and when I return to plug the drives back in, they don't always get mounted on my mac. so having a convenient power button is easier than unplugging the power cord like I do with my seagate free agent (Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Port External Hard Drive for Mac-Silver ST315005FJA105-RK not sure if this is exactly the one i have but it's darn close) which does not have a power button.

I've had this enclosure for less than a month, but I like it so far.