Thinkpads Forum

I'm looking for a USB HD enclosure that will support a 1TB 3.5"drive, SATA internal interface.

VanTec has them listed on their website, the the NST-360SU models, http://www.vantecusa.com/p_nst360su.html

But when I look at these on NewEgg, they are spec'ed as only supporting 500G and 750GB

Supports Up to 750GB Hard Drives
Supports Up to 500GB Hard Drives

The same drive is spec at 750 GB on ZipZoomFly

Why the discrepancy, or can someone refer another USB enclosure that meets my specs?

It is my strong (and hopeful) suspicion that these are simply stated to "support" the largest drive out at the time of release of the enclosure/update of its specifications. That's simply what was tested. I can't think of a reason why a SATA->USB chip would support a 750 GB and not a 1 TB one - the drives are not fundamentally different.

I would also appreciate an answer if someone knows this kind of stuff well, as opposed to my attempted common-sense reasoning.

I have a Seagate 1TB SATA drive in an Antec MX-1 enclosure, and HIGHLY recommend the MX-1!

Cheers,

Bill

qviri wrote:the drives are not fundamentally different.

Never drives often have slightly different interface specs, such as Seagate introducing their 7200.11 interface on their newer larger drives. While not fundamentally different, this level of change does sometimes have an real impact on the performance of the enclosure electronics with such drives.

Cheers,

Bill

bill bolton wrote:I have a Seagate 1TB SATA drive in an Antec MX-1 enclosure, and HIGHLY recommend the MX-1!

Cheers,

Bill

Interesting. I see the same scenario with the MX-1, on NewEgg's site it's spec says 750GB, on the Antec site it says 1TB.