External drive enclosure - fan vs fanless

[sync]

I just bought an external drive enclosure. I got one that does a good job of keeping the drive cool. I discovered that it does this by using a really noisy fan.

So now I'm looking for a quieter enclosure. Are fanless enclosures reliable?

 

[TimOBrien]

That's why I bought my Glyph firewire drive (GT050). DEAD SILENT, rack-mounted and worth the few extra bucks over a DIY iffy solution.

 

[Pinky]

I unplugged the fan in my external drive. Like you, it was too noisey. I also don't think it does a heck of a lot of good, being that it only pushes a few cfm.

 

[sync]

The case on mine never gets warm, so I think the fan actually does a really good job. But it is too darn loud.

I just got a NAS device and the fan is a lot quieter. But the case does get quite warm.