Interest Check: External Hard-drive enclosures

The_Conductor

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this or not- Mod feel free to move if you think it would be more appropriate elsewhere. I'm thinking of ordering a few 2.5" and 3.5" USB 2.0 external hard-drive enclosures from China and was wondering if anyone is interested in going in with me on them.

While the drives are cheap enough- what totally murders is the shipping (and I am making an assumption that duty will not have to be paid either......)

Sort of prices all-in would be:

2.5" enclosure Euro 17-23
3.5" enclosure Euro 28-38

(differing prices depend on how badly the shipping would work out- EMS looks terrible, DHL or another courier would probably be cheaper).

The 2.5" ones weigh about 425 grammes including all packaging and the 3.5" ones weigh about 1.1kg including packaging (which murders the shipping costs).....

Drives are Sony Vaio and have "Vaio" etched on them. They're in a variety of frosted aluminium colours. I'll try to get pictures of them. I've checked with Sony and they appear to be genuine, but not for sale in Europe (they are for the Japanese market).

So- this is sort of an interest check. Moderator- feel free to move this if it is inappropriate here.

galwaydude18

any pics?

PowerHouseDan

Yeah would like to see some pics but am interested
they ide or sata?

daveyjoe

Ditto the two comments above.

shanethemofo

ditto

The_Conductor

Heres two pictures.
Basically you get the drive with a driver CD, a USB cable and in the case of the 3.5" enclosure a power supply (the 2.5" enclosure does not a powersupply).

The 2.5" enclosures are really cute actually..... (the 3.5" looks a bit functional in my opinion?)

Shane

PowerHouseDan

Bought one of them last year from someone on boards you sure there song?They are good cases mine broke because it fell but never let me down....

JackKelly

i'd be interested too depending on the end price.

Lawdie

Ye same here (price) but would take two (maybe three)

cosgrove80

TimAy wrote:

i'd be interested too depending on the end price.

Same here

mik_da_man

I'd grab one of the 3.5" ones

Cheers
Mik

Endurance Man

Bit confused, why would you go through all that trouble for such a small saving .

monkeyfudge

Endurance Man wrote:

Bit confused, why would you go through all that trouble for such a small saving .

Yep, this is only a couple of euro cheaper than some of the enclousures on komplett... the postage would work out a lot cheaper with komplett though.

The_Conductor

With shipping via DHL from China it works out at
Euro 20 for the 2.5" enclosures and
Euro 30 for the 3.5" enclosures.

Yes, its only a few Euro cheaper than Komplett (but providing your meeting up to collect- it will be a saving nonetheless). The enclosures are not that expensive anyway- so a 5 Euro saving on the 2.5" enclosure means the Komplett one is 25% more expensive than this one- and a 6 Euro saving on the 3.5" one is a 20% saving (more if you factor in that shipping is included in the above, but additional from Komplett). Its not a massive saving- but they are not expensive purchases. If you want a large saving try buying a large LCD or something- but you would still be doing well to get 20% off the Irish price. It is a saving- just not a massive one. If I could hire a whole container I'm sure the shipping per unit would work out at next to nothing. Shipping costs from China work out at greater than the purchase costs of the units themselves when only buying a few as per above.....

daveyjoe

I don't want to hi-jack the thread or anything but if people search on ebay for the very same ones as offered then they'll be able to get them for half nothing.

I'm pretty sure that these 'Vaio' hard drive enclosures are not made by and have no affiliation with Sony.

The_Conductor

daveyjoe wrote:

I don't want to hi-jack the thread or anything but if people search on ebay for the very same ones as offered then they'll be able to get them for half nothing.

I'm pretty sure that these 'Vaio' hard drive enclosures are not made by and have no affiliation with Sony.

The drives I am trying to buy are directly from a factory outlet in China- shipped by DHL (order not put in yet, as I am having difficulty getting them to understand me by e-mail).

I can see a few Vaio 2.5" enclosures on ebay- yes, for £10 incl. shipping (15-16 Euro). The largest component of the price of the drives I was (not sure if I should order them now) getting is shipping (the enclosures themselves worked out at around 9 Euro and the shipping almost 10- total price of a smidgen shy of 19 Euro, and even at that there was/is the possibility that I could get yanked by excise and duty).

I did *not* see any 3.5" enclosures- I would be grateful if you could supply a link for them if you have it.

If 3.5" enclosures are available at a similar discount- it may be that a gang of us here might order a bunch together and try to save on shipping (if they are available at a similar discount that is).

Do post a link if you have one.

Shane

The_Conductor

Ok order cancelled.

Did see something on ebay while I was looking- its an IDE to USB 2.0 adaptor- a raw adaptor board with a power supply. Think it was only a few dollars (as usual its shipping that murders it). Anyone any link to anywhere to get them?

Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Dual-USB-2-0-to-IDE-ATA-ATAPI-Adaptor-Adapter-Cable_W0QQitemZ5877517305QQcategoryZ41994QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Cheers,

Shane

MorningStar

smccarrick wrote:

Yes, its only a few Euro cheaper than Komplett (but providing your meeting up to collect- it will be a saving nonetheless). The enclosures are not that expensive anyway- so a 5 Euro saving on the 2.5" enclosure means the Komplett one is 25% more expensive than this one- and a 6 Euro saving on the 3.5" one is a 20% saving (more if you factor in that shipping is included in the above, but additional from Komplett). ..

Can I just point out Irish tax is 21% so the saving is really tax avoidence but I actually think it evasion in reality. Didn't they change the import limit?

The_Conductor

:mad: Order shipped this AM and they are refusing to cancel and refund. Thats nice of them- they don't reply to e-mails for 4 days, until you send them one cancelling- and suddenly its tough luck, we shipped it 10 minutes ago....... It is apparently enroute by UPS with a tracking number of M1641978868

If people are still interested, well and good- if not, well I guess I'll find some way of getting rid of them. 12 of the 3.5" and 5 of the 2.5" were what I ordered. If still interested please indicate here- if not, well, c'est la vie, don't worry.

Shane

Simon201

smccarrick wrote:

Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Dual-USB-2-0-to-IDE-ATA-ATAPI-Adaptor-Adapter-Cable_W0QQitemZ5877517305QQcategoryZ41994QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This looks like a handy thingy although for only €10 more you can buy one from Peats (and take it back easily if it goes wrong!)

TempestSabre

I might be interested in a 2.5 one. What colour are they?

dawballz

Just bought a 3.5" one off ebay the other day.. You were literally about 2 hours too late..

The_Conductor

You live, you learn.....
What I think I might do is see what extra disks I have floating around here (I know I have a few 80Gb ones) and package them with some of the enclosures as a whole package- might make more sense at this stage....

Anyhow- 12 * 3.5" and 5 * 2.5" en route- prob here Mon or Tuesday.

Shane