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Thread: SATA caddy size limits

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    SATA caddy size limits

    I've been looking at buying an external drive case for a spare drive that I have and have noticed that a lot of caddies state a maximum size for the hard drive you can put in them.

    I don't understand why there's a limit if I can put any size drive internally without issue. Can I just ignore this limitation or does it only apply under certain limitations? It's really limiting the choice of caddies I can buy if these figures are accurate.

    Can anyone make sense of this for me?

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    Re: SATA caddy size limits

    Do you mean size or capasity?

    If you get an external enclosure for a 2.5" hard drive (laptop sized) then there's no way you could fit a 3.5" hard drive (pc sized) in there as it's just too big.

    If you mean a capasity limit, I didn't know of any encloser that had one. they do have transfur speed limits you're not getting that mixed up are you?
    I could forsee an enclosure having a capasity limit which would probably be down to the sata/pata to usb controller used by the enclosure.

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    Re: SATA caddy size limits

    TBH I think they put a limit on them due to how hot certain drives can get. In the past I've always used a metal caddy instead of the cheaper plastics as I feel it provides better cooling. Also try to get one with an inbuilt fan.

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    Re: SATA caddy size limits

    I meant capacity, I should have specified.

    This one states a limit of 1TB.
    This one states a limit of 500GB.
    Another 1TB.

    It doesn't seem to have any relevance on price. There are cheap and expensive models that don't have limits or explicitly state 'unlimited' capacity.

    I'd just like to know if it's a limit I can ignore or if it's hardcoded into the device somehow. I have one of those green Samsung drives that's supposed to run slower and quieter but it's 1.5TB which limits my case selection quite a lot. If it's just because of heat dissipation it gives me a bit more choice.

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