This is not a direct answer to your question. Just like to share for discussion. I did a search on froogle for US prices and find prices range from $128 to $188 now. This is probably the typical sign of a new product just made available to the market. It should stablize after a little while when dem...

Is it possible to check the temp in external drives using smart? I havn't succeded with my barracude IV in a noname usb-case. Are ther external cases with temperature monitoring? This is getting a little off topic but quite interesting. In order for SMART data to be captured, the controller has to ...

I have both drives. My subjective impression is that the BenQ drive is slightly quieter when writing DVDs. Not much but noticeable. They produce about the same level of noise when reading discs.

I have two of this for over a half year now. They are quiet in the first place. The enclosure is warm to touch when the unit is on. However, I have never checked the temperatures of my hard drives. (May be I should check it!) They have an USB only version . Take a look. You can download the installa...

You can try Speedfan. It does monitor SCSI HDD that supports SMART. Your Seagate 15.3K and Adaptec 29160 should both be SMART capable.

Thanks for the review. It provides a lot of information about the case. This seems to be one nice case indeed. I am in the need of a mid tower case but I can hold out to wait for the the case to be available so I can take a look at the real case myself.

This is definitely a very interesting case to me. I have been looking for a silent case (or one that can be made silent) that is: - about 16-17" tall (about Sonata height) - two external 5.25" bay - one external 3.5" bay - no front door - front firewire/USB/audio - drive cage pointing towards back -...