Anyone with personal experience with one of these? I'm just trying to decide what brand to buy. It needs to handle 2.5" and 3.5", and it would be nice (but not essential) if it didn't use those sleeves (just more parts to misplace).

Thanks.

I use one that looks like this (image below).



I got an eSATA/USB version and use eSATA, never had any problems with it. Pretty sturdy construction. I've seen it sold under different brands.

I've have two versions of Thermaltake's Blacx docks, which are a variant of the one Vicotnik posted. I have both the USB 2.0/eSata and a USB 3.0 version and both work very well. Handles 2.5" and 3.5" drives without issue and no sleeves.

I have good experience with Blacx as well as Vantec.

I keep my data on them. It makes some noise I guess.... but I like the feedback of hearing my drive working when I go get a file or save a file.

I've used a couple of cheap no-name USB docking bays, and they were all very useful until they broke down. Last time I gave up on returning them and tried a simpler adapter cable instead. Now I'm using a USB 3.0 adapter cable with two SATA-ports, and am having less problems with noise since it's easy to put something together with cardboard and foam that doesn't amplify vibrations like the docks tend to do. Just my experience.
There are also this type of adapter with SATA on one side and IDE/PATA on the other, in case you find yourself handling old drives now and then.

Buy a USB 3.0 dock, its cheap and fast, i have an Akasa Dock, its very nice.

I just got a ThermalTake BlackX Dual dock a couple of weeks ago and it was not an easy plug and play setup for me. I bought a USB 3 version and it's working but it was no piece of cake. My new WD30 EZRX 3 TB was only recognized for 2TB in Win 7 and I had to change it to a GPT disk to use the 3 TB. It took hours of research for me to do this since I had no warning up front and the instructions that came with the unit stink. I also have an older WD 1.5 TB in the dock was was recognized immediately . Now having said all this sometimes the damn dock doesn't boot if you touch the on off button ! The flashing R/W blue light is dumb and I covered it up with black tape. The unit comes with rubber sleeves to insert your drive into to dampen the noise but only one for a 2.5 in and the other for a 3.5 in drive . If you have 2 , 3.5 in drive you need to buy another rubber sleeve (5 bucks for the sleeve and 18 for the shipping) . When it's all said and done , it works and is silent; but shit I am 76 years old and it could have been easier!

This isn't the fault of the BlackX, any dock or even internal connection would have this problem. Standard MBR partitions cannot start or end past 2TB. You must use GPT partitions on disks larger than 2TB if you want to use the space past 2TB.

USB/eSata docks only provide block access to disks. They do not know or care about how you setup your partitions.

[/quote]This isn't the fault of the BlackX, any dock or even internal connection would have this problem. Standard MBR partitions cannot start or end past 2TB. You must use GPT partitions on disks larger than 2TB if you want to use the space past 2TB. [/quote]
I never said it was the fault of the BlackX ; only that the instructions were extremely poor and did not mention a word about what to do when you use a disk larger than 2TB. Nothing even mentioned on the sellers web site; only that the dock can use disks up up 3TB. Themaltake makes very nice products but they need to improve instructions. I also have a Thermaltake HTPC case which took me forever to set up. Now if I was 20 years old I probably would not have even looked at instructions. Everything at 20 is intuitive

I just picked up a dual HDD dock - "SATA quick clone dock" from Manhattan. Its got a USB3 interface with an external plugpack.

The construction felt pretty solid (I've seen some pretty flimsy docks / enclosures). The plugpack is rated at 12V 4A, so it can handle motor current surges. The plugpack felt heavy too, which I take as a proxy for quality.

The only issue I had was that I had to format the drive with a direct SATA connection to a computer first. The dock wouldn't recognise it otherwise.