Sweet! They're on sale again. I need to stock up (again).

The box says it supports up to 400GB HDs, but has anyone tested these with 500GB HDs? Hopefully they should work.

Just an FYI.

I don't want to be the "Theez guyz SUXX!!1!" guy, but I bought the third item listed about 6 months ago and it just died on me. It seems to be a power supply issue as I have tested with several drives and none of them (ide or sata) will spin up, but they sound like they are trying...

Not a big deal- these things happen. Their support, however, is non existent. The number on the product booklet is incorrect. The voicemail there tells you to call another number- the same number listed on the website. That number has led to an unreturned service voice mail, and then on subsequent calls, a private residence. An email sent to tech support has gone without reply for over a week now.

Before that, it was a nice enclosure, so take this as you like.

I had one of the USB-PATA 3.5" Mad Dog enclosures, and would not recommend them. The body is a piece of extruded aluminum, and there is not much clearance between the circuit board and the case. Mine shorted out while in use, fried the drive, and it arced so much it caused a big pit in the aluminum. Luckily it did not fry the computer it was attached to or burn down the house. It smelled really bad though.

josephbphillips said:Just an FYI.

I don't want to be the "Theez guyz SUXX!!1!" guy, but I bought the third item listed about 6 months ago and it just died on me. It seems to be a power supply issue as I have tested with several drives and none of them (ide or sata) will spin up, but they sound like they are trying...

Not a big deal- these things happen. Their support, however, is non existent. The number on the product booklet is incorrect. The voicemail there tells you to call another number- the same number listed on the website. That number has led to an unreturned service voice mail, and then on subsequent calls, a private residence. An email sent to tech support has gone without reply for over a week now.

Before that, it was a nice enclosure, so take this as you like.

Mad Dog tech support is the worst. I had a power supply go out on me. After a lengthy run around I finally got an RMA and shipped the enclosure and power supply back. After about a months time the enclosure returned without a power supply. I've had numerous conversations with the company that Mad Dog support is farmed out to and the reason they can't issue a power supply lies with Mad Dog. And the rest is just to stupid to try and explain. At the end of the day I have an enclosure with a 2 year warranty I can't use because I have no power supply. This has been going on for over 6 months. Email from them:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Power Brick
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:28:10 -0800
From: Brian Green <brian.green@comtekcomsys.com>
To: Matt Leschner <matt.leschner@comtekcomsys.com>

Matt,
Don't forgot to ask Karen about sarah. She was told by
Phillip to send all of her unit in for a failed power brick. She sent
it all in, and of course, since we don't send cables back, only recieve
the unit itself. Be sure to see if there are any issues with sending
her the brick, as we have recieved one from her.

Brian Green

I will never buy another Mad Dog product

I have several of these in use, and I don't think that they are such poor quality. They are aluminum, designed to dissapate heat. They use a good chipset (Cypress). Perhaps the fact that the power supplies are supplied by PowMax might have something to do with them failing. I haven't had such a failure yet, thankfully.

It's inexcusable that MadDog can't issue an RMA and replace the power brick though. If they refuse, I would contact the state's AG, with the info about the product, the warranty, and that they aren't living up to their warranty.

omniviper said:ToxicMussels said:Been scared of Mad Dog labeled products myself.
In my whole lifetime of hot deals, the only rebate I ever had refused was for a DVD Drive from Mad Dog.

So I stay away from their products.

i bought that DVD writer deal from before. thank God for rebadged products. It was a nec 2500

That's exactly why I bought that drive from Mad Dog.
Got a rebadged NEC 2500A flashable to dual layer that I still use to this date!

Just wish I had received my $50 MIR though.

The "clearance" prices are something of a joke compared to the previous AR prices...

I've always kinda liked maddog stuff. I had a DVD burner way back, maybe 4 years ago or so, never had a problem with it (In fact, it may be the one in my current machine... can't remember now). I've also had quite a few HD enclosures (2 PATA, 1 2.5 PATA, 1 SATA), with no problems. I like the cases since they're pretty solid aluminum, nicely shaped, and seem durable. The power supplies are quite big for the 3.5 drives.

One possibly good thing is that the 2.5 version doesn't have a power supply, only a 2-headed USB plug. Since most of the complaints are about failing power supplies, it's possible the 2.5 could be more reliable without that part.

However, now I have to decide if I want to support a company that obviously is screwing over their customers.

I picked up the 2.5" enclosure because I wanted to connect a new 160gb hard drive and clone my 60gb one to it. It got the job done, but yes, it did need the extra juice. It didn't run too warm, but then again, I had a cooling pad running underneath it. Now I'm bit afraid to put my one drive in it now, although odds are that I'm not going to use it much. Maybe backups and odd jobs only.
Up until yesterday, I'd been looking into other ones with better build quality. A friend recommended a Nexstar SX, which supposedly was pretty good about not needing a second usb port for power. It's a bit more expensive, averaged about $25 from various dealers. If anyone has other input, I'd like to hear it.