On 2010-05-31 Dan Martin wrote:
I am assuming that the drives will run quietly and cool in toasters, and that my cat won't chew the cables.
I wouldn't do it for a few reasons:
1. If they are 3.5 external they will require their own power bricks, and that's way less energy efficient than using a good internal APFC power supply. If they are 2.5 they will probably draw power from the bus, which would be ok. But 2.5 you have to make sure you get >= 7200 rpm to get good performance.
2. Most external drives and enclosures are not cooled adequately and when they are, their tiny little fans die all the time. If it's 2.5 you're going for, it's not as big a deal, but 3.5 will require normal cooling which is just plain hard to do in small (single drive) enclosures.
3. Things will bump the enclosure and your drives won't live as long.
4. Cable clutter.