There's no shortage of 3.5in external hard drive enclosures to choose from, but there are relatively very few 2.5in models.

Thankfully there's now one more to add to the list, the Vanguard from Enermax .

The smart-looking aluminium case features power and activity LEDs, while heat is dissipated via the small heatsinks attached to either side of the chassis.

The effectiveness of these heatsinks is improved thanks to the included thermal-conductive rubber pads that stick on the top and bottom of the drive.

Inserting and removing the drive isn't a problem, but you have to be very careful not to lose the extra-small screws (a similarly small scredriver is also included).

Using a bridge, the Vanguard converts your hard drive's IDE interface into a notebook-friendly USB2 version.

But as more and more 2.5in serial ATA (Sata) drives start to appear, we're hoping Enermax will release a Sata version of the Vanguard before too long.

As notebook drives drop in price they become an ideal pocket-sized portable storage device and the Vanguard is an ideal enclosure for them.

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