[Ledgem]

I know we've had some discussions about external HDs here, but I didn't feel like this really fit any of them; apologies for creating yet another thread of a similar topic.

I have two or three PATA (IDE) drives lying around that I'd like to put back into use, primarily for media tasks. In other words, these drives will be getting relatively active use, as opposed to drives used in storage applications. Knowing that Seagate will discontinue their PATA drives in the near future (it was either this year or 2009, can't remember) and that Western Digital may follow soon, buying an IDE enclosure would be to buy something that won't be of much use once my current IDE drives die.

Looking at Newegg, it seems that some enclosures are dual interface, SATA and IDE. Of course, these cost more than an IDE- or SATA-only enclosure. Combined with the fact that I prefer enclosures that have USB and Firewire, I'd be paying more for a dual-interface enclosure than a single-interface one, but this is a relatively minor qualm as I would be willing to get a USB-only enclosure if need be. If I go with a PATA-only one I can get it with firewire for relatively cheap; if I go with a dual-interface one I could use it with a SATA drive when the PATA drive fails in the future, which would theoretically justify the higher price as I wouldn't have to buy another enclosure.

What do you guys think about it - is it smarter to get something that can be reused with drives in the future? If you were going to buy an enclosure to use with a PATA drive you had lying around and knew you'd probably want to have another external once that drive died, would you go for a PATA-only enclosure or an enclosure that could handle both, even if it cost more?