Help: Picking the right drive dock

[acp1821]

I need some help picking the right drive dock. I've collected several hard drives over the years (all from laptops) and I figured I'd use what I have before buying more external storage. My problem is most drive docks are exclusively SATA and if I'm not mistaken HDDs from laptops are IDE. I've found several IDE to SATA converters but I would prefer to purchase a product that does not require the aforementioned converter. Also the drive dock would need to be compatible with the 2.5" as well as the 3.5". I'm not looking for anything extravagant, so any combination of a one or two port/USB 2.0 or 3.0 is acceptable. I'm willing to spend in the neighborhood of 100 dollars but if possible would prefer to keep it around 50-60.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I'm new to all this so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Actually, since ~2007, laptops had SATA drives. Some docks are made for 2.5" and 3.5", like the Thermaltake BlacX.

If you do not need to hot swap it, you can just use a simple enclosure, where you can take it apart and just stick the drives in whenever you want. Don't use the outer casing.

Do make sure it is compatible with 2.5 and 3.5 IDE drives.