Hey everyone, I was thinking of picking up an external HD. I wanted to know if you guys had any suggestions. Probably around 160GB. Iv looked at the maxtor and seagate as well as the LaCie, but have decided against the LaCie due to the 2MB buffer. Anyways any suggestions are welcome Thanks for your time.

*Bump*
Iv also looked at G-Technology their drives look cool.
Here are some links:

G-Tech:
http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE.cfm
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...154-704&depa=0
(really has an 8MB buffer, but newegg mesed up)

Maxtor:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...144-225&depa=0
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=100738

Seagate:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...154-402&depa=0


Anyways suggestions are appreciated

Best suggestion for me to make is for you to go the same route I did . . . Save the money you'd spend on buying a 'premade' external, and buy a $30 - $45 external enclosure, (Even cheaper on E-bay) and then buy a drive of your choice . . . You'll save about $50 to $100 depending on what kinda finds you make, and what kinda drive you buy . . .

As far as branding, myself, I'm a Maxtor man, but that's because I've never had one die on me . . . but other's will tell you nothing but horror stories . . .

My $.02.

Do what Drougnor said.

External enclosures on sale are around $20. 160GB drives on sale are around $50. Total for a 160GB setup, around $80 including tax. That's what my 160GB setup cost me...and it looks better than any truly external hard drive IMO.

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Yes get the do-it-yourself kit and buy the drive of your choice.

Just make sure it has enough space around to cool off.

My first was a maxtor and died. It took me almost 10 min to find the beep beep beep
untill the maxtor was found smothered to death by news pappers someone had
carelesly droped on my desk.

Yeah I was also thinking along those same lines. Ok, so what is a good hard drive enclosure? Preferably something that offers some semblance of cooling. For example, the G-Tech has passive cooling...or even active cooling lol. However if something works well then i'm open to all suggestions

Once again, I suggest just browsing Ebay a little bit . . . no major brand names that yer gonna find specifically (Well, I didn't, anyway . . . My search string was 3.5 ide enclosure), but you'll find more than a few that either have a small fan in the back, or, as in the case of mine, are all aluminum construction, so as long as they are out in the open, there's no worry of overheating. Tho, I suppose you could mod an 80mm fan to blow across the enclosure while running off the same power supply . . .

The cooling issue depends partly on how hard you work the drive. As USB drives to me are essentially accessory/portable storage, they don't get that prolonged a workout on my systems.

But anyway, bulding your own makes the most sense. Most of those expensive ones you buy are just going to be a standard IDE inside an enclosure like you'd be buying anyway. And this way it won't give you hell for changing the drives later on. Most of the 5.25" enclosures tend to be really versatile letting you use hard drives or optical drives, and the extra space could help in cooling.

Thanks
Anyways i'm going to try to avoid ebay when i can...so can anyone link me to a decent hard drive enclosure? I read Tomshardware review of 15 enclosures and i seriously came out more confused lol. Their benchmark results etc differed from their later charts...that or i cant read em

Byteccusa make alot of products. I paid like $23.00 at a computers show. I got one of the USB 2.0 ones and it works great. I got one that is black and look like this >>>

3.5" HDD External Enclosure - Black



Here is all the info on this mobile storage device.

The new ME-720 with Anti-Shock design makes 3.5" hard disk shock resistant and let it be a mobile storage device.

The enclosure with Screwless design makes it utterly user-friendly and very easy to install.

The enclosure with 30% higher power density makes its size small.

Features:

• Fitting for 3.5" HDD/MO/ZIP/Jazz/LS-120
• Work with both PC and Mac
• Plug and Play , Hot-swappable connection
• Support up to 300GB "IDE" HDD
• oxford 911 chipset(FIREWIRE)
• Dimension (L x W x H) : 213 x 128 x 38mm
• With 30Watt External Power Supply
• AC input : 100 - 240V
• DC output : +5V 1.5A / +12V 1.8A

Hardware Requirements:

• Pentium 266 Mhz or higher
• 64MB RMA or higher
• CD-ROM drive
• USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 host ports (for USB version)
  Firewire ports (for Firewire version)

Operating System Support:

USB 2.0	Firewire(IEEE 1394)
USB 2.0 : Windows XP/2000/ME Windows 98SE (USB2.0 driver installed) Mac OS 8.6 or above	Windows XP/2000/ME/98SE Mac OS 8.6 or above

Package Contents:

• Driver Disk for Windows 98/ME (No Driver necessary for Win 2000/XP, MAC)

IDE to USB 2.0

3 feet A-male to B-male USB cable
AC adapter and Power cord cable
CD-ROM with drive setup software for 98/ME
Quick Install guide

LINKY

I wouldn't take a Maxtor because they die very fast
I'd take a seagate and if you'd look at some benchmarks the seagate is 1 or 2 mS faster than a Maxtor
I got a seagate 7200.7 80gig and its nice and quiet.

*grins* As I said before, my experience with Maxtor's been nothing but good, but others will tell you differently.

My best suggestion for brand is to read. Find all the articles you can doing comparisons and read your eyes out . . . Get as many different points of view on each of the major brands and make a decision based on any patterns you seem to find . . . Sometimes you'll find a winner right off, other times you'll get that lemon that'll sour on the whole brand.

I'd probably just as quickly buy Western Digital or Seagate if the price was right, but for my personal usage, Maxtor's have been nothing but gold . . .

*shrugs* To each his own, I guess.

Underdog, just curious, what exactly do you mean by them dying 'very fast'? I've had my twin 40s for at least 4 years, maybe longer, and they are going strong, as are my twin 80's which are two years as of this spring.

As I said, simply curious.

Eh, personally i think that Western Digital drives are fairly loud. I have had 2 120 GB Caviars and have noticed significant noise levels in comparison to other drives
I have heard many things about maxtor....a lot of them bad. However I wont be one to pass them up if they have potential.
I was looking into Seagate or Hitachi for the HD. Seeing as I'm looking for the enclosure right now, that is my first priority lol. The drive can always be picked up later.

Has anyone had experience with the Rosewill enclosures? I know that the USB only has a Genesys 811 chipset for USB 2.0 and have heard about bad experiences with that. They have a USB/Firewire version with Oxford 911 for firewire and Cypress AT2 for USB 2.0
Otherwise i'm looking at the Bytecc enclosures right now. Any help is appreciated.

The Rosewill enclosures
http://www.rosewill.com/product/prod...x?productId=80
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16817173003

Quote: Originally Posted by Bane Eh, personally i think that Western Digital drives are fairly loud. I have had 2 120 GB Caviars and have noticed significant noise levels in comparison to other drives I have heard many things about maxtor....a lot of them bad. However I wont be one to pass them up if they have potential. I was looking into Seagate or Hitachi for the HD. Seeing as I'm looking for the enclosure right now, that is my first priority lol. The drive can always be picked up later. Has anyone had experience with the Rosewill enclosures? I know that the USB only has a Genesys 811 chipset for USB 2.0 and have heard about bad experiences with that. They have a USB/Firewire version with Oxford 911 for firewire and Cypress AT2 for USB 2.0 Otherwise i'm looking at the Bytecc enclosures right now. Any help is appreciated. The Rosewill enclosures http://www.rosewill.com/product/prod...x?productId=80 http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16817173003

I own the bytecc is works great and cheap and good quality up to 300 gigs.