I am in the market for an external hard drive, doesn't need to be more than 200 GB, but I would like to know what to look out for, I know LaCie has made a big name for themselves, and I'm almost positive I should be looking for an 8MB cache. What are some other things I should look around for before I make my final decision? By the way, I will be making a purchase very shortly so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

You can save yourself some money buy buying a HD enclosure and using an existing spare HD if you have one.

If you don't have an old HD, then the 30-50 you save can be put towards the purchase of a better HD.

8MB cache and 7200RPM is probably the main criteria, beyond that, the size in MB is going to based on your budget.

This link may be of some help, it's a bit old, but the basic info should still hold up, I did not realy dig that deep into it, but it's a place to start.

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/printthread.php?t=37691

i would personally suggest this combo..it never fails me and works pretty fast only one question
Do you have usb 2.0? if you do not...then i suggest buying a pci usb 2.0 card because it would be painfully slow with usb 1.0 or 1.1
i would personally go for SATA because in a new build you can always add it in..if u feel the same way go for this combo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136003
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144423
with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145660

too bad the enclosure is out of stock but u can go IDE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144408
with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145656
i have used this enclosure and it works like a charm....most people who have it like it from the reviews i see on newegg...and i love western digital.. the only difficult thing is getting the thing initially up and running via windows xp...u have to mount the harddrive...but im sure when you get it u can bump this thread and you'll get a response on how to do it... i think u have to
right click my comp
manage
storage
disk management
and then you mount it and format it