Another, another "Help me decide" thread - External Hard Drive

[db2450]

I am looking to get an external hard drive for my videos, music, and photos so I can get them to my PS3 without having to buy a 250 gig laptop hard drive I don't want to go to far above $100, parents are paying...

I am mainly looking at this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1164157591271
Its a Seagate - FreeAgent 250GB for $79.99, I can just go to my local Best Buy and pick it up on the same day I order to.

I was also looking at this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...513635-8022232
Its a Cavalry CAUE37250 250GB for $69.99 (Free shipping)

Another one that is pretty much the same except the company is this: http://www.amazon.com/SimpleTech-Sim.../dp/B0001DYUJ8
Its a SimpleTech SimpleDrive 250 GB for $69.99 (free shipping)

This is my main question, there is also: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...4221343&sr=1-7
Its a Western Digital WDG1U3200 320GB for $104.80 (free shipping)

Do you guys think it is worth the extra $24-$34 for the extra space? I really only need about 65GB right now. I will probably start getting more HD content soon though. I am getting an antenna for my HD-TV tuner and will be recording shows like The Office in HD.
Also, which company would you recommend from the top 3?

[Prost264]

Extra space is always good, you'll most likely want/need it later on.

FreeAgent HDDs seem to get good reviews, but I honestly don't know about the other brands.

[db2450]

I also forgot to add, I have seen some drives with both USB 2.0 and Firewire 800. Isn't the IEEE 1394 port on my computer the same thing as Firewire 800 port? and would I see any major gains in performance? I do have to have USB though, my PS3 doesnt have Firewire at all.

[eddysdaman]

I'd go with the Seagate.

Biggest brand there, they never seem to have problems. And you won't notice that you're down that 70gb from the WD for those extra few bucks unless you're into hardcore porn or something. It is hard to fill that amount of space.

[db2450]

Ya thats what I was thinking to, now I have to go convince my parents to take me to Best Buy and buy it for me .
They already said yes to DVD-RW, so I will just use this instead.

[Zuhaib]

Seagate hands down. I have used other HD with many headaches. I just returned an new WD as it f'ed up my NAS. I had had 3 deskstars die on me. But all the Seagate drives i have used still run and I like them a lot.
Also IEEE 1394 != Firewire 800. It just means a Firewire port. It could be Firewire 800 or 400. I like USB 2.0 but if your laptop supports Firewire 800 and your PS3 does I would get it.

[db2450]

Originally Posted by Zuhaib

Seagate hands down. I have used other HD with many headaches. I just returned an new WD as it f'ed up my NAS. I had had 3 deskstars die on me. But all the Seagate drives i have used still run and I like them a lot.
Also IEEE 1394 != Firewire 800. It just means a Firewire port. It could be Firewire 800 or 400. I like USB 2.0 but if your laptop supports Firewire 800 and your PS3 does I would get it.

Nah, PS3 only has USB, but I was looking at another WD drive for about $10 more and it has both Firewire and USB 2.0 built in, but I guess I will just save $30 and because of what you said about your WD drive even more reason!
Thanks guys!

[BMW_M5]

I use 3 WD 320 gb hrad drives and they are great.

[LurkerPatrol]

Originally Posted by eddysdaman

I'd go with the Seagate.

Biggest brand there, they never seem to have problems. And you won't notice that you're down that 70gb from the WD for those extra few bucks unless you're into hardcore porn or something. It is hard to fill that amount of space.

I have 2 seagate external hard drives. One's a 160 GB and the other's a new 500 GB that I got a few months ago. So far no issues, the 160 GB is filled up (almost to the brim, only 5 GB free space) and there haven't been any issues.

[Susurrate]

I have and still do own Western Digital, Maxtor, and Seagate drives none of which have failed (cross my fingers, knock on wood, and prays to the digital Gods). Having said that Maxtors tend to be the louder and hotter of the 3 major brands so I'd steer away from them for an external drive. As for Seagate v Western Digital I like Seagate for purely fanboy reasons.

[db2450]

I got the Seagate and it is great. The only thing I can say that I don't like is that there is no real off switch, but it turns off if there is no connection through USB and the drive stops spinning after there is a short period of no activity. It spins back up really, so thats nice to.

I want to be able to have my entire music collection on my PS3 so I want to just put it on the hard drive. The problem with this is that I have to manually update the files every time I add new music, so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for me to quickly and easily up date it. It is about 16 gigs of music, so I don't want to have to re-transfer the files every week. Do you guys have any ideas?