external hard drive

[v1ct0r]

i was thinking about getting an external hard drive to hold music in FLAC for backups of my cds and holding videos (top gear and such) I was wondering what a good enclosure would be to get at a low price. Thanks

 

[SL65]

We talked about this a few months ago when I was looking for one...I bought the Maxtor OTII which automatically backs up stuff but if you want a sensible and cheaper option, go for the Lacie externals...here check out this thread :
http://forum.finalgear.com/viewtopic.php?t=4033

 

[v1ct0r]

oh thanks, do you know if a plain aluminum external casing would be good enough to cool the hard drive or is a fan really needed, i'm trying to spend the least money as possible like most people

 

[SL65]

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1215799&CatId=0
^That one has an aluminium encloser and is claimed to have "excellent heat dissipation" so that would be a good bet. Most aluminum enclosers do provide reasonable heat dissipation however some of galvanised iron externals don't.

How many gigs are you looking at?

 

[Shawn]

You can always trust Tom's Hardware.

 

[v1ct0r]

I was thinking about 160-200, I don't have THAT much stuff so that's what i was looking at. Probably 160 and if i'm being really cheap 120. But probably 160

 

[sns2015]

I would suggest that you get a Western Digital or Lacie hard drive, stay away from Maxtor. I've had 3 hard drives fail on me and all of them were Maxtors. Still have yet to have a WD fail on me, and Lacie drives are made from Western Digital ones... and 120 or 160 should last a while, unless your like me, then it'll last about a month or two.

 

[v1ct0r]

I wasn't thinking about Maxtor, I was going between Western Digital, Seagate (5 year warranty), and Samsung. Samsung was the cheapest and I've had one in my dell for a few years and it's been fine. Any other reccommendations would be great and links to any good deals out there

thanks everyone

 

[Shawn]

Go with Seagate, I have a 120GB IDE drive and a 200GB SATA drive and they work wonderfully.

 

[v1ct0r]

Yeah i'll probably go for Seagate but i'm still wondering on the enclosure...would a normal aluminum one from ebay be enough to cool it?

 

[TechZ]

I got an elcheapo caddy but it had a fan at the back so all good

Its aluminium too.

 

[oliB]

I'm also in desperate need for more HDD capacity.

You can always trust Tom's Hardware.

Thanks for the link!

I thought about buying the LaCie 250GB to save any hassle but this case looks nice too and it's cheap:
http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20041206/ext-hdd-adapter-04.html

To go with it I would choose this Western Digital 320GB HDD:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=116&Language=en
With this hard drive my HDD capacity would double to 0.6 terrabyte.

When using Firewire, is this combo fast enough to play games?

Thanks!
Oliver

 

[oliB]

When using Firewire, is this combo fast enough to play games?

Anyone?

 

[TechZ]

explain it a bit more, what youre trying to do.

Are you planning on running your games off an external drive?

 

[oliB]

Are you planning on running your games off an external drive?

Exactly.

Oliver

 

[TechZ]

not a good idea IMO, preferred to run them with the hard disk in the pc.... Try it, no harm I suppose.

 

[bone]

^i used to play games from an RW in an external CD writer with speeds of 2*2*6

you had to wait very long, but it worked, so playing games from an external hd shouldn't give any problems at all

 

[Yayox]

I have a lacie.... the porsche one..... it gets a little bit hot.. but it works fine for me.... if you can get one with a fan... it will be much better