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adding External HD and DVD-R

post #1 of 18
9/14/04 at 4:16pm
Thread Starter 
Would like to get a dvd writer and say a 120 gig HD, both external, Are their any red flags i need to consider? The 5680 does have 2.0 USB's right?

anyways if it would work any product you like would help...
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post #2 of 18
9/14/04 at 4:22pm

Don't buy anything from Maxtor

Quote:
Originally Posted by suffocate
Would like to get a dvd writer and say a 120 gig HD, both external, Are their any red flags i need to consider? The 5680 does have 2.0 USB's right?

anyways if it would work any product you like would help...
Seriously:

I have had numerious Maxtors take a dive at different stages of life from brand new to a few months old to one and a half years old. I gave up on sending them in for replacement. I have had much better luck with Western Digital.

Also buy an enternal enclosure and put an internal drive in it, because internal drives come with a 3 year warentee and external drives come with 1 year. This is no doubt due to user abuse of external drives, which brings up another point. Do not carry your backup drive arround; leave it in one place.

That is my 2 cent

Dave
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post #3 of 18
9/14/04 at 4:40pm
Going external is a good choice. I'd suggest getting a HDD that has both Firewire and USB2. Apparently ext. hard drives work best with firewire. And as far as I've found, DVD-RW drives are faster with USB2.

And dswantek, why's it bad to carry around your external drive? Could I knock something loose or something? I carry mine around quite a bit and recently I've noticed it making louder noises when under heavy load (when I was transferring large files).
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post #4 of 18
9/14/04 at 4:53pm

Vibration and shock are

BAD for any HD. External HDs are all internal drives in an external case and are sensitive to shock and vibration. It rattles the heads amongst other things. Internal drives are ment for desktop computers not carring them arround. That is why external drives have a shorter warentee. Note book drives are made to be less effected and that is why they cost more.

The Bytecc case sold at newegg.com and Dealsonic.com have both USB2 and Firewire connections and are real easy to put together and use. I have 3 with HDs in them and 1 with a Sony DVD writer. all work great.

I guess that makes it 3 cents

Dave
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post #5 of 18
9/14/04 at 5:10pm
Thanks for the info, I really have no choice but to carry my drive around with me. I guess I just need to be extra careful and keep my fingers crossed.
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post #6 of 18
9/14/04 at 6:36pm
Geez after looking things over, it seems that constructing your own is the best way to go, get the longer warrantee too! I see a 200 gig seagate and that bytec case that would work perfectly for me. Hmmmmmmmmmm interesting. Only reason I'm hesitating is because I usually store stuff on my desktop, so I probably dont have a desperate need for this right now, but damn its so frickin' cool.
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post #7 of 18
9/15/04 at 2:10am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the HEads up on that External HD Enclosure, SO if im understanding this correctly, i buy a HD internal, and this enclosure, and then it plugs into the wall for power... into a computers USB 2.0 port..... And can be moved from comp to com?

and the 5680 does have usb 2.0 ports right?
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post #8 of 18
9/15/04 at 2:22am
lol funny you asked that. Name a recent system that doesn't come w/ at least one usb2.0 port.
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post #9 of 18
9/15/04 at 6:18am
Well, the 5680 is the older version of the current 5690. So in theory, it could still only have USB1. But I highly doubt it. USB2 has been out for AGES! I'd recommend getting an enclosure that had firewire also (if your 5680 has a firewire port - it should do). Tests show external drives are faster with firewire even though USB2 speeds are supposedly 480 mb/s rather than firewire's 400. Can't argue with tests...
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post #10 of 18
9/15/04 at 11:07am
5680 does have USB2.0, 4 ports of it to be exact.
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post #11 of 18
9/15/04 at 4:18pm
Thread Starter 
So firewire, and ive seen that listed on some things ive searched for on Newegg.com, is a different connection besides a USB2.0 port?
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post #12 of 18
9/15/04 at 5:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pyrobob83
Well, the 5680 is the older version of the current 5690. So in theory, it could still only have USB1. But I highly doubt it. USB2 has been out for AGES! I'd recommend getting an enclosure that had firewire also (if your 5680 has a firewire port - it should do). Tests show external drives are faster with firewire even though USB2 speeds are supposedly 480 mb/s rather than firewire's 400. Can't argue with tests...
I can answer you on that. USB2.0 is in theory faster because of the actual bandwidth for data transfer. USB2.0 is 480MB/s while FireWire is 400MB/s. Hence, USB2.0 should be 80MB/s faster, not 480MB/s faster.

For file transfer undesr 1MB, USB2.0 is faster than FireWire. But for files larger than 1MB, FireWire runs at a speed that can laugh at USB2.0.

The reason USB2.0 is inferior to Firewire is because it has WAY TOO MANY overheads. Kinda complicate to explain, but just think of a highway. The more "check stations" there are. No matter how big the highway is, it will be slower than a smaller with less or no "check stations."

As for the original poster. I'd HIGHLY recommend a Firewire external enclosure for the hard drive. I personally went with a Western Digital and a Speeze 3.5" Firewire/USB2.0 aluminum enclosure. For CDRW and stuff, USB2.0 should be sufficient in my opinion since the optical drives can't really read/write THAT much data anywayz.
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post #13 of 18
9/15/04 at 6:56pm
Thread Starter 
so please, for us idoits, firewire is seperate from a USB port?
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post #14 of 18
9/15/04 at 7:17pm
O my bad. I thought my previous post explained it. lol

USB2.0 is different than FireWire. A totally different technology.
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post #15 of 18
9/15/04 at 7:20pm
Thread Starter 
thanks, its just when i heard firewire, i get this idea of some little wire in the usb that speeds it up...

thank you for clearning that up,,,, would it be wise to have an external inclosure on 24/7 .... one review i read said it gets wacky hot
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post #16 of 18
9/15/04 at 7:26pm

Yep!

Quote:
Originally Posted by suffocate
so please, for us idoits, firewire is seperate from a USB port?
The cables and ports look symmular, but Firewire is a rectangle with an odd shaped end where as USB2 is just a rectangle (or D shape on the B end). I never could see the value in a A and B end. USB2 has a mini version for digital camerias just to make things even more confusing.

Dave
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post #17 of 18
9/15/04 at 7:30pm
FireWire also has a 4-pin version.... It's nearly identical to the mini USB version to me... Confusing... (FireWire is 6 pins)
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post #18 of 18
9/16/04 at 6:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by suffocate
would it be wise to have an external inclosure on 24/7 .... one review i read said it gets wacky hot
They don't really get hot unless you're constantly using it. During normal use, it stays pretty cool. But man, I degfragged one of the partitions on it one day... WHOA. It did get seriously hot. Glad I didn't have it sitting on the carpet.
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