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External Hard Drives

post #1 of 25
2/21/05 at 10:42am
Thread Starter 
I just ordered a new laptop and I'd like to pick up an external hard drive for additional storage and backup. Originally I was thinking to buy a pre-fab USB 2.0 external drive, but I've come across some really good prices on internal IDE hard drives lately (for instance, CompUSA has a Maxtor 250 GB for $99) and wonder if it might be better to buy one and install it in a USB/Firewire external enclosure. Are there more potential problems with heat and noise if I go this route?

Any comments on pre-fab vs. do-it-yourself?
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post #2 of 25
2/21/05 at 11:18am
I would buy a pre-fab. If you make your own enclosure anything could happen, static electricity could build up and if you fail to seal the enclosure properly then ZAP! Your out a hard drive. Go for a pre-fab, especially if you're planning to use it to back up your whole system. Many have a nice one button touch back-up feature.
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post #3 of 25
2/21/05 at 12:06pm
There is nothing wrong with buying an external enclosure and putting an internal drive in it. I would say that paying someone to put the drive into the enclosure is pretty silly, actually.
Look at Newegg for some good deals on enclosures and hard drives.
If you want to pay substantially more for it, you can get a Maxtor one touch type thing for backing stuff up, but you can get a very nice FireWire/USB2.0 enclosure along with a 200GB HD for about $160 (including shipping). You can get something a bit cheaper if you want, but that's a WD HD with a decent warranty (3 years) and a rather pretty looking enclosure.
For that money you can get an equivalent Maxtor 160GB (only USB2.0, not firewire) hard drive in an enclosure. With a shorter warranty and less good HD.
Installing a HD in an enclosure is roughly as easy as installing a memory DIMM in a desktop. Certainly less challenging than installing a CPU and heatsink.
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post #4 of 25
2/21/05 at 1:51pm
Ohh buying a seperate enclosure, for some reason I thought he meant he was gonna make one from scratch, then sure that's ok.
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post #5 of 25
2/21/05 at 2:04pm
I recommend buying an external enclosure and putting a hard drive in it. Just make sure that you either buy a decent aluminum one or one that has a fan in it. I just have some bytecc enclosure I got from newegg and my old 120GB special edition Western Digital is in it. It's rarely on for more than a few hours at a time, but the aluminum never seems to feel -that- warm.
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post #6 of 25
2/21/05 at 4:03pm
I recommend buying a pre-fab external hard drive. Many of the external hard drive enclosures do not have a fan to vent out heat buildup. I have an aluminum enclosure that gets really warm. Ensure the hard drive warranty stills applies when used in an external enclosure - some do not. Finally, I had a capacity limitation with the enclosure that I had.

If you do build your own external hard drive enclosure, I highly recommend have a good return policy if it does not work.

Good Luck...
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post #7 of 25
2/21/05 at 4:15pm
correct me if i'm wrong, but a fanless aluminum enclosure should be getting warm - it acts as a heat sink of sorts for the drive...
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post #8 of 25
2/21/05 at 4:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelX30
Ohh buying a seperate enclosure, for some reason I thought he meant he was gonna make one from scratch, then sure that's ok.
Right, I think we were talking at cross-purposes. Building one from scratch is definitely on the ambitious side. I'm not sure how complicated the logic for translating the IDE to USB or Firewire is, but it isn't something I'd like to play around with, I have to say.
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post #9 of 25
2/21/05 at 4:20pm
I just bought a Western Digital 120GB USB firewire/usb 2.0 dual option backup drive. It was $70 and has been very nice.
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post #10 of 25
2/22/05 at 12:22am
I bought a Vantec external enclosore for 2.5" drives for like $25 canadian new. It was great, USB 2.0, bus powered, and I had a 60GB 7200RPM laptop drive in it (My laptop's drive when the laptop was out for repair).

The enclosure was almost entirely solid metal, and I had no overheating problems at all.
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post #11 of 25
2/22/05 at 12:48am
Maxtor: *shudder*

Bad experiences with Maxtor... go with WD or Seagate. Great companies. I currently have a 200GB Seagate Barracude 7200rpm in a Macally Combo Firewire/USB2.0 enclosure. Works beautifully Very little noise, and heat is no problem.
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post #12 of 25
2/22/05 at 12:54am
My general experience with external enclosures has been great, although I have only used the ones for 2.5" notebook drives.

I got a Sabrent USB 2.0 enclosure for a 40gb 5400rpm notebook drive, and the unit has worked fine. Most importantly for me, the drive could be powered by just one USB 2.0 port (no additional AC power needed).

I was so impressed with the Sabrent that I ordered another one. They go for about 18 bucks shipped at Newegg.
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post #13 of 25
2/22/05 at 3:06am
IMO desktop HDD's are really not designed to be mobile, they just can't take any kind of shock, i recommend 2.5" drives + external enclosure, they are smaller, lighter, and take less power

DEsktop drive - needs power brick, big, cant take abuse, heavy, bulky, cheaper
laptop drive - powered of USB alone, small, light, CAN take some punishment, a little more expensive
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post #14 of 25
2/22/05 at 5:49am
http://store.yahoo.com/directron/wlhdd25.html
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post #15 of 25
2/22/05 at 6:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by klas

OMG that would be so slow, G WLAN is only 2.5MB/s max transfer rates, USB is 13MB/s max, i can't stand either

it would be good for music but thats about it,
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post #16 of 25
2/22/05 at 10:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pr50wner
OMG that would be so slow, G WLAN is only 2.5MB/s max transfer rates, USB is 13MB/s max, i can't stand either

it would be good for music but thats about it,
Still, though, looks like an interesting device!
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post #17 of 25
2/22/05 at 10:44am
If you go with an enclosure, check out the AMS Venus DS3. I just got one yesterday and it is sweet! Put a WD 160 GB in it. Seems very fast and runs very cool.
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post #18 of 25
2/22/05 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pr50wner
OMG that would be so slow, G WLAN is only 2.5MB/s max transfer rates, USB is 13MB/s max, i can't stand either

it would be good for music but thats about it,
USB2.0 can be significantly more than 13MB/s. I don't know where you got that number from, but the limit is more like thirty, depending on the drive and a number of other things. Obviously you will never approach the 480Mbps that they claim (since it's a shared bus, among other things), but you can definitely do better than 13MB/s.

A little drive like that would be very useful for music as well as storing movies and other things of that sort. It's certainly not what you want to run your games off, but that's not what an external drive is for.

I would have thought that for a wireless drive, it's less likely to be something you're going to stuff in your bag and take with you, so a 3.5" drive would work fine. But maybe I'm missing some obvious niche.
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post #19 of 25
2/22/05 at 12:28pm
I actually thought USB 2.0 transferred at 60 MBs/Sec
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post #20 of 25
2/22/05 at 12:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelX30
I actually thought USB 2.0 transferred at 60 MBs/Sec
Well, in principle it should be able to, since USB2.0 is 480Mbps. However,the best you seen in actual use is closer to 30, typically somewhere between 20 and 30. Look at some reviews at THG for specific numbers, but that's the actual speeds.
Firewire can sometimes be faster (even if it's only 400Mbps) because it's a dedicated controller not dealing with a number devices, unlike the USB2.0 controller. I think that's the reasoning, in any case.
By the time you are pushing 50MB/s, of course, you start being limited by the drive's speed more than anything else.
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