[Doo Doo Brown]

I'm planning on going digital with my home rig. I am about to buy a laptop and will be using my old PC for music via SB3 and iTunes or Foobar. I plan on getting a 500gb external hard drive. Any recommendations?

Seagate apparently runs quiet. But their 500g model uses USB 2.0, which my computer doesn't support. I can spend the extra dough to get their Firewire-enabled HD, but would it make more sense (cheaper) to just upgrade my computer to USB 2.0? Which is better in terms of future upgrades?

Note: I'm not interested in a NAS drive. Too complicated for my simple mind.

 

[cconnaker]

i wrote a short post on what hard drive i use and i really love it. here is the link: Music Server External Hard Drives | Computer Audiophile

for $240 you can get a 750gb drive that supports fw400/800, usb 1.1/2.0, and e-sata. this will last you well into the future.

if you have a desktop you could just add a usb 2.0 card and pretty much get any external hard drive you want. this would give you the most flexibility.

 

[OracleGuy]

Adding USB 2.0 to an older PC is simply a matter of buying an add-in card. If you shop around you can find them for about $5 on-sale. That's useful no matter what external hard drive you get.

I have a couple of external drives, and the approach I took was to buy a bare case and add my own drive to it. I have one USB/Firewire-400 case from Macally that seems to work fairly well. If your PC has a Firewire interface, then you'll get better performance than USB 2.0.

As cconnaker suggests, the newer e-sata standard is the way to go for future-proofing, but external drives with e-sata are less common, and a bit more expensive at this point that a basic USB external drive. The advantage of e-sata is that the drive will perform just as fast as if it were connected internally.

Note that a fast data transfer rate is important for some applications, but if you are only using the drive for music streaming, then USB 2.0 will work just as well -- audio streaming does not require a high transfer rate.

 

[Tarkovsky]

To clarify USBs quoted speed of 480MBPs is theoretical and it can't beat the throughput of firewire 400. However firewire cables are expensive, daisy chaining is awkward and you don't need those kinds of speeds. I recommend building your own usb drive with a seagate and seperate enclosure from ebay.

 

[slwiser]

I just saw a 750 g one for 199$ at costco and a 1 Tb one for 299$, both with USB and Firewire support.

 

[Tarkovsky]

Some of those 1 TBs are actually 2 disks shoved together.

 

[Bigguy]

A few days before Black Friday I picked up a Maxtor One Touch4 500gb for $99.99. It is USB 2.0 but it requires a brick for power (supplied). I was looking for a smaller case type that would run on the USB power but I couldn't pass up the deal. I use it on my laptop.

 

[number1sixerfan]

Western Digital's "book" design on their external hard drives is pretty nice. It is pretty rugged and protective, which I think is important when talking about a music collection.

 

[penguindude]

Dude, if your comp still doesn't have USB2.0, UPGRADE IT!

 

[riffer]

I just went through the process of increasing the storage to the external drive that I use for backup. In the end I just put a 500GB Seagate into my Macally Firewire 800/USB2.0 drive.

I considered buying a SATA external drive, but wanted to keep costs low.

I haven't timed it, but my last backup was around 90GB and it took at least three hours. Not a big deal, since I just fire and forget, but I would seriously consider SATA if you wanted to do things quickly.

 

[edguetzow]

I just got a 750 Gig Cavalry external HD. Got it from Buy.com for about $214 shipped. 1 year warranty.

I bought the 750 based on reading reviews on it and on their 500 Gig version. It (the 500 Gig) had a great review and performed substantially better than Western Digital & Seagate and well against Iomega and Lacie external HDs. They have USB 2.0 and eSATA, so you can upgrade the USB route if you wish. If your machine can do eSATA or be upgraded to use it, this would be the fastest connection. I transferred (dragged and dropped) 68 Gig in about 25 minutes via eSATA.

Review and comparison: Five eSATA Drives Reviewed ExtremeTech - Find Articles

It was easy to install, is quiet, stays cool and is very fast.

 

[n00bler]

I'd recommend finding an internal sata hard drive (can find better prices under 1tb and typically comes with a better warranty, compared to externals) Samsungs tend to be really quiet. Then just purchase an enclosure that fits your needs. I got a nice one that has both esata and usb2.0 for $15, power to newegg.com!

 

[Doo Doo Brown]

Thanks to everybody for the advice. That gives me a few more things to research and a little more direction. Isn't it fun shopping for yourself around the holidays?

 

[bigshot]

I just bought 10 Seagate/Maxtor 1tb drives and they perform wonderfully. Solid enclosures and well cooled. They have firewire 400/800 and USB2. At $350, they're a very good deal.

See ya
Steve

 

[TheBends]

Quote:

Originally Posted by n00bler /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd recommend finding an internal sata hard drive (can find better prices under 1tb and typically comes with a better warranty, compared to externals) Samsungs tend to be really quiet. Then just purchase an enclosure that fits your needs. I got a nice one that has both esata and usb2.0 for $15, power to newegg.com!

I was going to recommend this. It's really nice to get the full 5 year warranty on the internal drive. Also, it's useful to have an enclosure you can easily switch drives in and out of and you can always upgrade too.