External Hard Drive
Oct 27, 2004 at 12:00 AM Post #16 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by bLue_oNioN
Buy a Seagate or Samsung HDD along with an HDD enclosure from Newegg and you're good to go. This way, you avoid the gross markups with packaged external HDD gimicks.


This is definatly the best route. "External" HDDs sold for 1.5-2x the price of an internal HDD of the same speed and capacity is generally just the internal version of the drive in a $20-40 plastic enclosure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReasonablyLucid
External harddrives are SLOW compared to an internal one. They are only useful for data storage of things that dont require a fast transfer. Like movies/music or just misc backup files.
If you install a program on these it will crawl.


That's not necessarily true of today's external HDDs. Check out this enclosure review where they compare IDE inside the computer to USB via the external enclosure, and find only small differences. The external enclosure was still slower, but it wasn't as slow as you claim enclosures are.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talonz
You won't need a fan. Also, most newer hard drives are much quieter then older ones that make grinding noises. Seagates are known for their quiet operation.


My Seagate 7200.7, which is suppost to run pretty cool, requires a fan to keep from going over 55*C (pushing the limits of it's operational temp rating), and that's in a big steel case with lots of room around it. Most external enclosures are made entirely of plastic (at least on the outside) which is a poor conducter of heat and are designed to rely on their fans (often noisy 40mm fans) to prevent the drives from overheating.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judge Crandall
Anybody know anything about Western Digital's 250gb? I'm thinking about this or a Seagate.


If you're looking for silent then Samsung is the brand to get. Their drives are very quiet (not to mention fast). My Seagate makes a quiet but annoying high pitched whine sometimes (apparenly a common problem) and my Western Digital 80 gig drive was way louder than the Seagate.

EDIT: Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.PD
Does a person need some software to run an external drive?


Windows XP (and I think Windows 2000) as well as Mac OS X and Linux (with USB-Storage support available in the kernel) all support USB storage devices with no drivers. Windows 98 and previous Mac OS versions require a driver to be installed, but other than that no software is necessary.
 
Oct 27, 2004 at 12:05 AM Post #17 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.PD
Does a person need some software to run an external drive?
I was thinking about going the external route also. Strictly for a storage drive.


Nope =)
 
Oct 27, 2004 at 4:52 AM Post #20 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by Judge Crandall
Is overheating a problem with these enclosures, or with specific hard drives?


My 80gb Barracuda IV's enclosure only tends to get toasty when I'm writing allot (I mean 60gb in 1 go, allot)
 
Oct 27, 2004 at 5:11 AM Post #21 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by ChickenScrtchBoy
My 80gb Barracuda IV's enclosure only tends to get toasty when I'm writing allot (I mean 60gb in 1 go, allot)


The 'Cuda IVs are known for running especially quiet and cool.

Seagate's 7200.7 series unfortunately runs slightly louder due to to the disabling of Acoustic Management (there was a lawsuit), but still performs very favorably against current competition. I place Samsung and Seagate far and above the rest of the bunch when it comes to heat/noise to performance ratios.
 
Oct 28, 2004 at 12:20 AM Post #26 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by bLue_oNioN
The 'Cuda IVs are known for running especially quiet and cool.


Thats why I own it
smily_headphones1.gif


Quote:

Seagate's 7200.7 series unfortunately runs slightly louder due to to the disabling of Acoustic Management (there was a lawsuit), but still performs very favorably against current competition.


Ouch, I'll need to look that up, but if it has anything to do with explosive fragmentation, it's incased in about 1 cm of cast aluminium
biggrin.gif

Quote:

I place Samsung and Seagate far and above the rest of the bunch when it comes to heat/noise to performance ratios.


I do too, thats why I have 3 'Cuda 7200.7's in this system
cool.gif
 
Oct 28, 2004 at 12:42 AM Post #27 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by bLue_oNioN
Well, it's unnecessary, so you could probably save money by going ATA...


SATA still has some compatibility issues with OS'es and is not really that much faster (many "SATA" drives really just use a bridge-chip to convert between their native ATA format and SATA, so they can advertise that the drive is "SATA"; there are a few drives that are true SATA (EDIT: See below), but most aren't). Also, the SATA spec is being revised and majorly updated soon (SATA II or SATA 300).
 
Oct 28, 2004 at 12:50 AM Post #28 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar
SATA still has some compatibility issues with OS'es and is not really that much faster (many "SATA" drives really just use a bridge-chip to convert between their native ATA format and SATA, so they can advertise that the drive is "SATA"; there are a few drives that are true SATA (like Western Digital's Raptor series), but most aren't). Also, the SATA spec is being revised and majorly updated soon (SATA II or SATA 300).


Er... The raptors use a bridge chip as well. Plus them usuing regular molex power instead of sata-only power is another giveaway...

Ive confirmed (by closeup pictures of other drives) that seagate is the only maker of a native SATA drive.
If you dont beleive me look at the underside of the drive PCB (any other than seagates baracuda4), notice that little square chip next to the sata connector?
wink.gif
 
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