New external drive

Message

mannyace · #1 Post by **mannyace** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:03 pm

I'm lookin for a new drive, help me pick one... I wanna keep it at around $90-115, and I'd like 500 gb (dont worry much about finding a deal, ill do that, just help me pick a good model in that range please)

7200 rpm and 8mb cache should be fine, portability is not an issue, nuthin special needed, just some stable storage... also since it will be on all the time, I dont want something that might have heat issues

I've got two of these http://hdd.co.il/products_pictures/imag ... lDrive.jpg but theyre getting full and now WD doesnt make these anymore (but the drives inside are probably in the My Book?)

#2 Post by **palmboy5** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:28 pm

Its very difficult to find a good actively-cooled external drive, nothing ever seems to be perfect. The main issue I have with those actively cooled drives is that they use really small fans that are prone to dying or rattling.

That is why I do this with my externals:
http://www.mylilsite.net/images/sdhdcooling3.jpg

Requirements:
Enclosure that allows access from whatever method, to a flat surface of the hard drive, preferably the bottom (not the metal top, not like the one on the left in my pic).
Preferably a hard drive with a flat bottom surface. Some have grid-like setups that decrease the contact surface area.
Heatsink with fan with a large enough, flat contact surface.

mannyace · #3 Post by **mannyace** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:57 pm

i dont need something that actively cools like for real... but it cant be something where it explodes after leaving it on for 18 hours either

the drive will have good airflow but other than that it just needs to not die on me lol

#4 Post by **palmboy5** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:18 pm

Are you willing to buy an internal HDD and then an enclsure with it to make your own external drive?

mannyace · #5 Post by **mannyace** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:01 pm

yeah i guess, tho i've never done it before... is it difficult? remember im not as good with computers as u are lol

if its not too hard to do that, what kind of hard drive should i get (brand and model) and then also what enclosure?

mannyace · #6 Post by **mannyace** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:03 pm

oh its probably worth mentioning, this drives gotta be USB 2.0, no firewire or ethernet or esata

I7Iz490N · #7 Post by **I7Iz490N** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:06 pm

mannyace · #8 Post by **mannyace** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:02 am

ok im open to that...

what drives can yall recommend? either external or internal... what wont die the week after the warranty ends? lol

#9 Post by **palmboy5** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:49 am

I recommend Seagate, just because none of my 8 Seagates have died so far since the first purchase in about 2003-2004. Quite a good record considering that 2 of the 4 Western Digitals I've gotten have already died (BOTH less than a year after buying them). FYI, I run all my drives 24/7, if at all.

In terms of warranty, Seagate has 5 years on all of their product lines. Only Western Digital's flagship Raptor line gets 5 years.

For enclosures...? If you do indeed do my method like in the pic, ANY enclosure will work. XD

compL33Tazn · #10 Post by **compL33Tazn** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:35 am

Haha, when I'm getting my next external, I'm aiming away from the premade ones... the premade one I have is IMPOSSIBLE to take apart, which sucked when it knocked over and died (Seagate).

For my other externals, I bought a hard drive to usb converter, which leaves the drive exposed, and is cooler. It's also versatile because you can switch drives easily and supports 2.5, 3.5, 5.25, sata and ide

If you're going to make your own external, I'd go with actively cooled if you're running it for 18 hours straight
wheeeee.

compL33Tazn · #11 Post by **compL33Tazn** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:41 am

Also, 500GB are about 70-80 now? And the enclosures can be anything from 10-50+

mannyace · #12 Post by **mannyace** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:16 am

cool ill start lookin for some seagates, if im using usb 2.0, what kind of sata do i want (1.5 or 3.0 gb/s)? is there a max cache size i should look for? anything else that usb is going to limit ?

and whats a good company in terms of enclosures, or do u know some models that are good in terms of cooling, i know nothing about enclosures

#13 Post by **palmboy5** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:34 pm

You'll see a max transfer speed through USB 2.0 of 30MB/s, it realllyyy doesn't matter at that point what the specs are for the hard drive you get. They will all be bottlenecked the same way by USB 2.0. For the sake of future proofing, consider an enclosure that includes an eSATA port as well.

I don't know much about enclosures either, except that mine worked and they were cheap. Generally speaking, all the enclosures use converter chips from the same few companies and are virtually identical in the eyes of the PC. Of course there are still bad ones so read user reviews before buying. The deciding factor is indeed the enclosure's ability to keep the drive cool, and with all the random models that exist, its hard to find that sort of information. That is why I don't bother, and just buy a cheap one and do the cooling mod that I have been doing.

mannyace · #14 Post by **mannyace** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:57 pm

hey palm, in ur pic, are the fans blowing the air up and away from the drives? how are they physically attached to the drives? where are they getting power from?

ive been lookin for cases with fans and theyr like $50 which puts my total at like $120-130... either i buy a mybook or some lacie drive or i try to copy ur set up

mannyace · #15 Post by **mannyace** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:17 pm

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ ... 136-07.jpg

i could keep this in the carrier and not even worry bout the rest of the case right? whether its this model or one like it... then i throw a heatsink and fan on it and it should be good?