The best external Hard Drive?

mattyj

I'm a student in the UK using a Powerbook 1.33Ghz 15", I ordered it with the 80GB BTO HD option however I'm quickly running out of space, and subsequently I'm looking to purchase an external HD. As I'm a student I don't have a huge budget, (so around £150) however external HDs have become pretty cheap, however I have a few questions, so here goes:



1) What is the best brand to buy? I've looked at Lacie HDs and I like the look of the 200GB model shown at Apple's website here



2) Is getting one with a firewire 800 interface worth it, is there any real world performance gain over firewire 400 and USB 2?



3) As this is a 7200rpm drive (the lacie linked to above) wouldn't this be faster than the HD in my powerbook, which is 5400rpm?



4) Also if people can draw from their own experiences, how reliable are external HDs?



Any answers would be appreciated,



Matt

matt ft

LaCie Big Disk. For £150 to £200 you can get a 320Gb from Dabs.com with firewire 800. Great disk, highly recommended.

mattyj

Thanks Matt, I'm going to go with your suggestion.



One question, will this HD be faster than the one in my laptop? It should be shouldn't it, with firewire 800 and 7200rpm, versus 5400rpm and ATA100??

kwondo

FW800 is definately faster than FW400 but you have to have FW800 port to utilize it. Secondly, it is only as fast as the slowest link on FW chain. It doesn't apply to you yet but if you have multiple FW400 and 800 drives daisychained it will swich to the lowest (FW400) connecton speed.



Hope that gives you additional info

mattyj

Alright cool, I've got firewire 800 on my 15" Powerbook so no worries about that, plus I'm not going to have any other firewire devices linked so it'll be running as fast as it can on that front. Thanks for the info

protostar

STOP! DO NOT BUY AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!! Buy an internal and a external case and build it yourself! I bought a $85 WD 160GB internal drive and a $40 external case for $125.

Compare the to a 160GB LaCie HD for $160. U save $35!!!

All ur paying for is the brand name.



P.S.-I got that price for the LaCie drive online. U pay more at a retail store

matt ft

Quote:

Originally posted by Protostar

STOP! DO NOT BUY AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!! Buy an internal and a external case and build it yourself! I bought a $85 WD 160GB internal drive and a $40 external case for $125.

Compare the to a 160GB LaCie HD for $160. U save $35!!!

All ur paying for is the brand name.



P.S.-I got that price for the LaCie drive online. U pay more at a retail store

I've tried the same, but I didn't get the speed or reliability as I have done from complete externals, so I went back to a LaCie.

curiousuburb

It may also be the case that cheaper cases may have less robust FW chipsets.



I've been considering external FW drives and have noted some skimping in the budget setups.



YMMV

mattyj

I think I'll still go with a Lacie external, simply because I'll get a warranty anyway and 320GB for £180 isn't bad

inukshuk

It's to bad for your budget, because the best out there in every way is from:

http://www.glyphtech.com/site/products_intro.html



and upgradable.



8)

indecisive pc user

There was a thread on this exact topic a few weeks back - do a search!



I got the 200Gig Lacie with FW400/800/USB2 via the Apple store with edu discount The FW just died so i have to return it to Apple A guy where i work had the exact same problem - the firewire died but still works with USB2. Hmmmm...



-indy