Hard Drives

maimezvousmaimezvous
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
By the end of the summer I'm planning on purchasing and assembling the parts to make myself an external hard drive. I already have a few cases picked out:



BYTECC BT-380U2F(Silver) 3.5" USB 2.0 & 1394 External Enclosure

Vantec NexStar3 Black 3.5" USB 2.0 / FireWire Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure



I'm most likely going to get the first one as it is cheaper but I put the other one up there to see if people think it's quality will be much higher than the cheap enclosure.



The biggest problem I have though is picking the drive. I don't know what brand to pick as I have heard negative comments for most brands, but I also realize when something bad happens that gets reported the most. I have a few drives picked out:



Samsung 400 GB

Seagate Barracuda 250 GB

Western Digital 250 GB



I honestly don't need the 400 GB but the price for the space seemed like a decent deal. I'm also willing to consider other choices.



I also have one more question: do I need to consider SATA vs. ATA for an external drive? I have a first generation MacBook and it has a SATA drive as I think all Macs require. The enclosures that I have linked to don't specify which they work with so I assume that it doesn't matter but it might make a huge difference.



Thanks for your help in advance.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    easyceasyc Posts: 69member
    I would stick with SATA drives over ATA. Also just from my experiences Western Digital has given me fine results. Ive stuck with them on the PC machines Ive put together and im running an external HD in an enclosure right now from my PC, just for storage of older things, and its running fine. My roomate bought a Western Digital 300gig HD this past semester SATA and is enjoying it. Havent heard of any complaints from him. He did go the extra Money'age to get the faster transfer rate ect. so hes pretty happy. I know this is like reading another review but instead of one drive Ive used several from Western Digital and they have been fine. Im not pushing the drive and saying its the best or anything but I can say Ive had no complaints.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    SATA vs. PATA doesn't mean anything, since you'll be presumably converting to some other bus like Firewire or USB. For the record, I recommend Firewire. It has a faster aggregate data rate and can stream data reliably. USB can't stream data when interfacing with HDs, and this can create little timing glitches sometimes when you're, say, watching videos.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    maimezvousmaimezvous Posts: 802member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splinemodel View Post


    SATA vs. PATA doesn't mean anything, since you'll be presumably converting to some other bus like Firewire or USB. For the record, I recommend Firewire. It has a faster aggregate data rate and can stream data reliably. USB can't stream data when interfacing with HDs, and this can create little timing glitches sometimes when you're, say, watching videos.



    That's what I've heard. The case that I'll probably be using requires ATA but I have the choice of using Firewire 400 or USB 2.0.
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