Re: what 1tb external hdd...
Seagate Free Agent Dekstop's are good!
I've had a seagate external of the 320GB USB 1.1 variety for coming upto 2 years and its still going strong
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
if you don't mind 5 minutes of simple DIY, you could consider getting the samsung spinpoint F1 1TB drive and then the icybox enclosure with USB and esata that's £20, so £110 in total from scan. that gives you one of the fastest drives, plus a decent solid caddy, and then if you spent another £16 on a esata pcmi card for the laptop you could get much faster speeds. or maybe there is a firewire caddy if you already have firewire on the laptop
the slight concern about many of the 1TB external deals is you don't know what drive is inside, but that doesn't bother everyone
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
I'll second what Uni said. I'm a bug fan of putting external drives together myself. At least then you know what drive is in there and you know the case is going to be re-usable in the future.
Have a look at this case:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=616032
I have two black and one silver. Excellent cases.
You can have the following configurations:
SATA -> eSATA
SATA -> USB
PATA -> USB
Oh, and the power connector is much more robust than the one on IcyBox cases.
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=788371
that's the one i just ordered as i heard it comes complete with the esata cable (which isn't mentioned in the specs), and it looks quite nite, solid and basic
the one funkstar posted looks good and solid too, and only £3 more for the extra PATA capability isn't bad at all. as i already have a nice solid iomega case and another 5.24" external case i didn't really need the PATA connection. i'm actually selling off my old PATA drives to friends to cover the cost of replacing/upgrading to 1TB drives so everything is on one drive for convenience, and my machine isn't overloaded with more drives than it should. my external drive is going to be used as a complete backup of my internal drive, but a backup that can be taken with me and used with the laptop
doing it by buying seperate components means you can connect your drive internally to copy/backup your data then stick in the caddy (it's particularly faster than copying over USB)
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
yeah i was thinking that but last time i'd checked it was cheaper to buy external but I'm definitely going to do this cheers guys.really loving the icy box... and the other one. have they both got fans in them yeah? could you recommend a pcmi card? i have a dell inspiron 1520 if that helps...
i love the idea of having faster speeds on the lappy via pcmi and then the compatability of usb:)
i take it having esata with an F1 sammy would be way faster than my 5400rpm 8mb cache lappy Western Digi drive... so it'd be better for installing games on etc right
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
The AKASA case doesn't have a fan and I don't believe the Icybox ones do either.
The Inspiron 1520 doesn't have a PCMCIA slot, it has an ExpressCard slot.
This eSATA ExpressCard is probably as good as any.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=676547
Another advantage of buying a seperate drive and case is the warranty. With all in one external drives you normally just get 1 year, and that is with the vendor of the unit (Freecom for example) regardless of the drive inside the box. Doing it yourself gives you whatever the waranty on the drive would normally be (1 - 5 years depending on the manufacturer).
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
oh it needs to be vista 64bit compatable pcmcia card... as for no fan... it will be on 24/7 with the laptop so it needs to be capable of that too....
edit any slimmer cards than your link as that looks huge and bulky.i know I'm being picky but if i can get a nice flush one for abit more i don't mind.
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
No, it needs to be a Vista 64bit compatible ExpressCard :P
From the Scan page, Special Features tab: "• Supports 64bit / 32bit Windows Vista."
As for a drive being on all the time: I have left a 500GB Samsung in my AKASA running for over a week in a stretch without a problem. I use it as a temporary drive to rip and download to from my ols laptop.
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
I personally prefer to buy the best internal 3.5" drive available, and stick it in an external enclosure - since it allows you to swap-out the hard drive quickly and easily if/when required.
Plus of course... standard (7200rpm/32MB cache) desktop drives are a lot quicker than external drives (5400rpm/8MB cache).
And if you choose an external enclosure with an eSATA connection, the speed difference between them (internal vs external) would be even more noticeable :)
However... if you prefer using standard external drives Keef, Scan are selling the 1TB Seagate FreeAgent Desktop for just £96.39 (delivered of course) :bowdown:
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
so your saying the only one i can get is the huge one? is that vista64 compatible and is there a dual slot one should i want another port.
is the free agent better than F1 then?
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
keef247
is the free agent better than F1 then?
No no. As I said above... I prefer to use an internal 3.5" drive, in an external enclosure myself ;)
Go for the option you've mention on B-T :)
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
I use the WD my book 1TB and 250GB. Both have been fantastic.
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
i think i'm going for the make your own option as people have said no matter i do with the drive i buy it still has the 3/5 year warrenty whereas if i opened a prebuilt... naughty naughty voiddddd:(
and i can freely swap it and plug it into a pc direct in sata which is a nice addition.
so is esata as fast as sata 2 on a pc?
sounds like its faster than my 5400rpm 8mb cache lappy sata haha obviously.so it\'d be a good idea to install games for better performance on it yer?
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
and sata only refers to te connectors - the transfer speed is the same - although it is unlikely that you will get sata2 speeds anyway - there are other limiting factors that will control the sustained speeds for disk transfers.
Re: what 1tb external hdd...
I would personally buy the caddy and hard drive seperatly that way if the caddy dies it\'s easier to take it out and put the drive into another caddy or connect to a PC. If you buy all in one and open it you void the warranty and are forced to send the whole thing back and kiss goodbye to your data.
Also go for one with esata and USB at least that way you have the option to use either connection but esata is a lot faster.