Buying an external hard drive; advice?

Hey guys, I just bought an Alienware m15x, and bearing in mind how many games/movies I intend to have would be nice to use an external. I'm looking for a 1tb machine, and was wondering if there were any particular externals you would reccomend. I'd like it to be as fast as possible, not too noisy, and although it will be sitting on my table almost all the time would be great if it wasnt too large/heavy.

Also, does playing games directly from an external hard drive throttle performance?

 

Instead of looking for a pre-built solution, you might want to look at purchasing an external enclosure and a storage drive separately. This allows you greater flexibility and has the potential to save you money.

However, a few questions remain:
1) Do you want this external storage device to be a mobile or stationary solution?
2) What is your budget for this purchase?
3) What type of data connectivity will you primarily be using? USB 2.0/3.0, eSATA, FireWire?

That will depend on the type of storage drive used (SSD or HDD) and the data transferring method used (USB 2.0/3.0, eSATA, FireWire).

 

Erm well, I don't want to spend too much, about 100 pounds (150 usd or so). I'm not sure but I don't think the M15x-r2 comes with usb 3.0. I'm rather new to the whole computer enthusiast thing so I don't know anything about eSata or Firewire.

I would like to be able to play games directly from my external, but if not I can just store the installed game, or an .iso file on my external and transfer it to my computer when I want to play a particular game.

 

M15x doesnt have USB 3.0. You could get 3.5 inch 1TB with 7200rpm. It should give you decent amount of space with speed and lower cost. Here a 1TB 7200 rpm usually costs around $100 (CAD)

 

would USB 2.0 be a bottleneck for games tho? Its not a deal breaker really, I'm just curious.

Also, how does eSata and Firewire work? And I presume that both of those solutions are more expensive than just USB

 

You can indeed play games from an external drive, just understand that depending on the type of hard drive used, it will affect the performance of the game (typically during map loading).

Also of importance is the type of data connection you're using between the external and the laptop. If you're using USB 2.0, game performance will not be as good as say eSATA or USB 3.0 (providing your laptop supports these specs). The data interface used, in turn, will generally effect the type of external you want to buy.

For example, there's no point in getting an exernal drive with a 7,200RPM HDD if the data interface used to connect it to your laptop is USB 2.0. The 7,200RPM hard drive will easily over-saturate the bandwidth provided by the USB 2.0 specification (480Mbp/s max).

So, here's what we need to know:

1) What is the fastest data transferring interface on your laptop?
2) Do you want your external drive to be portable or stationary?

Looking at Alienware's site and looking up your laptop ( HERE) it appears the fastest spec your laptop supports is eSATA. Knowing this, do you want a 3.5" or 2.5" formfactor hard drive (less portability and high capacity versus high portability and less capacity?)

 

eSATA is most preferred. USB2.0 can't do games, Firewire is very unstable and I would not recommend it.

If your notebook has an external eSATA port I would recommend that becaues it would almost be the same as having it inside your laptop.

 

Any storage device (even 5,400RPM hard drives) will easily over-saturate the bandwidth provided by USB 2.0. Therefore, it is a bottleneck, yes. Impossible to play games? I don't think so, but would I recommend it? Nope.

They work exactly the same way as USB. All you need to do is find an external which supports these specs. As far as cost goes, each of these solutions are not more expensive than USB per se. They are standard data interfaces available on most external solutions (with the exception of FireWire since it's been mostly deprecated for a year or more).

 

Could you give a link to where I could buy an external enclosure? also maybe a bit more info on that, never used one before.


Hmm well, eSata seems interesting, will look into it. However, if I end up with a USB external (it seems to be the cheapest); Could anyone reccomend a good brand? I bought a lacie a few years ago, and it made lots of noise and the wiring was very faulty, after a few months use I had to have "usb " with the external before my pc would even recognise it -.-

 

500gb hdd is enough that I won't be needing an external for portable use; its more to store movies/sitcoms/games which I am not using at the moment. As long as it fits into a suitcase for when I'm travelling 3.5 is fine

 

Sure. I happened to review Silverstone's MS03 external hard drive enclosure not too long ago. You can read more about it HERE.

If you intend to game on your external, you're going to want an enclosure that supports eSATA (which the MS03 does).

 

Hmm, the hard drive enclosure seems nice, but I'm not sure if it fits my budget. I'll try find how much it costs in UK. In the meantime found this: 2tb 7200rpm hard drive with eSata. It only costs 92 pounds (144 dollars). Any comment? It seems too good to be true..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-ESATA-Ext...K_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item4839389f22

p.s.: Also, tx a lot for your help Garetjax, you have a great way of explaining things out I can see why you are a reviewer. +rep

 

Pre-built external:
The pickings are slim for an eSATA-based external that offers over 500GB capacity. Maybe the Western Digital WDG1S10000VN?

DIY external:
Silverstone MS03
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALS

 

The actual product looks ideal: 2TB of storage with eSATA. Nice find! However, when it comes to eBay, I hesitate to buy anything that is electronic or PC-related unless the seller has perfect feedback (which envizage2000 does), there's some kind of return policy (14 day return policy), and a warranty (no warranty is offered; product is sold "as is").

My only concern is not knowing what kind of hard drive is inside the external. All hard drives are not created equal and I'd be very curious to know who the manufacturer of that hard drive is (not the enclosure, but the actual HDD inside of it).

Hey, thanks for the compliment and you're welcome! I enjoy helping peeps out.

 

Wait, where does it say it has a 14 day return warranty?

Regarding the HDD inside the external, I still have a week or more till my new computer arrives, and I wont be needing the external for a while, so I'll send them an email asking. If I don't get that particular one I'll look around for a bit. Hell, maybe I'll just save money and end up getting a HDD enclosure with two bays, and run 2 Momentum XT's with a raid setup

 

It's a 14 day return policy, not warranty. There is no warranty on any of Enviage's products apparently (which makes me a bit leery about their products. I mean hell, if they aren't confident in their product, am I comfortable using it? All signs point to "no"). Anyway, it's in the fine print, both in the auction and Envizage's web site:

In that case, I have just the ticket for you (yes, this is another review):

Silverstone DS221 External RAID Storage Enclosure Review

 

3.5'' External Hard Drive eSATA/USB 2.0 1TB on eBay (end time 13-Oct-10 15:36:44 BST)

refurbished but from Verbatim with a 1 year warranty. Any thoughts/comments? its dirt cheap, and although getting a hard disk enclosure with bays is tempting this seems like a good solution for now

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-ESATA-Ext...ing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item4839389f22&afsrc=1

letter from envisage:

"The warranty on the item is 1 year with us,

Please find below our returns policy:

If you wish to cancel your orderyou can notify us by email to
[email protected] before we have dispatched the goods to you; or (b) where
goods have already been dispatched to you, by returning goods to us in
accordance with clause 4.2 below.
4.2 You can return goods you have ordered from us for any reason at any time
within 14 days of receipt for a full refund or exchange. The costs of
returning goods to us shall be borne by you.
4.3 Upon receipt of the goods we will give you a full refund of the amount
paid or an exchange credit as required.


Currently, we use either Seagate or Samsung disks."



So apparently they offer a 1 year warranty, and the hdd comes with a decent enough disk. Seems like a decent buy as far as I can see..

 

western digital like my own

 

I agree. My personal preference when it comes to hard drives is Western Digital and Seagate (in that order), but Samsung is good too. I'd say you've found your new external storage!