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    7200rpm/1tb 3.5" USB or 5400rpm/500gb 2.5" USB 2.0?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by tracerit, May 10, 2009.

  1. tracerit

    tracerit Notebook Consultant

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    I'm deciding if I should go with a 3.5" 7200rpm 1TB drive and an external enclosure that uses USB 2.0 or go with a prebuilt external drive like the FreeAgent GO or Passports.

    I'd like to carry all my movies on an external drive so i can connect to my desktop and laptop.
     
    tracerit, May 10, 2009
    #1
  2. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    I've found that it's usually cheaper to buy a pre-made 3.5" 1TB external drive, if you buy from smaller manufacturers (Fantom, Calvalry, etc.). Essentially, they're all the same as they use the same drives (Seagate, WD, Hitachi, etc), though.
     
    MidnightSun, May 10, 2009
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  3. haquocdung

    haquocdung Notebook Virtuoso

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    Get a Fantom GreenDrive. It's fantastic.
     
    haquocdung, May 10, 2009
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  4. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    3.5 is bigger in capacity and faster, but you need to plug into the way to use it.
    2.5 can be power off the USB bus so you don't need external power, but they have smaller capacities.

    I would recommend getting a 2.5 inch encloser and a 500GB 2.5inch drive, it will be small, won't need a power calbe, and assuming you don't have more than 500GB of movies it should be big enough.

    This is a good encloser... I'm using one now for my 320GB 2.5 disk
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159090
     
    yuio, May 10, 2009
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  5. tracerit

    tracerit Notebook Consultant

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    is there a way to connect two PCs together with a cable and transfer data with each seeing the other as an "external drive"? or i can just use wifi i suppose.

    the downside with going with the 3.5" + external is that i'd have to plug it in, totally forgot about that. thanks for the reminder!

    should i just upgrade the 80gb (lol) drive in the Dell E6400 with an internal hitachi 5k500.b hard drive instead?
     
    tracerit, May 10, 2009
    #5
  6. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    you may want to upgrade your hard drive to get the space.

    As an option, you can buy/build a 2.5inch external disk that doesn't need extra power, the encloser I linked to doesn't need external power for any 2.5inch disk you install (I own one).
     
    yuio, May 10, 2009
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  7. tracerit

    tracerit Notebook Consultant

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    how much of a difference does connecting using the USB 2.0 or eSATA cable make?
     
    tracerit, May 10, 2009
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  8. garetjax

    garetjax NBR Freelance Reviewer NBR Reviewer

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    Yes. If you have an ASUS motherboard that supports the ASUS AI Direct Link spec you can.
     
    garetjax, May 10, 2009
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  9. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    USB devices usually transfer around 25mb/sec
    If you have an esata external, the drive will run as fast as the drive inside of it. If you have a 500gb 5400rpm 2.5" drive sustained data transfer will be around 60mb/sec
    If you have a 1tb 7200rpm 3.5" drive sustained data transfer can be as high as 80-100mb/sec depending on the model of the drive you buy

    I would stick with esata if you have 1 or more systems with an esata connection port.

    Upgrading the internal harddrive in your Dell does not void the warranty. Just call them up and tell them you are upgrading your harddrive.
    The 5k500.b goes for around $80-90 so it will be a good internal drive to get.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, May 10, 2009
    #9