External HDD Choices

Hi,

I'm having a hard time deciding between a WD Passport USB 3.0 500GB and a Hitachi Touro Pro USB 3.0 500GB. Both are the same price and 2 Year Warranty.

WD Passport
500GB - 5400 RPM - USB 3.0 - Password Protection and Hardware Encryption - WD Smartware and Firmware Upgradeable

Hitachi Touro Pro
500GB - 7200 RPM - USB 3.0

The WD Passport most likely has a 500GB Scorpio Blue inside and the Hitachi Touro most likely a 500GB Travelstar 7K500 from this X-Bit Labs roundup the 7K500 is a lot faster than the Scorpio Blue:

Roundup: 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drives with 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB Storage Capacities. Page 14 - X-bit labs

It's a tough call for me since I like the WD design better, firmware upgradeable and WD Smartware looks pretty decent. But at the same time the Touro offers great speed and performance and may even have a 7K750 inside since there's a 750GB model for the Touro and only up to 500GB for the 7K500.

Very hard on this one.

 

Not hard for me: Hitachi all the way.

 

I have a WD My Passport 1TB USB 3.0 external HDD and i totally love it compared to my Seagate GoFlex 1TB USB 2.0. The difference i guess is due to usb 3.0. But the WD is smaller and easier to carry around. Dunno about the Hitachi though. I guess the 7200rpm disk should be better than the 5400rpm disk in the WD.

 

Thanks for sharing.

One other thing since Hitachi hard drive division has been bought by WD, I'm not sure how the warranty would be dealt with if anything goes wrong within the covered time period.

I gotta admit I'm leaning more towards the Hitachi on this one as an enthusiast however from Newegg reviews seems WD is the external HDD of users choice.

Edit:

Samsung also offers a S2 500GB USB 3.0 exterbal for the same price, it's smaller than the WD Passport and 7200 RPM but comes only in white with carry case. It really sucks cause the Samsung would have been a no brainer for me.

 

I would take the WD. I have a WD My Passport Elite and a Lacie Rugged. I find the Rugged better because it is more durable, but the WD is a fantastic external HDD too.

 

Does the Hitachi 7200 require an external power supply? If so, I would get the WD 5200 because it would be easier to carry around.

 

No, it's powered via USB just like the WD Passport.

 

i just bought an external enclosure for $7 and stuck a hitachi 7k500 in it. saved a LOT of cash instead of buying one of these "branded" ones.

 

So I got the Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro. I'm very impressed with the speed of the drive, it's as fast if not faster than my current internal Seagate 7200.4, it runs cooler even in the enclosure and is definitely more quiet than the internal Seagate drive. The built quality and packaging is very good and the enclosure looks very stylish even though I'm not a big fan of the black/silver theme. The downside is the drive is a finger print magnet, the enclosure is easily prone to scratches and the cable is a bit stiff (length is good). I went online to check the status of the warranty and there's exactly 23 months shown online, I guess I get the last month by providing proof of purchase to Hitachi is anything should go wrong with the drive on the last month of the 2 year warranty period. Windows does not allows write caching on the drive, I'm guessing Hitachi disabled for data safety reasons in the case of accidental unplug and the drive does not work when plugged into the front panel USB ports on a NZXT Vulcan.

I'm not too sure how it stacks up to a 7K500 through internal connection but here are some benchmarks on Renasas USB 3.0 controller (power management disabled):

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