External Portable Hard Drive Project Q

Hi folks,

You folks at NBR have always been GREAT and Steered me in the right direction ... anyway, ...

I am planning to put together a 500GB External Portable Hard Drive (2.5" Factor) ... Buy the External Enclosure and Hard Drive separately and plug in myself ...and I was hoping to get some feedback from you experts here ...

Q1: Would it make that much of difference in Data Transfer speed if I go with a 500GB 5400RPM or a 500GB 7200RPM? Video, Pictures, Music, regular Office documents.

Q2: Would an 8MB Cache vs 16MB Cache make that much of a difference?

Q3: Which Hard Drive do you guys prefer for ... "Dependabiliy" ... Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, or ...?

Q4: Any recommendation or preference on the Enclosure Manufacturer?

Q5: Source to buy these ... any other good online stores besides, Newegg and TigerDirect?

Q6: Any other recommendations that I have NOT covered in my above Qs?

Thanks,

G!

 

I'm in the same boat regarding enclosures. I'll likely end up buying all three in my thread and returning the ones I like least.
To sum it up:
Q1: Not sure, but I'm VERY happy with western digital's WD5000BEVT 500GB 5400RPM drive. I have one in my laptop, one in my PS3 and one as an external. Fast, quiet and cool running.
Q2:Again, not totally sure but see #1.
Q3:See #1.
Q4:Check out the three I linked to in my thread. I think they're good starts.
Q5:Newegg and amazon are my two top choices.
Q6:Get a couple of these for storing and protecting your hard drives.

HTH

 

1: Only if you use eSATA instead of USB. USB caps out at 25MB/s in practical usage, whereas eSATA runs as fast as an internal hard drive. You'll notice just a few seconds shaved off of xfer times, but other than that not really. 7200rpm drives are better with seek times mainly, so expect a more noticeable effect with smaller files even with a USB interface.

2: Again, unless you're using eSATA, not really.

3: I had a Hitachi in my old computer, a Seagate in my current one, and a Western Digital that I just added. They all work great.

4: Just get one with eSATA and good reviews.

5: Perhaps eBay if you find something that's a brand name (or if you're willing to take a chance?).

6: Make sure you have an eSATA port if you're concerned about performance. Did I mention eSATA yet? lol
I don't think eSATA is powered, however. You may need to have an eSATA port for xfer's and a USB port for 5v power. Also, bear in mind that with most PC's, USB can supply up to 1A of power, whereas Macs tend to have low power USB ports which cap out at 500mA (this is just from experience). So if you can get away with powering a portable HDD from a single USB port on a PC, beware that it may not spin up the first time (or at all) on a Mac.

Also, the cases mentioned by NiteWalker are great for moving the drive around, but make sure that you keep it open when you're using it to alleviate heat buildup.

Best of luck. I've done a lot of enclosure jobs but most of them were temporary.

 

In response to your first question, if you're connecting this to your computer via USB, then 7200RPM probably won't make a big difference. A 5400RPM disk will give you transfer speeds over 45MB/sec (likely over 55), whereas, though USB 2.0 theoretically can go up to 60MB/sec, practically speaking it doesn't get much above 35.
A 7200RPM drive will give you probably ~15MB/sec better performance when connected via SATA however.

Q2: As I understand it, a cache above 8MB doesn't make a significant performance difference. The cache is used as a read buffer, so you'll see things pop up a little faster, but file transfer speeds will not be affected much.

Q3: Western Digital and Seagate are the two premier brands. I have a Seagate in my laptop, but will probably be picking up a 500gb WD for storage in a few weeks. Hitachi, Fujitsu, and the rest are fine as far as I'm concerned, but of a slightly lower quality and performance.

Q4: I would buy something cheap from Newegg--just check the reviews if possible.

Q5: Tigerdirect is not as reputable as Newegg--they sometimes sell offbrand stuff, labelled as the real thing, hence I prefer not to buy from them.
There are two other good online stores I occasionally use: zipzoomfly.com and frys.com

I don't think for your application that the 7200RPM drive is worth the price difference.
Also, if anyone tells you a 3.5in is a better deal, be aware that it's not just larger, but needs an external power source, so you'll need to be near an outlet to use it.

Good luck with your purchase!

 

That's my main reason for preferring 2.5" drives as well.

 

Hi folks,

Thank YOU all for your responses ... all extremely Helpful.

After posting this ... I kept reading online and doing some more thinking ... so what I think I plan to do is to go with ...

- External Enclosure with USB/eSATA connection on it and preferrably Aluminum Casing.

As far as hard drive goes JacobX's answer on "Cache" does help me so I won't be pre-occupied when comparing 2 drives and cost comparing 8MB vs 16MB cache. All, I would be using the External Drive is for Data Stoarge and retireval.

My laptop is Gateway M-6862, which has a Expresscard 54 slot ... and I think I have decided on using a 2 Port eSATA Expresscard ... which after reading several posts on different Seller Sites, I think I am going with Expresscard 54 because it will SIT more snuggly in my port ... vs the Expresscard 34. The darn things are NOT Cheap!

Now, there is also another thing that I was thinking to do if MY cost of putting this toy goes over what I can get it out there pre-assembled ... I might just opt for that ...

@ dtd00d ... your Answer #6 it confused me ... on the Power thing. If I plan to use an External HD 2.5" with an eSATA Expresscard ... are you saying I will need additional POWER?

THANKS again NiteWalker , JacobX and dtd00d for your HELP and Answers!

G!

 

Yeah: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#Comparisons_with_other_interfaces

eSATA is not powered, so you'll need to either use a USB port or AC adapter to power the hard drive, unfortunately. :/

 

Hi dtd00d,

Thanks for the Info link. Sorry I haven't posted sooner ... been swamped with Stuff.

BTW, dtd00d ... I just noticed in your SigLine that your Sager 2090 bit the dust ... wow ... I thought those things were "Bullet-Proof"!!!

G!

 

All good, gonwk!

Yeah the motherboard kind of died on me... But I have an Asus now