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    Retail External HDD or buy an enclosure and build it yourself?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by zinfandel, Jul 13, 2007.

  1. zinfandel

    zinfandel Notebook Consultant

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    Do I get a 500GB WD MY BOOK Essentials, a Maxtor III, or Seagate Proagent or just buy an enclosure and put in my own HDD. I have backup software, so that is not a consideration.

    Cost is similar, with the external do it yourself enclosures you can choose to have fan or not. The integrated retail solutions seem sleeker. Plus th external DIY enclosures allow you to changeout HDD, the integrated ones usually not.
     
    zinfandel, Jul 13, 2007
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  2. expo25kr

    expo25kr Notebook Evangelist

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    e-Sata enclosures are good. but it really depends on you. remember the bottleneck of usb2.0 well if you have firewire then thats not a problem.
     
    expo25kr, Jul 13, 2007
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  3. titaniummd

    titaniummd Notebook Deity

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    I opted for the do it yourself. With all of the spare desktop hardrives, you can interchange them if you need to do that.

    I also feel like there's more control if I put it together. These are my opinions.
     
    titaniummd, Jul 13, 2007
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  4. zinfandel

    zinfandel Notebook Consultant

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    Which enclosure and HDD did you chose?
     
    zinfandel, Jul 13, 2007
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  5. zinfandel

    zinfandel Notebook Consultant

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    I can do an eSata if I have any USB 2.0 port? I would assume my new Sager 2090 w/sata HDD would accomodate an eSata USB HDD.
     
    zinfandel, Jul 13, 2007
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  6. Romanian

    Romanian Notebook Evangelist

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    No, e-SATA is a completely different type of input. (If I'm wrong, please correct me.) It ought to say under Specifications: e-SATA. The ASUS C90S has that under specs, whereas the Sagers don't have that under their specs. The w/SATA HDD means the internal parts, which means more easily replaceable. Sure, e-SATA is really nice. Fastest available, IIRC. But FireWire comes a close second, and you shouldn't be able to notice a difference. When I tried out my friend's USB2.0 external HDD, it went really smoothly. And USB2.0 is about 1/4 as good as FireWire. I can only dream of how well FW runs.
     
    Romanian, Jul 14, 2007
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  7. expo25kr

    expo25kr Notebook Evangelist

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    if youre looking for sleekness and do not have harddrives lying around look for an external enclosure that matches your desires and use firewire (if you have it)

    But usually doing it yourself is cheaper. and you have power on the hard drive and storage. and its not hard. just dont be rubbing on fur before you touch your components.

    My preferences in speed only
    e-SATA>Firewire 800>Firewire 400>USB 2.0>USB 1.0

    Preferences in speed and compatibilty with devices
    Firewire 400 or 800 > USB 2.0 > e-SATA > USB 1.0

    Just dont go with the 1.0
     
    expo25kr, Jul 14, 2007
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  8. SideSwipe

    SideSwipe Notebook Virtuoso

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    what about USB 1.1, how could you forget USB 1.1!? :O

    the cheapest solution is a USB 2.0 interface, firewire is less common but might be better especially if u have firewire 800 but e-sata requires an e-sata expresscard which adds to the cost of the whole idea.

    the Mybook Essentials are USB only, go for the premium editions. maxtor doesnt exist anymore, it was bought out by seagate but im sure theyll honor maxtor warranties. i think u shud get seagate or WD, whichever is cheaper with the fastest interface that you can use on your system.
     
    SideSwipe, Jul 14, 2007
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