What to look for in an external hd?

Im looking for a new hdd to use as a save facility for movies, mainly DVD-5 (4.3 gb).
So i dont think (gaming) speeds are that important, what i do need is reliability,
and a somewhat quick transfer speed when writing the files to a DVD.
And low on noise, but that wont be a problem i presume.

What is the story with USB 3.0? Should I wait for it and the new compatible models
to be released, will it be available for all notebooks. Or will it need internal chip support or.. ?

Been eyeballing some 1,0 and 1,5 TB models.. no idea what to look for.
Hoping you guys could point me to the right direction.
My budget lies around €100,-. Am able to wait a couple of months so models priced a tad higher could be suggested aswell.

I mainly will use it at home, so it doesnt need to be portable.
Unless the advantage of a portable one beats the alternatives ofcourse..

Uhm, I already have 500 gb internal, and a Western Digital FreeagentDesktop external 500 gb. (kinda big, prefer a smaller one)
Really dont know how to combine the current one with the new one.. im running out of usb ports lol. Could transfer everything to the new one and sell it, not quite sure yet.


Anyways, thanks for reading, feel free to share your thoughts!

Question is: What to look for in an external hdd?

 

There is no point in USB 3.0 if you don't need more than USB 2.0 speeds. You can buy a splitter if you don't have enough USB ports, but it would probably be better to just put everything on the new drive. If portability isn't an issue, just go with the 3.5" external drives. They are better in every which way except for size, but ones like the WD Elements are barely bigger than the drive itself unlike some that are in very airy cases. The 2TB elements should fit in your price range since it is only like $120 shipped.

 

Taking your budget and your timeframe into account I think you'll be disappointed by your patience.

If you were talking more like six months from now, then I think your parameters will be more easily met.

Since you need speed, compatibility and capacity now, forget USB3 and look into eSATA enclosures with an appropriate USB2 and eSATA ExpressCARD/CARDBUS adaptor.

You should find these not only much closer to your price range, but better current availability of these items too.

Good luck.

 

If you're notebook doesn't have USB3 there's no sense in getting a USB3 drive.

 

You are going to get something around 40MBps out of USB 2.0, far more than enough bandwidth for DVD burning.

 

Thank you for your insights!

Some questions:

Why do you think i will be disappointed?
Also, could someone post an example of the bolded text?
I have no idea what it is or how it looks like.

I understand that the sSATA feature disables the USB2.0 speed bottleneck.
Is this correct?


I am currently looking into the Samsung G3 Station 2 TB.
Amazingly large, for 117 euro's.. meant as a back-up module, slow.. without eSATA. It has the Samsung Eco Green F2 HD203WI inside.

 

USB 2.0 is sloooow as hell for moving anything 4+ gigs. Honestly, get an eSata connector + proper expresscard adaptor. You won't be disappointed

 

i'd get e-SATA... it is actually faster than USB3.0 in hard drives... only beats e-SATA in SSD's..... get a Western Digital My Book.. very reliable and quite a few have e-SATA.

 

You'll be disappointed because in two months time you'll still have the same limited choice as you do now.

Here is an ExpressCard eSata adaptor:

See:
FirmTek SeriTek/2SM2-E


Here is an example of a CardBUS eSATA adaptor:

See
2-port eSATA PCMCIA CardBus-32 Laptop Adapter


Hope this helped.

 

Western Digital has a USB 3 external drive, I believe the actual drive is their Caviar Green but unless you're talking about a motherboard with native usb 3, v3.0 isn't worth waiting for with Esata around. Even USB2 is fine for playing and encoding video to disk. You likely won't be transferring your DVD5 movies from comp to comp.

If you're ok with 500gb or under and are good with a screwdriver,

this and this are all you need.

I realize you're in Europe but you can still get the hdd there and a case similar to the cost.

Otherwise, buy a 1.5TB Caviar Green (the 2TB are not known to be as problem free, according to Newegg reviews) and an Esata enclosure for an extra 15 Euros. I've got my enclosure, just waiting for a sale to come up so I can snatch one of the Caviar drives.