x200s - External HDD questions

Good morning guys

I have a few questions, I've actually posted them on Hardware Components and Aftermarket upgrades forum, but would like to get your advice as well.

After a lengthy post with great help from jonlumpkin, convoluted, jaredy and everyone else that helped, I purchased an x200s with the MLC 64gb SSD drive (still wondering why i didn't purchase an SLC, maybe next time?).

I plan on purchasing an external hard drive mainly for data backup, archiving, potentially few movies, potentially music etc. Note, this does NOT need to be a portable drive, it will likely sit on a desk until it dies. I will use flash drives and memory cards for portable storage (thanks jon for your SD card suggestions!).

Should I be looking at any INTERNAL hard drive with ~320-500gb or more of storage, purchase an enclosure and throw it together myself? Or should I just buy a WD My Book type already enclosed product? The $40-$50 price difference doesn't bother me too much, I'm looking more for reliability etc.

If I should go INTERNAL, what type of drive should I be looking for (i.e. 2.5" vs 3.5"), what speed (5400 vs 7200 rpm), what format (IDE vs SATA vs SATA I/II), USB powered or power cable, etc.

I've gotten a lot for good advice on the other forum, it's been a bit vague though and I'm VERY new to the hardware side of computers, I can work my way around software, never messed with the hardware. The more detail you can give me the better.

Thanks again to you all!
Adam

 

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