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    External Hard drive

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by robcope, Jun 10, 2005.

  1. robcope

    robcope Notebook Evangelist

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    My zv6005us plays the games I like to play well, but I was wondering if they might run any better if I load them on my 5400 RPM external USB 2.0 harddrive versus the internal 4200 RPM drive.

    Cope

    Cope
    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
    John 15:13
    HP ZV6005us
    -AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz
    -2048MB 2700RAM
    -128MB ATI Mobility radeon X200m
    -80GB 4200RPM HDD
    -15.4" Widescreen w/ Brightview
    -DVD±RW W/DL support
    -XP Home
    -8-Cell Battery
     
  2. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    Why not put the hard dive inside the laptop?






    I was robbed by a sweet little old lady on a motorized cart and I didn't even see it coming.

    -Lloyd Christmas


    Thinkpad T42:
    * 1.8Ghz Pentium M * 1.5GB Memory * 60GB Hitachi 7200RPM * 15" SXGA+ Flexview * NEC ND-6500A * Win 2k *
     
  3. robcope

    robcope Notebook Evangelist

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    It just happens to be an external

    Cope
    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
    John 15:13
    HP ZV6005us
    -AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz
    -2048MB 2700RAM
    -128MB ATI Mobility radeon X200m
    -80GB 4200RPM HDD
    -15.4" Widescreen w/ Brightview
    -DVD±RW W/DL support
    -XP Home
    -8-Cell Battery
     
  4. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    Is it a desktop or laptop drive? Cause if it is a laptop drive, you'll get better overall system performance if you put inside the laptop. For games, the hard drive isn't all that important. While it is loading you'll get better performance, but you probably won't see any difference while playing.






    I was robbed by a sweet little old lady on a motorized cart and I didn't even see it coming.

    -Lloyd Christmas


    Thinkpad T42:
    * 1.8Ghz Pentium M * 1.5GB Memory * 60GB Hitachi 7200RPM * 15" SXGA+ Flexview * NEC ND-6500A * Win 2k *
     
  5. gecko

    gecko Notebook Evangelist

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    You will lose a LOT of perforamce. Unless that external is hooked to your comp via SATA/IDE/SCSI interface, it'll be slower than you internal. Firewire/USB is still slower than the internal HD transfer speed.
    I can barely stream my itunes off my 7200rpm external on firewire. Everyonce in awhile when two people start streaming it'll skip.

    External drives are only useful as a storage device, nothing else.

    =======================================
    One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
    My advice is based on personal experience. Effectiveness will vary.
     
  6. Arla

    Arla Notebook Deity

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by gecko

     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  7. gecko

    gecko Notebook Evangelist

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    Interesting. I'll have to watch a movie and see.
    I'm actually thinking of getting an old small compaq case, and just turn the external into an internal, and use the compaq as a file server. Its annoying having the wires come out of the laptop. :)

    =======================================
    One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
    My advice is based on personal experience. Effectiveness will vary.
     
  8. qwester

    qwester Notebook Virtuoso

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    I have no problem with streaming anything of my external USBs (a 2.5" & 3.5"), EVEN A DVD COPY!!! (that's a lot of bandwidth!) ... Maybe you have an issue with yours, could be the drive or the firewire interface.

    I have 2 external drives and they both maintain a constant speed of around 20MB/sec. But I noticed that with my external DVD/RW (also USB), when I am burning a dvd, every once in a while (about 2 times per dvd burn) the buffer drops to 0% and buffer under run protection kicks. But I have no issue playing dvds from it ... I never got to the source of that issue, but I actually care less since burning works well, and so does reading dvds!

    You shouldn't be having such problems since firewire, although theoretically slower, performs better than USB.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    N6010: P4M 3.2G, 1GB Dual 400MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
  9. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

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    i have an old school 20 gb 4200 rpm 2 meg buffer on-its-last-legs hard drive that i ripped out of my old notebook and put into an external usb 2.0 enclosure. i can stream mp3s and movies off of it no problem.
     
  10. mufus

    mufus Notebook Guru

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    I've got an external 7200RPM USB 2.0 drive that I connect to an old laptop through a PCI USB 2.0 card. I never had any trouble streaming video or music off of it. On my new laptop with USB 2.0 ports it's even faster.

    -------------------------
    "Everyday, in every way, I'm getting better and better."

    Dell Inspiron 700 M: 2.0Ghz PM, 1024MB DDR SDRAM, 60GB 5400RPM, Dual Layer 8x CD/DVD+/-RW

    IBM G41: 3.06Ghz P4M with HT, 1.5GB DDR SDRAM, 80GB 5400RPM, 8x CD/DVD+/-RW