Galahad
Well-Known Member
I am looking for good value 1 TB External - would be very grateful for recommendations.
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Ext. Hard drives
- Thread starter Galahad
- Start date
Mephisto_Helix
Resident Postwhore
Rather just get yourself a 1TB drive of choice and an enclosure.
Galahad
Well-Known Member
Thanks - I will look into tomorrow. Do you know the make?
AnomalyNexus
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Watch out for 5400rpm drives. 
Get an enclosure that has some form of air vents & not completely closed.
Oh, and wtf is up with the disapproval icon chosen for this thread?
Get an enclosure that has some form of air vents & not completely closed.
Oh, and wtf is up with the disapproval icon chosen for this thread?
Galahad
Well-Known Member
Are Solid State h/ds recommended?
DJNgoma
Expert Member
In a computer yes. Out of one... Seems kind of pointless to me.
Just get a hard drive and an enclosure for it.
1TB Seagate FreeAgent Go FTW, it's price FTL.
BLaZor2
Expert Member
I agree, after what happened to me this year, I'm never buying stock externals.
I can recommend the Samsung story station. It houses a samsung ecogreen drive. 5400rpm really isn't a problem for an external drive, you're going to be limited by the USB interface anyway and it will run quieter and cooler. I would not recommend the Seagate Freeagent, they have an above average failure rate. I wrote a review on the 1.5TB story station: http://psichron.za.net/wordpress/2009-11-29/samsung-story-station-hx-du015eb-review/
whats wrong with a 5400rpm drive, USB cant match a 5400rpm drives speed so theres no reason not to get oneWatch out for 5400rpm drives.
Watch out for 5400rpm drives.
Get an enclosure that has some form of air vents & not completely closed.
Oh, and wtf is up with the disapproval icon chosen for this thread?
+1
What exactly are you referring to (AnomalyNexus) ?
5400rpm drives will always outperform a USB connection
Galahad
Well-Known Member
Thanks Guys for all the input.
Galahad
Well-Known Member
Hi - Can you recommend a supplier in the Western Cape - preferably Somerset West area? Liked your review.
I got mine from Sahara near Century City in Cape Town, bought a bunch of them in one go. If you can't get it from Sahara, just look for a Sahara reseller, any smallish or non-franchise PC shops should have a dealership, there should be some in Somerset West. Just remember that 3.5" (typically "large" external drives like 1TB+) require an external power adapter which is supplied with the drive. Physically smaller sized externals can be USB powered.
Galahad
Well-Known Member
Thanks a lot.
AnomalyNexus
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USB 2 Specs = 60MB/s
Random 5400rpm off google = 46MB/s
Sure the 60MB/s is theoretical but its still a long way off 46MB/s.
Besides, if the 5400rpm drives were really on par with 7200rpm drives then why would anyone put expensive 7200rpm drives in external casings if its extra cost but no performance gain..
wpswart006
Senior Member
Besides, if the 5400rpm drives were really on par with 7200rpm drives then why would anyone put expensive 7200rpm drives in external casings if its extra cost but no performance gain..
Two reasons:
1. Either because the external HDD comes in various editions (The Freeagent comes in at least three editions) some of which support eSata where you could see improved transmission speeds, and then it would be silly to have two production lines with different speed drives.
2. Many manufacturers just have 7200rpm drives as their flagship HDD product and don't produce 5400rpm drives of that size.
Also:
"Additional notes from Alex Esquenet - our engineer friend based in Belgium: "A fast usb host can achieve 40 MBytes/sec. The theorical 60 MB/sec cannot be achieved, because of the margin taken between the sof's (125 us), so if a packet cannot take place before the sof, the packet will be rescheduled after the next sof. On top of that, all the USB transactions are handled by software on the PC. For instance, a USB host on a PCI bus will send or receive the data via the PCI bus; the stack will prepare the next data in memory and receive interrupt from the host."
http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm#4
So you're not going to see a speed difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm for USB2. USB3 and eSATA is a different story.
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