External Hard Drive advice

kilobitsperyear said:
Ta... will go see...

I have this ... http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/372 ... grrr. poooh.

Any experience with these.... http://www.wootware.co.za/lian-li-ex-20-2-bay-support-raid-0-1-jbod-external-enclosure.html .. ?
Click to expand...
I've been a fan of the Vantec docks, but mine also started giving me hassles a few weeks ago. Luckily I picked it up early and suffered no HDD losses. So now I'm also in the market for a replacement dock.

I've tried the Freecom and Manhattan units - found them wanting as they do not pick up all my different HDDs.
 
I use a Mukii dock - same company as Vantec but much cheaper - no problems yet, touch timber. :D

These might be of interest, Zalman too make good quality stuff and at about half the price of the Lian-Li.

±600 Zalman zm-MH200 HUB - dual hdd hard drive dock with built-in SDHC card reader + 2x usb2.0 downstream port , 2x bay for 2.5" or 3.5" sata to usb2.0+eSATA , black , with eject button for easy removal of hard drive http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=409

±R750 Zalman zm-MH200 U3 - dual hdd hard drive dock with built-in raid (0, 1, JBoD ) + green power management , 2x bay for 2.5" or 3.5" sata to Usb3.0 5.0Gbps ( usb2.0 backward compatiable ) , black , with eject button for easy removal of hard drive http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=408
 
Eish...

You see... us mortals need advice from ye gods!

My Vantec cost me R800 last year... so I was looking at a dual dock thingy and it is "only" R200 more... but you are absolutely wise... I will not be using RAID, I could get 4 of those coolermaster thingies for the same amount. Them Lian-Li's sure are puuuurdy. Vantec I am still a tad grrrrrr with at the mo'.

The docks are very convenient tho'... just eject and re-insert without having to disassemble.

PostmanPot said:
Nope, but you can't go wrong with Lian-Li - high quality stuff.

Do you need RAID/JBoD?

Hard to justify the price when you can get an HP Proliant Microserver (entire mini PC with CPU/1GB RAM/250GB HDD) for R1,000.
Click to expand...

/sighs... Them Lian-Li's sure are puuuurdy
 
Last edited:
Haibo... you type quick... :)

PostmanPot said:
I use a Mukii dock - same company as Vantec but much cheaper - no problems yet, touch timber. :D

These might be of interest, Zalman too make good quality stuff and at about half the price of the Lian-Li.

±600 Zalman zm-MH200 HUB - dual hdd hard drive dock with built-in SDHC card reader + 2x usb2.0 downstream port , 2x bay for 2.5" or 3.5" sata to usb2.0+eSATA , black , with eject button for easy removal of hard drive http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=409

±R750 Zalman zm-MH200 U3 - dual hdd hard drive dock with built-in raid (0, 1, JBoD ) + green power management , 2x bay for 2.5" or 3.5" sata to Usb3.0 5.0Gbps ( usb2.0 backward compatiable ) , black , with eject button for easy removal of hard drive http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=408
Click to expand...
 
Alas... I was not so fortunate... lost 1 drive suddenly... then another without warning soon after... then my Verbatim went plink... thought I was just cursed! Only when another drive in the dock started wobbling with some regularity only in the dock, did I begin to see the light.

Removed it from the Vantec and it has been wobble-free.

MickeyD said:
I've been a fan of the Vantec docks, but mine also started giving me hassles a few weeks ago. Luckily I picked it up early and suffered no HDD losses. So now I'm also in the market for a replacement dock.

I've tried the Freecom and Manhattan units - found them wanting as they do not pick up all my different HDDs.
Click to expand...
 
Okay... another quick observation based on my personal experience...

Notebook drives seem to be more robust than desktop drives... well, for me at least.
They just seem to go on working... well, so far so good over here.
Perhaps I should be considering 2.5" drives instead for externals ?
I know that capacity wise they cost more than their 3.5" equivalents... but reliability might be worth the extra ?

Any thoughts ? Downside ?
 
Less to go wrong. With most other docks or external bays there's a power adaptor - I never trust those things!!! Especially 2 pin jobbies...
 
kilobitsperyear said:
Okay... another quick observation based on my personal experience...

Notebook drives seem to be more robust than desktop drives... well, for me at least.
They just seem to go on working... well, so far so good over here.
Perhaps I should be considering 2.5" drives instead for externals ?
I know that capacity wise they cost more than their 3.5" equivalents... but reliability might be worth the extra ?

Any thoughts ? Downside ?
Click to expand...

2.5" drives are definitely more resilient to drops as they can sustain higher force/G's before breaking.
 
Never had issues with Vantec as an external HDD enclosure.

I have samsung and toshiba 3.5 externals, would recommend either brand but prefer the toshiba stor.e models,
Click to expand...

In terms of the all-in-one ready to go externals, stay FAR FAR away from the Toshiba Stor-E. Had two fail within 3 months of purchase where the HDD inside is fine but the external enclosure stops working. One of my ex-Toshibas is now an internal drive and the other one's HDD is inside a Vantec NexStar CX. Seems the enclosures themselves are dodgy
 
Last edited:
Merenwenrago said:
I use Iomega external hardrives and never had problems with them I use the one for playing movies on my tv and other for backups. Iomega uses seagate drives.
Click to expand...

My 1TB Iomega drive from IC has a Samsung HD103SI inside. Some of the units do apparently have Seagate drives installed but they presumably install whatever works out cheapest depending on their contracts with the HDD manufacturers.
 
Thanks for the replies. Nice post on pg1 Yotch!

So it seems like they are all much of a muchness, sure some people have had had experiences with some drives but sounds like you going to get 1 of 3 makes of drive regardless of brand.

If buying a case and drive separately, would you say there it is really worth buying a expensive external enclosure? Seems like a R300 would do just fine.
 
Grimspoon said:
Thanks for the replies. Nice post on pg1 Yotch!

So it seems like they are all much of a muchness, sure some people have had had experiences with some drives but sounds like you going to get 1 of 3 makes of drive regardless of brand.

If buying a case and drive separately, would you say there it is really worth buying a expensive external enclosure? Seems like a R300 would do just fine.
Click to expand...

A R300 external enclosure's main difference is it will probably just give you different interfaces like eSATA. If you only need USB then there's no point spending more than R200.

Couple it with the cheapest HDD you can find. Cheap doesn't mean low quality, HDD failure is purely down to luck.
 
PostmanPot said:
A R300 external enclosure's main difference is it will probably just give you different interfaces like eSATA. If you only need USB then there's no point spending more than R200.

Couple it with the cheapest HDD you can find. Cheap doesn't mean low quality, HDD failure is purely down to luck.
Click to expand...

Yeah seems like a HDD is a HDD is HDD :p

Main difference I have seen is 5200 RMP vs 7200 RPM.

I wouldn't mind getting a Thunderbolt external for my iMac :D
 
Another question.

Does a 7200 RPM external make a massive difference compared to a 5200RPM?
 
It's normally 7,200rpm or 5,400rpm. These days some manufacturers don't even specify their rotational speeds, they like to keep it secret. I wouldn't use anything slower than a 7,200 for an OS, but I would imagine your external is only for storage so no, you won't notice any different. For storage I would go for one that spins slower as a 7,200rpm drives makes more vibration, noise and heat.
 
Grimspoon said:
Thanks for the replies. Nice post on pg1 Yotch!

So it seems like they are all much of a muchness, sure some people have had had experiences with some drives but sounds like you going to get 1 of 3 makes of drive regardless of brand.
Click to expand...
Well summed up and similar conclusion to what was reached in a previous thread. To each their own.

South_Bit said:
It's normally 7,200rpm or 5,400rpm. These days some manufacturers don't even specify their rotational speeds, they like to keep it secret. I wouldn't use anything slower than a 7,200 for an OS, but I would imagine your external is only for storage so no, you won't notice any different. For storage I would go for one that spins slower as a 7,200rpm drives makes more vibration, noise and heat.
Click to expand...
Same here.
OS @7200 or SSD
Data @5400, 5900 or 7200.
 
I'll +1 the G3. I've got one, works well. Although I don't cart it around, it's permanently attached to the back of my PC. ;)
 
MAKRO has got some good prices on various externals....

Consider this:
- Powered external drive for desktop use.
- USB powered if you plan to move around your data a lot.

SEAGATE is the most reliable in my opinion. GoFlex drives offer the most options should you want to change links from USB 2.0 to Firewire or USB 3.0 later....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X