External Hard Drive Comparison

[Dielyn]

Hey Guys and Girls

Looking to buy an External Hard Drive. PC Zone has a Seagate for 2TB for R899 and Matrix has a Samsung 2TB for R859. Both are 3.5 Inch. Any comments about these Brands ? Transfer rates ? Or a better deal, if you can find one.

 

[Fader4]

i assume the samsung is a g3 station? i have a couple and other than the fact that they are environmentally friendly and "sleep" when not in use and take a few seconds to spin up i have had no problems, would not touch seagate with a ten foot pole.

 

[Dielyn]

Yes, it is. Thanks a lot.

 

[Yotch]

I would also go for the Samsung rather than the Seagate. For the same amount of money though you could just assemble your own USB3 (~3X faster copy speeds than USB2) drive using a cheap Pinnacle enclosure (Rebeltech, Prophecy, Nivo etc.) and a Samsung HD204UI from Esquire (currently on sale for R549 excl.). You can buy a USB3 PCIe card from Dealextreme for <$20 or for slightly more locally if required. If you assemble the drive yourself it will be much simpler to repair if you ever experience data loss problems.
http://www.pinnacleafrica.co.za/Product/item.aspx?ID=33693
Disassembly of Samsung G3 ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS0yfEIsPzc

 

[Dielyn]

I just checked the Esquire site. Saw these FreeCom Externals. Never heard of the brand before though. They're really cheap. Stay away ?

 

[Fader4]

I just checked the Esquire site. Saw these FreeCom Externals. Never heard of the brand before though. They're really cheap. Stay away ?

Yes, ideally you should stay away from esquire. Period.
Thats just my opinion though

 

[Yotch]

Freecom usually install Samsung drives in their external drives. Are you referring to the 1.5TB for R499? That is a good buy!

 

[SouthBit]

I would say a) get whatever is cheapest b) which ever has the best warranty c) get USB 3.0 or else you'll regret it in the not so distant future.