external hd question
 

hi everyone,
I want to get a ~150GB (7200 RPM) external drive for recording music. questions:

1) where's the best place to get the best deal?
2) firewire or usb? I have ports for both.
3) any brands I should look for or stay away from?
4) are most ext drives bus powered or will I have a choice? if I have a choice, should I go with external power? I don't want to overload my laptops power supply.

thanks for your help. I don't buy hardware often and really don't keep up with this stuff.

Re: external hd question
 

You may want to consider getting an empty drive kit, so you can add your own drive.

This has come in handy for me because, I have many HDD's laying around, and can change them out on my laptop with relative ease, and if you need to back something up on a different drive, it's pretty easy to do.

You will almost definately need an external power supply for the drive.

Re: external hd question
 

will this be any louder than a "normal" external drive?

Re: external hd question
 

it won't be any louder, unless you buy a weird case, but i doubt that will happen. zoom on over to newegg.com (easily the best place on the internet for this stuff). pick up a case (i recommend one with both usb 2 and firewire), drop a drive in, and you're set.

Re: external hd question
 

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1) where's the best place to get the best deal?

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Try Pricewatch.com. Just make sure the site has lots of good reviews and do a google search on them before you buy.

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2) firewire or usb? I have ports for both.

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I have both as well, and on my PC, firewire outperforms the USB 2 with my external HD.

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3) any brands I should look for or stay away from?


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Opinions vary, but I personally am partial to Seagate and Western Digital drives, but definately not Maxtor, ever.

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4) are most ext drives bus powered or will I have a choice? if I have a choice, should I go with external power? I don't want to overload my laptops power supply.


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On a laptop, I'd go with the external power.

Mack