External Hard drive recommendations

[=d][b=Ausden]

Got a nice Christmas present a little early this year...a best buy gift card with a good amount of money on it.

I've been in need of an external hard drive for sometime now and have narrowed it down to a few. Which one should I shoot for?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8908658&type=product&id=1216424110325

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9019279&type=product&id=1218009475263

And just so I know, I CAN install a game on the external hard drive just as long as I play it on the computer I had the hard drive hooked up to on installation correct?

Thanks guys!

[megawhompertoo]

Re: External Hard drive recommendations

Was in the same boat. What I really wanted was an external with an esata + usb interface.

Upside: Blazing fast (same as internal) transfer speed only limited by the speed of the hd itself

Downside: generally needs an external power source, also they're usually a tad more bulky.

Unfortunately, there were no esata ones, just esata enclosures for 3.5" drives, and those were way too big.

i settled on one of these, but black

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9084135&type=product&id=1218018141589

and so far i'm quite happy with it.

for gaming, i'd go ahead and do the esata compatible enclosure and a 3.5" drive since the drives you're looking at are pretty big, anyway. that is, if you have an esata port. not sure what gaming via a usb interface is going to be like...maybe someone who's done that will chime in.

wow, not really what your after, but how cool is this?

http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Bl...3ZZ2Z1W0AYY5X5

edit: even if you don't have an esata on your mobo, it might be worth it just to get an esata pci/pcie card. that way, you're dealing with a native hd interface, and you're offloading your hard drive operations off the cpu (usb) onto the southbridge, where it belongs.

[=d][b=Ausden]

Re: External Hard drive recommendations

^Thanks Mega, anymore thoughts or ideas? I'm going this afternoon

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: External Hard drive recommendations

Im considering buying a NAS solution so the hard drive is permantly attached to the network and anyone will be able to access the data stored on it. They are quite a bit more pricey than just a plain external.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=abcat0504004&type=category&usc=abcat0500000&cp=1&sp=%2Bcurrentprice+skuid&nrp=15&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0500000%23%230%23%2311z~~cabcat0504000%23%230%23%233o~~cabcat0504001%23%230%23%2325~~ncabcat0504004%23%230%23%231&pagetype=listing

[megawhompertoo]

Re: External Hard drive recommendations

hd

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8475679&st=esata&type=product&id=1185267958041

and if your mobo doesn't have esata:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8913991&st=esata+card&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1213400215921

[Twlight]

Re: External Hard drive recommendations

If your not concerned with transfer speed and want portability, it might be worth it to get this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=AF3N2XRV5DXIJKC4D3JVAHQ?skuId=8993164&st=western+digital&lp=5&type=product&cp=1&id=1218007082970

It's only slightly more expensive than the My Book Home, but it is smaller/lighter than it and does not require a power supply.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: External Hard drive recommendations

If your not concerned with transfer speed and want portability, it might be worth it to get this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=AF3N2XRV5DXIJKC4D3JVAHQ?skuId=8993164&st=western+digital&lp=5&type=product&cp=1&id=1218007082970

It's only slightly more expensive than the My Book Home, but it is smaller/lighter than it and does not require a power supply.

yeah, suggested something similar, but he wants to install games on it...best option there is esata with an external power supply. it functions just like an internal hard drive, with all the speed and perks you get from a native sata internal drive. though i don't particularly like the mybook series...