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External Hard Drive advice...

CrEsTo

CrEsTo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 23, 2006
274
123
Australia
I need an external hard drive, looking something around 500GB, I'll use it with my MB and iMac G5.

I'll store my personal stuff like my iMovie projects, DivX movies, etc... nothing professional, just my hobbie things.

I've been checking prices, LaCie offers a triple interface 500GB HD for $399, but maybe I can save a few bucks by building my own with an enclosure and the hard drive.

Which setup (HD and enclosure) would you recommend?
 
Yeah, you will save some money (probably almost $100) by building it yourself. For the drive, I like either WD or Maxtor. I've used both, and have had them last several years (I even have a 4GB Maxtor drive from about 2000 that's still in service). For the enclosure, once you've decided on the interface (USB2, FW or eSATA) it really doesn't matter which you get; they're all pretty much the same.
 
Not only will you save money, you'll get a better warranty. Go with Seagate. They have a 5 year warranty. Match it with a good case that has all the interfaces you want. Just make sure you get the right interface between the drive and the case. Either PATA or SATA.
 
CrEsTo said:
I need an external hard drive, looking something around 500GB, I'll use it with my MB and iMac G5.

I'll store my personal stuff like my iMovie projects, DivX movies, etc... nothing professional, just my hobbie things.

I've been checking prices, LaCie offers a triple interface 500GB HD for $399, but maybe I can save a few bucks by building my own with an enclosure and the hard drive.

Which setup (HD and enclosure) would you recommend?
Click to expand...

I've never built my own, but the LaCie Porsche was a good deal back when I bought it (less than a year ago). If you get a single interface its substantially cheaper.
 
I think Seagate is the way to go given their 5 year warranty (make sure it is not recondition with 1 year warranty). See below for recomendations.

I have this enclosure. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEFW911UPL/

Others like this enclosure. http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail~dpno~267092.asp

**make sure the enclosure and hard drive are compatible....

Circuity City has a 300gb 7200rpm 16mb ide/ata hard drive that you can get for about $58 after 3 rebates. 2 rebates on their site, 1 extra rebate you can find on fatwallet or slickdeals with a search. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Seag...47047/catOid/-12973/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

Outpost has a 500gb like you are looking for at about $150:
SATA Details:

* SATA/300
* 7200RPM
* 16MB Buffer
* Regular Price :$309.99
* One per customer
* Product Available To Ship 6/30/06

PATA details:

* 7200RPM
* 16MB BUFFER
* RETAIL BOXED HARD DRIVE (INSTALLATION KIT INCLUDED)
* 5 YEAR WARRANTY
* Limit 1 Per Customer
* Regular Price:$299.99
* Product Available To Ship 6/30/06
Do ground shipping when in cart and get free shipping!

SATA http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4697788?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

PATA http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4795159?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

rebate form (thanks brunswick)
 
My Lacie tripple interface is NOISY. Really noisy. My Seagate is whisper quiet.
 
^ I wanted a single enclosure for both my DVD burner and 250GB hard drive, so I built my own from ebayed parts. I used one of these enclosures and this firewire to IDE bridge adapter to build it. Most of the firewire "bridge-boards" you can find on eBay are designed to replace an existing (centronics or 25-pin) SCSI connector in a SCSI enclosure, so it's usually a really easy conversion. The case I picked out used an HD-SCSI connector, so a little dremeling was required, but it was well worth it.
 
Looks interesting FullmetalZ26, but I think I'd like a plug and play enclosure since I'm not that familiar with HDs stuff.

Any other suggestion for a 2 hard disk enclosure? I will use USB 2 and FW 400.
 
I've been looking into getting some large amounts of storage space, also. I've been running through plenty of different ways to do it, and I think the most efficient way to do it would be to buy two 300GB or 320GB ATA/100 drives and install them in a dual enclosure. The enclosure I have been looking at will take up to 400GB hard drives per bay (make sure your enclosure will accept a 500GB drive if you're going to go with that) and only runs about $70, for the USB 2.0 option which you would be looking at.

Segate 320GB Hard Drives: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148139

Enclosures:
http://www.welovemacs.com/fx2u2eb3l.html for those with FireWire 800 (I know the MB and iMac don't support this)

or for USB 2.0

http://www.welovemacs.com/usb2eb235l.html

I'm going with the FW800 version because I have a PB and PM and I want the flexibilty of being able to daisy-chain drives together. But there are my choices! Hope I helped.
 
The New Western Digital MyBook series are really great.

USB2 version
USB2 + Firewire version (with dual ring of light)
USB2 + Firewire 400 & 800 Pro version (in mac white)

All of them are excellent and would recommend the black firewire version if you are doing video editing etc, otherwise if it's just storage the USB only solution is very cheap and comes in some nice big sizes...
 
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