external USB hard drive recommendation

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polonyc2

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I'm looking to purchase an external USB drive for my desktop PC to serve as a backup for all my saved game files, Steam files and other files...are there any particular ones that stand out?...any ones to avoid?...I'll need a minimum of 500GB of space...I never purchased an external drive before...is it better to get one with a separate power supply?

are there any USB 3.0 external drives available?...if I get a 3.0 drive then I can still use it on my USB 2.0 motherboard right (but with 2.0 transfer speeds of course)?
 
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Yes, there are external USB3.0 drives out there. Buffalo makes them IIRC.
 
i would just get a small whs server this way you have high grade backup of ur pc from days weeks to months i have 2 whs server one for media and the other for backing up pc's the backup server runs 512 of ram and an old 600mhz and cpu
 
TechHead said:
Yes, there are external USB3.0 drives out there. Buffalo makes them IIRC.
Click to expand...

read some good reviews about the Buffalo HD-HXU3...a bit more expensive then similar drives but it looks good...hopefully Western Digital and Seagate will release some 3.5" USB 3.0 drives soon

I heard the USB 3.0 cable is different so would I still be able to use a USB 2.0 cable to connect the device to my current motherboard which has a 2.0 connector?
 
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yes. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 wires, mobo's / controllers.

BUT it will be operating at 30Mb/s (USB 2.0 bottleneck) instead of the roughly 100Mb/s (harddrive bottleneck) it could run at, if you got a USB 3.0 adapter card for your mobo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0000073&Description=usb 3.0&name=Add-On Cards

You can always use it down the road even in a USB 3.0 mobo just to add some extra full speed ports.
 
C-rizzle said:
yes. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 wires, mobo's / controllers.

BUT it will be operating at 30Mb/s (USB 2.0 bottleneck) instead of the roughly 100Mb/s (harddrive bottleneck) it could run at, if you got a USB 3.0 adapter card for your mobo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0000073&Description=usb 3.0&name=Add-On Cards

You can always use it down the road even in a USB 3.0 mobo just to add some extra full speed ports.
Click to expand...

thanks...I'm planning on doing a complete system upgrade in late March so I think I can wait till then to get full USB 3.0 speeds...for now USB 2.0 speed is fine...the adapter is great though for people not planning on getting USB 3.0 motherboards anytime soon

I just wanted to make sure that the USB 3 external drive was going to work with my USB 2 motherboard (with the lower speeds)...too bad Western Digital or Seagate have not released any USB 3.0 drives yet
 
You could just get an enclosure or pre-made drive w/USB + e-SATA... It'll be as fast as USB 3.0 (when plugged into an e-SATA port) and it'll probably be cheaper. An e-SATA bracket doesn't cost much more than $5-10. The one advantage to USB 3.0 would be if you plan to buy a laptop in the future that has USB 3.0, since that seems to be the direction they'll go in moving forward (there's a few models out there today w/e-SATA but it isn't the norm).

As for specifics between brand, etc... I'd make sure to get one w/a 3-year warranty at 'least, 5 would be better... The enclosures themselves seem as prone to failure as HDD, if not more so, but they can be a royal PITA to open (and you void the warranty doing so). Going the DIY route can be cheaper (certainly gives you more flexibility to replace either as they fail), tho the drive is usually not put to sleep auotmatically when idle.
 
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