looking for good external hd, any suggestions?

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g|aSsJaw

Limp Gawd
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Oct 24, 2003
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i saw this one on newegg when i did a search for external hard drives and filtered the results to show the best ratings:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822216035

seems pretty nice. i'm looking for anything between 500gb and 1tb, to use as a storage drive.

can an external hd be left running 24/7, or will it get too hot? i saw that one of the reviews on the drive above said that after 3 hours of running, the drive felt a bit warm, which is why i'm wondering if they can be left running, since i leave my computer on pretty much 24/7 too.

i'd appreciate any suggestions, and newegg links would be really helpful if there's one on there you suggest.
 
So if you'd like to leave it running 24/7, why get an external? In any case, yes, you can leave it running 24/7.

If you have eSATA (or SATA), I'd suggest getting an eSATA drive instead of, or along with, USB2.0. 500GB is a lot of data, and you don't want to be transferring it all at 30MB/s (USB2.0 real world transfer speeds). With eSATA, you'll be transferring as if it were an internal SATA drive. I'd go for a Seagate or WD.
 
Well I'd get an internal but I'm out of space, that's why I was looking into a nice external.

I think I'd probably have to go with just standard USB, unfortunately. I'm not set-up for USB 2.0 and my motherboard has two SATA slots, but they're both used. Is there another option?
 
Buy a PCI card with extra USB 2.0 or (preferably) eSATA ports. What enginurd has suggested is actually the best option for you.
 
tiraides said:
Buy a PCI card with extra USB 2.0 or (preferably) eSATA ports. What enginurd has suggested is actually the best option for you.
Click to expand...

oh ok, and then just hook the external drive up to that? is there a PCI card you recommend?

do you recommend seagate or wd as well?
 
I have no specific recommendation -- as I have no need for an add-on card -- but make sure that you get either a USB 2.0 or a SATA add-on card. There are also a few cards that have both.

Regardless of which brand you choose in an external drive -- both Seagate and WD are fine -- make sure that you have one with USB, FireWire (400), and eSATA options available. The WD My Book Home Edition and the Seagate FreeAgent Pro series are what you should be looking for.
 
Hey, I'll second the Seagate FreeAgent Pro- 500 GB- I got one that is USB2.0 (works on 1.0 but ugg so slow) and has eSATA for future compatibility- (new PC built last week has eSATA on mobo, and it is AWESOME!

It has a 5 year warranty, which is more then I can say about WD or any others really, however,
it will not last 5 years if you leave it on all the time. If your looking to run this thing as a standard drive for your PC go for an external enclosure with a fan and go buy a SATA hard drive to strap into it. That might cost a few more bucks, but the active cooling will add years to the drives life if you are watching movies or playing music from it. I use mine as a backup and application repository, so it only gets turned on when I'm adding to the backup, or setting up a new machine/installing apps.

I will note I go so far as actually unplugging this when not in use.
 
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