Buying an external hard-drive
 

I'm running out of space on my laptop. So I'm going to buy an external hard drive. I don't have Firewire, to my eternal sadness, so unless there's a cheap PCMCIA card around then I'll be using USB2

Rough requirements:

Price < £150
150 - 350 GB space
Decent speed (i.e. reading and writing to it)
Quiet



I'm currently edging towards the Maxtor One Touch III 300GB Combo USB2

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...000,4294960320


Basically: is there anything better around than this that suits my requirements? Are Dabs the right people to get it from, with price and service as relevant factors?

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

This + this.


Enclosure: 28.58
Drive: 56.26
Delivery: 10.00

Total: 96.59


Why those?

A seperate enclosure gives you the freedom to upgrade whenever you want, and select whatever drive you want right now.

The Western Digital WDxx00KS* Caviar SE16 range of harddrives are pretty much the best desktop drives money can buy at the moment. They are quick, quiet, and have a 3 year warrenty. Seagate offer 5 on some of their drives but while they are in no way bad drives, their current models are both noisier and slower than Wester Digital's, so there's no real point.

Finally, you're getting a much nicer and better built external unit and a better drive for less money. The only downside is you're getting 50GB less storage space, but if you really need it you can get the WD3200KS which is 320GB for about £20 more than the 250GB model, which brings it to a similar price to the Maxtor unit you pointed out while still looking and performing better.

So long as you're happy to screw a few clips on to a harddrive, you get a much better deal buying seperately.

* xx denotes drive capacity.

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

Buying just the enclosure is also a great option if you've got a couple of old HD's kicking around doing nothing. You'll probably find IDE enclosurse even cheaper than the one Meg. listed. I know I got mine for ~12 pounds each.

Another option that might be good (depending on your setup) is a NAS drive. It'll cost you a bit more, but if you've got a couple of computers that you want to access the date it'll work great.

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

I've gone for the combo Megla suggested.

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

i have had segates hd around for ages cos they hardly ever cracked but latly samsung hd kinda rocks, they are silent and not getting hot,kinda cheap too :)

my external 200 gb samsung costed around 120 euro and works like a charm and got a cool blue lamp that flash the it works hehe

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

Just thought I'd say thanks for the info in this thread! Sorted me out on my next computer-related purchases. Seems meglamaniac is better than JC at computer advice :(

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

I never claimed to be any good :(

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

http : // www . ebuyer . com/UK/product/116314/rb/22114251664

(remove spaces as i cant post links!) i got one of these today, absolute bargain! only thing i can fault is ebuyer use a shitty courier, city link. so, if you do get something from there, ask them to use parcel force!

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

Ask them to use parcel force?

Do you live in a different world to everyone else ?

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

City link do suck. I've baught from ebuyer before and City Link and the ones that ended up pissing it up and getting me my order late.

I prefer Parcel Force or UPS for delivery.

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

*looks around* nope pretty sure i live in the same world to everyone else. maybe it is you who is living in a different world shyne?

if you have ever had something 'delivered' by city link, then you would try and use a different courier as well. city link usually deliver late, and they also expect you to stay in all day, as the will not give you a rough time at which they will deliver. they will attempt to deliver twice, and if they cant deliver it, they expect you to go to thier depot to pick it up. i wouldnt mind so much if the depot was quite local, but its a 50+ mile round trip! thats a long way for a student who has to use public transport.

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

citylink have been flawless for me, as opposed to parcelforce which have screwed up frequently.
I guess it just comes down to the local delivery office's quality. Ours seems to be quite good for citylink and abysmal for royal mail
UPS i refuse to touch with a bargepole after the last time i ordered stuff from the states (thinkgeek.com). They turned up at the door and demanded the import taxes, as i expected - but then added a brokerage fee on top of it for themselves which effectively doubled the cost.

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

UPS just slid somewhat down my estimation pole :s

Re: Buying an external hard-drive
 

dabs.com has some good ones