external hard drives! (1 Viewer)

[saladsurgery]

ok, i figured you guys could help me out here.

i'm in the market for an external hard drive, to store music/graphics work on, but i don't know where to start/look. my list of requirements:

- over 100gb capacity
- firewire connection (400, or 800 for forwards compatability)
- reliable (losing work = death)
- inexpensive, but well made. you know, not all cheap and plasticky.

if it were compact and looked nice, that'd be cool, but that's just a bonus. i also don't know much about drive rpm speeds, so if anyone could help out, that'd be cool.

[edit: and oh, it's got to be mac compatible. but that's hardly an issue these days with hard drives, i think...?]

cheers.

 

[neuro_logik]

Make one, just get a 120/160/180/200 gig hard disk and a case, I recommend the Metal Gear Box: Substance (http://www.techimo.com/articles/i82.html) they cost around $77

 

[saladsurgery]

but i'm not 1337 enough for home surgery!
i was thingking something like this
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10383
but i know lacie drives don't come cheap.

 

[loquasagacious]

Its not a case of surgery or anything complex, if you mastered lego or anythinbg similar as a child then you can do it easy, even if you didnt then you can do it easy.

It is a matter of inserting one object into another and making sure evrything lines up nicely (I daresay most people can do that ), in fact if you get both the case and the hard drive from the same place (like www.arc.com.au) then they will put it together for you at no charge.

You will find a 30%-50% saving in building it youself and it is ridiculously easy, or someone at the shop or a friend who knows anything about computers can do it in under a minute - for free.

 

[jm1234567890]

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...nnelpath=/en_us/Products/External Hard Drives

your prolly looking for something like this. Buying a commercial product isn't much more expensive and you get higher quality.

 

[loquasagacious]

Higher quality my arse.

Its the same thing, maxtor doesnt keep a pile of special HDD's to put in their external drives nor does it screw over those who buy internal HDD's.

The following prices are from www.arc.com.au

Maxtor - 120Gb 8mb cache $148
Samsung - 120gb 8mb cache $130
Western Digital - 120gb 8mb cache $133
Maxtor - 160Gb 8mb cache $190
Western Digital - 160Gb 8mb cache $146
Seagate - 160Gb 8mb cache $177
Western Digital - 200Gb 8mb cache $185
Seagate - 200Gb 8mb cache $187
Western Digital - 250Gb 8mb cache $280
Maxtor - 300Gb 16mb cache $365

Rack $11-$74, nice ones usually $50

Maxtor prices (from Harris Technology):
120gb $295
160Gb $369
200Gb $439
250Gb $485
300Gb $535

Which compares with DIY prices of: which are a saving of: (assuming a $50 rack)
120Gb $180 Saving: $115
160Gb $196 Saving: $200
200Gb $235 Saving: $204
250Gb $330 Saving: $155
300Gb $415 Saving: $120

Well a $100-$200 saving is not wat I call small. And before you suggest it, the HDD's I have used in the comparison are all brand name high quality drives - I have run them all in various computers with no problem.

 

[jm1234567890]

lol, harris technology...

they are owned by david jones and charge eqiv prices...

 

[jm1234567890]

http://www.tandb.com.au/forsale/memsol/externalharddrives/

more acceptable prices, DIY is about $50 cheaper, i'm sure if you shop around you could get cheaper....

and remember the maxtor drive includes backup software

edit:
oops, read wrong... ok well maxtor is expensive
there are cheaper ones on that page

 

[loquasagacious]

Harris Technology is actually owned by coles myer (who don't own david jones), they just happened to have an add in the APC mag that was next to me when I typed out that bit lol.

Ok that place narrows the margin, but DIY is still cheaper.

Maxtor bundles software but it can also be found for free online, and if all else fails theres some built into XP, havnt used it myself but, being an add-on swanky feature like internet sharing *cough* it is bound to be buggy and a real pain in the ass lol.

 

[fatmuscle]

anyone tried one of those USB to IDE convertors?

 

[jm1234567890]

anyone tried one of those USB to IDE convertors?

lol, then hand-craft a case out of wood?

"- inexpensive, but well made. you know, not all cheap and plasticky."

 

[saladsurgery]

lol, then hand-craft a case out of wood?

looks like someone's beaten me to it

 

[fatmuscle]

lol why not?
stylish

i prefer mahogany