External HDD - custom VS stock?

413x

413x

413x

Caporegime
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Im after an external 2TB HDD

what id like to know is if its better [in regards to reliability and cost] to buy a stock branded unit or a caddy and bare bones HDD separately?

id like it to be Esata ideally, not to worried about speed as it would only be a backup drive, tho i would prefer 7200rpm over 5400, but not an issue if its too much trouble.

also id like to stick to WD or seagte as ive had 0 problems with these drives [i have 3x seagates and 2x WD VRs and others in laptops]

Thanks

the only external i have atm is a 500GB seagate i use as an OS image backup, but i need more backup now
 
I tend to go for bare HDD + enclosure for my external HDD needs. It is usually cheaper and you get to choose exactly which drive you use. If you are using eSATA then the caddy doesn't really matter - so long as it keeps the drive cool enough, is solid and looks OK.

If you go down this route - you can get 2TB 5400 rpm drives for ~£75. For a storage drive this is pretty good - and if you go for something like this samsung f4 then you are working with 666gb platters, so the speeds are pretty good (though obviously response time and random reads/writes are not as fast as a good 7200rpm drive). Here is a review of the F4 to show how it performs.

As for the enclosure, I would recommend this one.

Edit: Changed the link for the F4 review - the old one was for the smaller version
 
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the area i really would need the speed is sustained transfers, ie if im sending over a 200GB drive image every few weeks i dont want it to take forever.

whats the best drive+port+combo for this type of task? [ie, esata, usb 2 or 3 and then 5400rpm vs 7200rpm] im not to familiar with hdds in respect to sustain transfers

are the samsung drives really that much better than the wds and seagates? im completely unfamiliar with them.

also i was looking at the icybox for a caddy if i go that route
 
For the interface I strongly suggest going with eSATA- it is native interface of the hard disk -so the caddy doesn't need to do any conversion, it is a simple adapter. USB2 will bottleneck performance as it is limited to around 60MB/s and these modern 5400rpm drives can do around 130MB/s. USB3 is technically faster than eSATA - but the speed of these mechanical disks is not high enough to saturate eSATA, so there would be no speed improvement with USB3 - but there would be a price premium.

As for which disk to go for - the seagate, WD and Samsung 2TB "eco"(lower than 7200rpm) drives are all great. I just swing towards samsung as I have a load of their F2 1.5TB drives (only £49) and they are great (cool, quiet and fast enough), but the seagates and WDs are also lovely drives.

If you want to go for a 7200RPM 2TB drive then you have to pay more. If you want to try a Hitachi - that will run you to £92, while the WD is £128 and the seagate is £154.
 
Also sorry to jump in but i'm in the same boat as the OP - need to sort out some external storage.

Does the caddy linked to above require additional power for the drive to function?
 
Tute said:
Also sorry to jump in but i'm in the same boat as the OP - need to sort out some external storage.

Does the caddy linked to above require additional power for the drive to function?
Click to expand...


3.5 drives need additional power but a 2.5 hdd will get power from the usb
 
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hartty said:
3.5 drives need additional power but a 2.5 hdd will get power from the usb
Click to expand...

Normally but sometimes a 2.5" drive needs more power than the usb port can supply. Most 2.5" enclosures come with cables to connect to two usb ports so more power is available.
 
Yeah all 3.5s have power

I'm def after esata now maybe looking at that enclosure.. still uncertain over Samsung
 
ok im definitely going for a separate enclosure..

ive seen 2 different styles.. where hard disk just slots in like an sd card or the normal in a box with a fan style.. any pros or cons to these? obv the drop slot one would be useful if i wanted to use more than one hdd, it would also save money as i could buy 1.5tbs which are at a much better price point than the 2tbs

anothe problem is still the actual drive.. i cant see many reviews comparing the 2tb WD green, samsung f4 and seagate LP? [again looking to seagate or wd mainly].. if i do go the 1.5 route with slot hdd caddy i will probably just get a seagte 7200.11 as i already have 2 inside my pc and they have been flawless

i need some help on this one

by dock i mean something like this
P5rrQ.jpg
 
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