USB Drive for HTPC

[Alex53]

One of the drives in my HTPC just died (an IDE Samsung one). This was the one with all the movies and music, while the smaller WD SATA one has the OS and applications (that one is working fine).

I was going to replace the IDE with a 1.5TB or 2TB internal SATA, however looking at prices, the external (USB) Hitachi 2TB drive is actually cheaper than the 2TB internal ones.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-320-WD

This got me thinking that having the music and movies on an external drive could be an advantage in terms of being able to connect it to my other computer to watch a movie when the wife is on the TV.

The question is, will HD movies play fine across USB all the time or are the speeds going to be a problem?

Also, it doesnt say anywhere whether the actual hard disk in this enclosure is IDE or SATA. There's always the option of taking it out and putting it in the HTPC, and still getting a free enclosure for the same price. Or are these made so that you can't do that?

Also, are Hitachi drives ok or am I better off just spending extra on a Seagate? I've never owned a Hitachi drive, but the name Deskstar does brign back bad memories of IBM drives dying on me.

 

[bledd]

I use one of these

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-031-BT

with a 1tb drive inside it, can quickly eject it if I need to, internally it has esata speed, and externally it has esata or usb2

usb2 is ample for a 720p mkv file

 

[Alex53]

Thanks. I had not considered eSata. Not sure if my motherboard supports it. (Abit AN-M2HD)

 

[bledd]

well it uses an internal sata slot and creates an esata slot in the enclosure

all you need to do is set your SATA port as AHCI (in bios) and it will be hot pluggable

 

[AbsenceJam]

Are you sure you want USB? 2TB would take about 18hours to fill/check/etc using USB, with eSATA it'll be less than a third of that. If you don't have an eSATA port then get a bracket.