Using HDD'S from desktop on a laptop

lee20010 · 30 Dec 2011 at 12:51

I wasn't sure if this should be in the laptop section, or hard drives. But as I'm selling my rig, I'm keeping my hard drives as theres no point selling them for the sake of £30.

My question is, is there a sort of caddie I can put them in so I can turn them into external? So SATA > USB 2/3?

lee20010 · 30 Dec 2011 at 13:00

Hyburnate said:
Yeah but the speeds will be utter crap

whys that?

lee20010 · 30 Dec 2011 at 13:07

I gotta try find a £500 laptop with usb3 now lol

lee20010 · 30 Dec 2011 at 13:59

All I'd be doing is putting films, tv shows, and music on the drives so the laptop isnt running slow. Then using the external to stream from via xbox or connect to my pc then through HDMI to the TV.

lee20010 · 30 Dec 2011 at 15:52

What is a NAS drive because I was going to get WDTV instead as a streaming unit as I use homeplugs for my internet around the house. Would that be faster?

lee20010 · 30 Dec 2011 at 17:24

ed79 said:
I think Homeplugs are up to 200Mbit/sec so 200/8 = 25MB/sec, so even USB2 would be a bit faster - and I doubt homeplugs get that full speed in reality.

If you were to get a NAS box http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=46&catid=2125 on a gigabit network you could theoretically get network transfers of 1000mbit /8 = 125 MB/sec.

Of course you'd need a £400 NAS box PLUS hardisks, plus a Gigabit switch, PLUS cabling - that's why I went for a £30 external USB HD instead which I plug into my TV and lets me watch all my films that way!

Have you got an Xbox360 you could test that HDD with, as my cheap external doesnt show up on my 360