Wanting an external 2.5" Drive..

fobose · 1 Oct 2007 at 22:02

I really like the look of the Icy Box IB-266StUS-B and I was thinking of putting a WD Scorpio 250GB 5400RPM SATA 8MB drive in to it, however I was wondering what you guys thought and is buying this size hdd a waste of money?

I obviously want the biggest drive I can get but I could buy 2x 500GB 3.5" drives for it instead! (Well nearly).

P.S - Dont really want a power adapter thingy for an external drive.

Any comments?

rpstewart · 1 Oct 2007 at 23:42

If you're planning on carrying it around then it's not a bad plan although you'll be limited to the USB interface unless you want an external PSU (which doesn't seem to be supplied). On the other hand if this is just for an external backup on a desktop PC then it's a daft plan, a mains powered 3.5" device will be far better value for money.

fobose · 2 Oct 2007 at 07:02

The icybox unit has esata and comes with the required USB connector for power (so it says in a review I read). I would use it as a desktop backup and to be taking it around with me to transfer files.

Is there likely to be a price drop in 2.5" drives any time soon do you know of?

longshanks · 23 Nov 2007 at 23:04

For portability it is awesome. I am thinking of getting the same one myself. I think you need to connect the USB up to use the eSata? Is that right?

fobose · 19 Feb 2008 at 19:19

When using E-SATA you need to connect the USB cable which plugs in to the DC connector on the icy box unit. If your using USB you dont need this cable plugged in unless your motherboard's USB ports do not supply enough power, then you can connect it to a second USB port for extra power

I ended up with the new 320GB WD Scorpio as it was on this week only, the average MB/s in HD Tune was 52MB/s (e-sata) which aint bad. My seagate 7200.3 momentus drive in my 5 month old laptop only gets about 34MB/s average which is rubbish lol.