Need a hard drive. . .advice?

[christopher_platt]

So far, this 20 gig hard drive and lots of CDs has worked, even though it's a bit inconvenient. But the time has come that I need to get an external hard drive. I remember someone's posting about getting a 160 gig for around $160, but in my current situation I can't afford it. So I'm looking for something under $100 (hopefully). First of all, I don't know very much about computers, so can someone tell me what I'm going to need? I know I want a firewire interface (I'm connecting it to my only computer - an ibook - so it needs to be external). I want to use it for storing my images and as a scratch disk for photoshop. So what speeds do I need, etc? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chip

[madisonDave]

So far, this 20 gig hard drive and lots of CDs has worked, even though it's a bit inconvenient. But the time has come that I need to get an external hard drive. I remember someone's posting about getting a 160 gig for around $160, but in my current situation I can't afford it. So I'm looking for something under $100 (hopefully). First of all, I don't know very much about computers, so can someone tell me what I'm going to need? I know I want a firewire interface (I'm connecting it to my only computer - an ibook - so it needs to be external). I want to use it for storing my images and as a scratch disk for photoshop. So what speeds do I need, etc? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chip

Chip

Take a look at dealmac.com. They run out to a ton of sights and find all kinds of special deals. It may take a week or so but some incredible firewire drive always shows up at less then $1/mb.

They find the deals at reputable sites.

David

[Peter_AUS]

Look at the Maxtor 80G drives as a good option. They have been very reliable in the hundreds of computers I have built over the years.

[christopher_platt]

Thanks for the advice, guys. However, I don't know what speed is necessary. Is 7200rpm fast? Is it fast enough? This stuff bewilders me. ;)
Chip

[awkwards]

Chip,

With a Firewire interface, drive RPM will not be as important as just getting the capacity you want at the price point you need to hit. Most hard drives these days far outperform Firewire (or USB) interface standards, so it's the Firewire that's the bottleneck, though not a terrible one when you're looking at using the drive primarily for image storage.

For new stuff, ZipZoomFly.com always has good prices and selection, but it doesn't appear they have anything in the <$100 range you're seeking.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...11008&SortBy=A

Now, it does look like there may be some deals on eBay (this search is set up to find Firewire external hard drives between $49 and $100):
http://search.ebay.com/firewire-exte...tedincountryZ1

I hope this helps. Good luck!

James

P.S. Hope you're not too fogged in down there in Montery. I lived there for about 5 years in the mid-90s. I miss it a bunch!

[mjm]

Look at the Maxtor 80G drives as a good option. They have been very reliable in the hundreds of computers I have built over the years.

Peter, what model(s) do you have luck with? I have had at least 10 40GB Maxtors die at work (they were most likely the cheapest model).

I would recommend a Western Digital 120GB drive (WD120JB (7200RPM 8MB cache)). That is what I use at home and work with no problems. I found it on Froogle for $78 (http://froogle.google.com/froogle?pr...&price=between)

[Peter_AUS]

I buy from wholesalers where you basically order the drives and get what ever anyone who is importing them is supplying, general specific model numbers hasn't been a real issue with me.

I have used many drives over the past 15 years building computers, from Samsung, Fujitsu, Maxtor, Seagate, IBM, Western Digital etc etc, and generally as long as I was sure I was purchasing something that wasn't a grey market import I found I generally had less problems with Maxtor drives. That is not to say I don't use Western Digital I do, have two at present as well as a Maxtor, but it is relative to what was available at the price I was prepared to pay for them as well.

I still have a 1G drive that I purchased several years ago and it cost me at the time $1,390Aus for it. Yep that was the price.

Part of the problem with buying from internet markets and general computer stores often is, the drives are imported as a grey drive and not necessairly from the main supplier, like direct from Maxtor and then to me if that makes sense.

It is a bit like buying seconds, you get the same model, but there might have been something during manufacturing that makes the supplier not provide it directly to big named stores.

The same happens with computer equipment.

Manufacturers make memory, computer chips, drives etc and subject them to certain tolerances and as long as they fall within the tolerances they are stamped as xyz product, but if they don't meet the tolerance, they might stamp the product as xyy product (example of this is where people change the clock rate of certain cpu's and they run just that much faster, they might actually be the same as Pentium 4 3.3 chips but are rated to run at 2.4 say as an example).

Hence why there are such differences with pricing from store to store and place to place. Other factors also come into play like import taxes, shipping etc.

I hope that makes sense.

[mjm]

Makes perfect sense. I thought vendors were required to tell you if an item was grey market. Now that I think about it, the company we used to buy hardware from was pretty shady (we were trying to save money). I would assume they were just bad drives.

Have you used the Western Digital SATA drives yet? I am going to build a new system with a couple Raptors (36GB 10,000RPM).

[Sebastian]

www.newegg.com

Great prices, service, and selection. Only place I get stuff from.

[Peter_AUS]

mjm,

No I haven't but I have talked to suppliers and a couple of other OEM builders and they have good things to say about SATA drives in general.

[kes]

So far, this 20 gig hard drive and lots of CDs has worked,
Thanks,
Chip

This newbie bit the bullet and bought a 300 gig ext USB-compatible hd for $400 at a local PC store. Currently, I use it for backups of work and personal files. I have barely scratched the capacity. I hope to grow into the capacity when I finally choose a digicam and also start playing with video recordings made from my cable service. I bought at the local store because I wish to establish a relationship with them. One of the staff is really knowledgeable and answers my questions, so I support him with my purchases.

[christopher_platt]

So all, this is what I bought. . .
----------------------------------------------
Product Description
Maxtor 7200 RPM Ultra Series Kit - hard drive - 120 GB - ATA-133

Type
Hard drive - internal

Form Factor
3.5"

Capacity
120 GB

Interface Type
DMA/ATA-133 (Ultra) Fast Drives

Data Transfer Rate
133 MBps

Average Seek Time
9.4 ms

Spindle Speed
7200 rpm

Buffer Size
8 MB
------------------------------------------

But now I need a FW enclosure for it. What specs do I need to look for? Is DMA the same as UDMA in the interface? I found this one for about $40:

-----------------------------------------------------
Chipset FireWire: Oxford 911 Semiconductor

Chipset USB 2.0: Ali

Anti-shock prevents shock resistance to hard drives

Screw less design makes installation quick and easy

£¼ Hard Drives

Work with both PC and Mac

Plug and Play

Hot-swappable connection

With 30Watt External Power Supply

Supports up to 250GB Hard Drives

Supports up to UDMA/133

No Max Hard Drive RPM

AC input: 100 - 240V DC output: +5V/+12V

Stackable casing

IDE to USB 2.0

IDE to IEEE FireWire 1394
-----------------------------------------
I don't know what virtually any of that stuff means. Will they work together? How much should I expect to pay for an enclosure? Is there a big difference in quality between the different brands?
*So confused*

Thanks again,
Chip