500 gb external? waste or not?

Evan3mEvan3m
edited October 2006 in Hardware
hey guys this is my first post so let me just big up everyone and say its nice to be here :thumbsup:
now to my dilema. i have a acer laptop (aspire 5610) and ive got some disk space problems. Its got to hard drives (40 gigs each i think) and i use one for school stuff and one for movies, games, etc. but they are getting pretty full. i was thinking of getting a external hard drive off of ebay and using it to store my games and movies. do u think this is a good idea? since i dont want to change anything inside the laptop. would i be able to instal and run the games off of the external through a usb connection? kinda new to externals so just asking if there are any disadvantages i should know about.
here is a cheap one i found that i was thinking about.
http://cgi.ebay.com/500GB-7200RPM-Maxtor-External-USB-eSATA-Hard-Drive_W0QQitemZ320037106995QQihZ011QQcategoryZ116258QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
thanks alot for ur help in advance,
peace

Comments

  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    Games would run a lot slower. I recommend only saving media files, movies and such, to the external drive.

    You can also build your own combo by selecting your own internal drive and enclosure if you want. That way you can insure top quality components.
  • WeAreNotAloneWeAreNotAlone
    edited October 2006
    Evan3m wrote:
    hey guys this is my first post so let me just big up everyone and say its nice to be here :thumbsup:
    now to my dilema. i have a acer laptop (aspire 5610) and ive got some disk space problems. Its got to hard drives (40 gigs each i think) and i use one for school stuff and one for movies, games, etc. but they are getting pretty full. i was thinking of getting a external hard drive off of ebay and using it to store my games and movies. do u think this is a good idea? since i dont want to change anything inside the laptop. would i be able to instal and run the games off of the external through a usb connection? kinda new to externals so just asking if there are any disadvantages i should know about.
    here is a cheap one i found that i was thinking about.
    http://cgi.ebay.com/500GB-7200RPM-Maxtor-External-USB-eSATA-Hard-Drive_W0QQitemZ320037106995QQihZ011QQcategoryZ116258QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
    thanks alot for ur help in advance,
    peace


    First of all, take the word "cheap" out of the thought process.... There are allot of "cheap" externals out there that aren't worth two cents. You don't save anything when you lose all your data on the drive.

    Don't have allot of time, have to run, so I suggest you read thru this thread, looking for posts by Sickteddybear:


    The official external ENCLOSURE thread
    http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=28&threadid=496281
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    I am a big fan of external drives, because they are so flexible and can be moved around from system to system. You can also swap out the drives in the enclosure easily and upgrade without a second thought. I use a large capacity external drive (Firewire and USB 2) to back up three separate computers at home. I just carry the drive to whatever machine needs the back. Seven partitions on that drive.

    I have never tried gaming with one, so am hesitant to advise on that. Watch out for quality! Many of the prepackaged drive-enclosure kits come with bottom-of-the-barrel drives with respect to quality and performance - low rotations speeds, off brands, and only 2MB of disk cache -- pathetic. Many of the external drives don't even put on the package label the specifications of the drive except for the volume. STAY AWAY form those. My advice to you, should you decide to get an external drive is to purchase the enclosure separately and select the exact hard drive you wish to put in it. The enclosures are very simple and mounting a drive in them is just too easy.
  • WeAreNotAloneWeAreNotAlone
    edited October 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    I am a big fan of external drives, because they are so flexible and can be moved around from system to system. You can also swap out the drives in the enclosure easily and upgrade without a second thought. I use a large capacity external drive (Firewire and USB 2) to back up three separate computers at home. I just carry the drive to whatever machine needs the back. Seven partitions on that drive.

    I have never tried gaming with one, so am hesitant to advise on that. Watch out for quality! Many of the prepackaged drive-enclosure kits come with bottom-of-the-barrel drives with respect to quality and performance - low rotations speeds, off brands, and only 2MB of disk cache -- pathetic. Many of the external drives don't even put on the package label the specifications of the drive except for the volume. STAY AWAY form those. My advice to you, should you decide to get an external drive is to purchase the enclosure separately and select the exact hard drive you wish to put in it. The enclosures are very simple and mounting a drive in them is just too easy.



    I second that... and will point out to people that buying the hard drive seperate gives a 3 year warranty on the hard drive instead of only (1). (depending on the mfg).



    PS: Apricorn www.apricorn.com makes some nice units, and supports them AFTER the sale, has DIRECT contact with customers AFTER the sale..... They sell the units complete with hard drive, OR as a bare enclosure.

    They come in 2.5 /3.5 with USB 2.0 /FIREWIRE /SATA

    http://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Firewire-Enclosure-3-5-Inch-EZ-BUS-DTC-KIT/dp/B00069G98W/sr=8-1/qid=1161120541/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1526965-6454423?ie=UTF8

    http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=28&threadid=496281
    .
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