Premade external hard drive or internal hard drive with enclosure? - Storage

Hi,

My WD mybook external hardrive died, and now i need a new one for my
laptop (which has th elaptop firewire conneciton, which isn't the same
as the pc firewire connection that most external harddrives come with,
thus need to use usb)

So I'm thinking of getting the following toshiba 320 gb external ( see
link below). However I have also been considering getting a regular
internal harddrive and enclosure. would this be better in terms of
reliability and speed? How difficult is this to set up? If this is
better any recommendations for a 300-500 gb drive and enclosure?

Thanks.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HDDR32...890686&sr=1-11

In message
<2e682c55-87a3-40f7-9a1c-6c30861e7c20@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>
"albert.mills@googlemail.com" wrote:

>My WD mybook external hardrive died, and now i need a new one for my
>laptop (which has th elaptop firewire conneciton, which isn't the same
>as the pc firewire connection that most external harddrives come with,
>thus need to use usb)
>
>So I'm thinking of getting the following toshiba 320 gb external ( see
>link below). However I have also been considering getting a regular
>internal harddrive and enclosure. would this be better in terms of
>reliability and speed? How difficult is this to set up? If this is
>better any recommendations for a 300-500 gb drive and enclosure?

It's very easy to grab an external enclosure and set it up, however, a
lot of the cheapo adapters have heating problems, so I'd generally
recommend buying a single piece unit if that is how you intend to use
it.

Your local market may be different, but the last time I priced it out,
the single unit was cheaper then buying parts.

albert.mills@googlemail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My WD mybook external hardrive died, and now i need a new one for my
> laptop (which has th elaptop firewire conneciton, which isn't the same
> as the pc firewire connection that most external harddrives come with,
> thus need to use usb)
>
> So I'm thinking of getting the following toshiba 320 gb external ( see
> link below). However I have also been considering getting a regular
> internal harddrive and enclosure. would this be better in terms of
> reliability and speed?

There isnt any difference if the style of housing is the same.

The main advantage of assembling it yourself is that the drive has
the full 3 or 5 year warranty and few packaged external drives have
any more than a 1 year warranty.

> How difficult is this to set up?

Its easy if you know what you are doing, but there are some variables
like the type of drive interface that can be a problem if you dont.

> If this is better any recommendations for a 300-500 gb drive

I like the Samsungs myself, they run quieter and cooler
than most and that is very desirable with an external drive.

> and enclosure?

Thats harder to specify.

> http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HDDR32...890686&sr=1-11

"albert.mills@googlemail.com" wrote in
news:2e682c55-87a3-40f7-9a1c-6c30861e7c20@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

> Hi,
>
> My WD mybook external hardrive died, and now i need a new one for my
> laptop (which has th elaptop firewire conneciton, which isn't the same
> as the pc firewire connection that most external harddrives come with,
> thus need to use usb)
>
> So I'm thinking of getting the following toshiba 320 gb external ( see
> link below). However I have also been considering getting a regular
> internal harddrive and enclosure. would this be better in terms of
> reliability and speed? How difficult is this to set up? If this is
> better any recommendations for a 300-500 gb drive and enclosure?
>
> Thanks.

I've used build yourself external cases and have two pre-built external
HDDs too. The thing with build your own is that the cheap cases I used
were a bit flaky while the pre-built have been rock solid and it is
actually cheaper to buy pre-built than build your own. I have 1TB Comstar
and 500GB Acomdata. Acomdata is only $89.99 for 500GB model and has both
USB 2.0 and eSATA. I see at Newegg they have a model with USB 2.0 and
Firewire too. You can also get a model with 1TB for $139.99 at neweeg
that has USB 2.0 and eSATA. Acomdata is good in my experience and I
expect cheaper than that Toshiba model you are looking at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822216035