External Hard Drive

[GWguy]

ThinkGeek :: Geek Inside

:geek:

[Gwydion]

Originally Posted by GWguy

Firewire is not faster. Firewire is 400Mb/s, USB 2.0 is 480Mb/s.

Those are max rates...Firewire actually retains about 90% of that speed across all files, while USB drops to about 50% on large files. Small files, the speed difference is negligible

This is THE DRIVE ITSELF, not the interface. The rotational speed of the drive is highly important. The faster the drive spins, the faster it can read/write. A rotational speed of 7200 rpm will approach the boundary of thruput for a USB device. A rotational speed of 10,000rpm is usually used in servers where high throughput is critical. The home user CAN see a difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm drives, assuming the PC is up to it.

Indeed.

Get a USB drive with a speed of 5400rpm and low-cost electronics, and it will be a dog.

Haha, for the OP's purposes, I bet s/he won't be concerned with any of the speeds.

[RadioPatrol]

Originally Posted by rwethereyet

I want to get an external hard drive to copy my files on. Amazon.com has an Iomega 500GB for $109 or close to that amount. Has anyone else use an Iomega or have any recommendations? TIA!!

I have this $ 10 Aluminum USB / eSATA case and a Referb 750Gb Drive works fine ... I got the HD mounted in an EBook Drive Case ... but it was plastic and seemed to run hot all the time ....

while not much bigger that the drive ... the HD seems to stay cooler in the Metal Case ....

[RadioPatrol]

Originally Posted by Gwydion

Those are max rates...Firewire actually retains about 90% of that speed across all files, while USB drops to about 50% on large files. Small files, the speed difference is negligible

we are probably talking Micro$oft Minuets as well ...........

[RadioPatrol]

Originally Posted by GWguy

Ok, now couple the DRIVE performance with the USB and other electronics to connect the drive to your PC, and you have another point for degraded performance. Not all electronics are the same, not all devices are built to the same spec. Get a USB drive with a speed of 5400rpm and low-cost electronics, and it will be a dog.

Some of the HD's now have 32 mb cache ... up from the old 16, or even 8 on some of the 5400 rpm Drives .......