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Most reliable high capacity HDD's??
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mgray69
Junior Member
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1. October 2008 @ 06:59 |
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I'm looking for 1TB or more to put into enclosures. Been reading reviews and every manufacturer seems to have it's fair share of problem models.
I usually trust names like Seagate, or Hitachi. I don't mind paying for the quality and reliability.
What do you guys think?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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1. October 2008 @ 13:12 |
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Western Digital Greenpower or Seagate Barracuda. The former use less power and run much quieter and seemingly cooler as well, so are less likely to fail in an external-box environment. I'd go with the WDs personally.
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mgray69
Junior Member
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1. October 2008 @ 15:52 |
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Thats some good info, thanks.
Seems the WD is the most popular....anything wrong with the Seagates?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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1. October 2008 @ 17:56 |
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No, but not all external enclosures are equal, some let drives get quite hot, and Seagates get very hot indeed, and are also much noisier.
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mgray69
Junior Member
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1. October 2008 @ 19:33 |
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Alright thanks again...but can I keep buggin ya for some opinions?
What are some good enclosures you can recomend? Since you mentioned heat, should I be looking at ones with built in fans? Is an aluminum case perferable over everything else?
Basically, if you can suggest some features I should look for or stay away from?
Better yet, is there a buyers guide for these things that I've missed here? I did a search, but didn't find much, not even many threads talking about this.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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1. October 2008 @ 20:38 |
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I like the IcyBox IB-351 enclosure. Generally avoid anything without vents and/or fans, and avoid anything that looks cheap, because odds are good it'll break.
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AfterDawn Addict
23 product reviews
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4. October 2008 @ 15:36 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
No, but not all external enclosures are equal, some let drives get quite hot, and Seagates get very hot indeed, and are also much noisier.
For external drives, the WD Mybooks get unbearably hot as well. You don't feel it from the outside but after being on for a couple hours, if you were to open the case and take out the drive you would literally need to let it cool before you could touch it. I know from my 500GB WD Mybook. The WDMybooks are also painfully slow at write.
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4. October 2008 @ 16:13 |
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AfterDawn Addict
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4. October 2008 @ 17:00 |
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WD MyBooks = bad. WD Caviar drives in proper enclosures = excellent.
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AfterDawn Addict
23 product reviews
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4. October 2008 @ 17:35 |
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What is a budget enclosure you suggest for a 500GB WD Mybook drive?
The only reason I bought that drive is because it was $60.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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4. October 2008 @ 17:50 |
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IcyBox IB-351s are my favourites.
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mgray69
Junior Member
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4. October 2008 @ 19:37 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
IcyBox IB-351s are my favourites.
That doesn't come with a fan tho...I woulda thought you guys would all have ones with fan's since that seems to be the most reliable route???
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Moderator
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4. October 2008 @ 19:38 |
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Mine do, see my previous post/pic..
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
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AfterDawn Addict
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4. October 2008 @ 20:11 |
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The IB-351s use vents, they actually cool drives just as well as the cheaper fanned enclosures, without the noise. :)
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mgray69
Junior Member
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4. October 2008 @ 20:34 |
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Hey Creaky, any place to purchase those other than e-bay? Who manufactures them? Does the fan come on automatically, or do you have to manually turn it on/off or leave it on all the time?
Also says they only support IDE....which brings me to my next question....in terms of internal drive in enclosures, what's the performance/reliability with IDE vs. SATA?
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4. October 2008 @ 20:43 |
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IDE - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allcam-Enclosure...r/dp/B000RAFFEY
SATA - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allcam-Enclosure...k/dp/B000V8KQE6
See the pics, there's a power switch and a switch for the fan. (And pretty lights aplently).
I've only ever used one E-SATA enclosure, it's a pain in the behind. So much for the hotplugging that E-SATA is supposed to offer, mine always required a reboot before it would 'see' the drive. So i bought an E-SATA to SATA converter cable, then i was able to mount the drive internally and connect it to the E-SATA connector (i had one drive bay free internally but no free SATA connectors). Problem solved, drive works perfectly now.
I don't leave enclosures on for long, mine are all backups of internal drives so they're only on long enough to make changes/add new files etc. But they're totally reliable and fairly quiet. USB2.0 is plenty fast enough for me, i think USB2.0 is rated at something like 480Mb/s, SATA-II is rated at 3GB/s. I've never bothered to check what SATA-II rated speeds relate to in actual MB/s speeds, suffice it to say they're very fast indeed, but as i say i'm happy enough with USB 2.0 speeds, USB2.0 is quick enough for video streaming, for instance.
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
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This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 4. October 2008 @ 20:48
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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5. October 2008 @ 06:59 |
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I liked using external S-ATA, not to be confused with e-SATA, this method was using an internal S-ATA cable outside a case. Hotplugged perfectly fine, data speeds at 70MB/s rather than 30 that USB offers. Other than for copying large files though, you don't get any other benefits, and USB is much more widespread. With an external drive there's no real reason to have S-ATA over IDE, but you can get bigger drives using S-ATA, and possibly cheaper ones too.
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Moderator
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5. October 2008 @ 09:16 |
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Yeah i routed my cable from the E-SATA port to the inside and it works perfectly; i will have to chuck the SATA enclosure on eBay and i won't buy any more in future.
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***
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mgray69
Junior Member
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16. October 2008 @ 06:11 |
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Just a side question since you guys seem to know your stuff; what is the maximum size XP can handle, either internal or external? Is 1tb ok?
Thanks
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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16. October 2008 @ 07:43 |
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"Plenty". A 1TB drive will work fine.
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jony218
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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16. October 2008 @ 22:42 |
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I have the vantec nexstar mx dual enclosure, I paid 39.00 (on sale). It's a solid well built enclosure and has a built-in fan. At first I put one 750 gb sata seagate in it, but I needed more storage and added another 750gb sata maxtor. To install a drive just remove 4 screws and the sata drives just slide in.
Anytime I use it I always have another small fan blowing on the outside of the enclosure. This I do on any external drive I have, I never rely on the small internal fans.
That's the enclosure I recommend, but it is large and heavy but having an option for adding another hard drive is a definite plus.
As far as the most reliable drives, seagates and maxtors are the only drives that have never failed on me.
http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/view_detail/277
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mgray69
Junior Member
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19. October 2008 @ 00:10 |
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Awesome, thanks again guys for the help.....another question tho;
If I want to add multiple internal(enclosure) drives, is there anything I need to consider before hand? As in the dual drive enclosure that was mentioned above, does it still just connect via 1 USB cable, or is it going to be one USB cable per drive? Is there anything driver or OS wise that needs to be done to start running multiple drives? Or am I only limited by how many USB ports I have?
Is that where RAID comes in(still don't clearly understand what it is)??
I'm thinking in the near future 2 1TB drives is all I'll be running, but I'd like to keep myself open to add more. Just not sure if I need to consider things before hand to set myself up to run more than 1.
Thanks again guys!
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jony218
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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19. October 2008 @ 06:24 |
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On my dual vantec enclosure, it's just one USB connector that connects to the computer. It's plug and play on my windows xp (no drivers needed), I can connect it to any computer and it will be automatically recognize.
The vantec, I just use it in the basic configuration. Each hard drive shows up with it's own drive letter when connected to the computer. But for those who want the "raid" configuration it can be setup that way, but I prefer to keep it simple.
Theres really no limit on how many external harddrives or internal hard drives you can connect to the computer and run at the same time. As long as you have the available connectors and usb ports. On my media computer I have 3 internal and 2 external drives, sometimes I run them all at the same time with no problem.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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19. October 2008 @ 07:50 |
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Indeed that enclosure, or for europeans the IcyBox ST-3220 will do the same job. The IcyBox doesn't do RAID, but RAID for an external box is ludicrous, at 30MB/s it's only worth using RAID1.
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Moderator
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19. October 2008 @ 13:10 |
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..continued from here - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/711055
Originally posted by mgray69:
I'm kinda confused on what the operational differences are between SATA and e-SATA. Is e-SATA a SATA connection on the outside of the laptop/desktop, or is a connection directly to the motherboard?
I other words, if I have a external e-SATA drive, does the cable connect to a port on the outside, or does it connect directly to the motherboard?
The 'e' denotes external. Other than that i believe the speed etc is the same as internal SATA. e-SATA ports are connected thru to the motherboard.
I think i might have confused things a few posts up the page - i was saying that i preferred using internal SATA connections over external as the e-SATA enclosure i had bought, always required a reboot (after turning it on) before it would 'see' the disk. It did this on subsequent power-ons of the enclosure, i had no patience to research whether all enclosures did it or not. I sold the enclosure, moved it's hard drive internal to the PC, then i bought an e-SATA to SATA cable so that i could use an e-SATA port to run the internal disk - i had a spare hard drive bay but no free SATA ports on the motherboard you see, and i already have a PCIe SATA controller, which is cheapy and not as fast as it claims to be.
(My motherboard has 5 SATA ports, 2 e-SATA ports, room inside case for 6 hard drives. I also have 2 SATA dvd burners hence the cheapy PCIe card that provides 2 SATA ports. One day i will buy a decent PCIe card that has 4 ports if such a thing exists (mine has 4 ports but you can only use 2 at a time, how crap is that).
(There's also 1 internal IDE dvd burner and 3 USB2.0 connected IDE dvd burners connected to this pc).
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 19. October 2008 @ 13:25
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