Mmm, tech

[afuna]

I'm taking Christmas money, and using it to buy new RAM (whoo!) and to buy a replacement for my portable hard drive (UGH at the necessity, but I'm getting one that's better, so WHOO!)

RAM is easy -- probably getting two sticks of Kingston 2GB DDR2. I've had that settled for a while now.

The hard drive, I'm only just now trying to decide on a good one. I'm tempted by the Freecom XXS 500gb (review). But there's also the Seagate Expansion Desktop which is only slightly more expensive for the 1TB. I'm trying to figure out the catch!

Perhaps weight/size? I can't figure out what 2.2lbs mentioned in the product specs means in practical terms for a portable hard drive. But it doesn't seem all that portable. Maybe that's why the product name is qualified with a "Desktop" -- it's meant primarily to sit on your desk, not be carried around?

Anyway, I'll sit on this and try to do more research. New tech to replace old, yay :)

ETA: WOW, why are there so many different hard drives? (I must admit, I'm not really a fan of hardware. I prefer my toys way cheap, and even cheap hardware gets expensive when you want to play with a lot of it. I'd really rather find one that works well enough and stick with that, than get variations of the same thing to experiment with to find the one which works best). AKA me == cheap and lazy bastard

ETA 2: Buffalo 500gb Ministation Lite (seller doesn't have as much reputation, though) -- more robust, but also slower. Seagate FreeAgent | Go (or from this seller) -- ewwww at the dock, though.

So I guess I get to decide between portability, protectiveness, and speed...oh, security too. Hrrrm >_>

ETA 3: So apparently I lie about not liking to dig around, because I've been enjoying going through the forums. Would probably enjoy it more if I had a goal to maximize (or minimize?) something, though *rueful*

Comments

[denny]

Seagate drives have had a solid reputation for many years now. I've never heard of Freecom or Buffalo, are they just shells around someone else's hard drive? If so, the important question is who makes the drives they use?

2.2lbs is a normal-size bag of sugar in the UK.

[afuna]

I think they make their own: http://www.freecom.com/ecproduct_detail.asp?ID=3947&CatID=400 http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/4379/buffalo-ministation-metro-drive-review

Will probably just pick the seagate as the safest choice though! It (usually) gets good reviews, from what I've seen in my poking around.

[exor674]

Segate is the best from what I've heard too.

[afuna]

Oooh. Thank you, I've been hoping to hear from you on this actually, since I know you're more up on hardware than I am!

[invisionary]

Are you intending for this to be a portable drive (typically plugs into two USB ports) or a more stationary external (plugs into AC)? When I've needed an external HD what I've always done is bought the internal HD of my choice and put it in a caddy. Usually comes out cheaper, and in the case of portable drives, one of the only ways to get an especially high-performance drive (a 7200RPM laptop drive).

[afuna]

I'm looking for a portable drive (two USB ports though? Hmm, you mean at once?). All my previous hard drives have been internal HDs placed in an enclosure, but I've had some problems with them (the first failed because the enclosure wasn't sturdy enough to protect it from shock when I moved it around; the second was USB-to-USB rather than mini-USB-to-USB, and it was a pain to find an appropriate cable when I lost the original that came with).

I'm willing to try a pre-built solution to see whether it works out better, and I'm willing to pay the slight extra for convenience and peace of mind (hopefully at least!)

[invisionary]

Many high-performance portable drives use two USB's for the extra power they need. They'll often work on one, but they're very slow, sometimes quite a bit slower than regular flash drives. Laptop drives are built to withstand more shock than their desktop counterparts for understandable reasons. I don't have one to suggest right now (I'm on the road), but look for at least a 5400RPM drive, 7200 if you can get it, but you'll pay for this. To me, it's worth it - I'm a hardware geek :).

[afuna]

I'm definitely getting a 5400RPM drive. I can't find any built-in that are 7200RPM, but since I'm not needing to access the data constantly, I guess 5400 is a fair enough speed. (Well, I'm hoping so anyway *laugh*)