External HD Speed

[thom]

What are the criteria or specs that contribute to the speed of an external HD?

Thanks

[Cricket]

Are you talking about the pre-made type or the buy-your-own-housing-and-put-your-own-hard drive-in-it type?

The type of connection it uses to connect to the computer with is something to look at. Most are USB 2.0 but there are models that use FireWire which put a little less drain on the computer's system resources. Both transfer data at a pretty fast rate.

Cricket

[thom]

I was referring to the pre-made type but now I am wondering if the buy-your-own-housing-and-put-your-own-hard drive-in-it type might be the way to go for speed.

[freakitchen]

Building your own won't give you any noticable speed benefits over the pre-builts; as Cricket has already said, it's the interface that determines transfer rate - and that doesn't change between the two.

It WILL, however, give you more options in terms of the size of the drive, and indeed, the ability to remove and replace it with another should you want / need to. The quality of the drive depends quite a bit on the housing you choose, though. Apricorn's come highly recommended from fellow members.

FK

[KilluminatiStyle]

If the drive is going to be hooked up and running pretty much all the time or you are going to be transferring large amounts of data to it then I would suggest something that is actively cooled.

[thom]

Good suggestions. Thanks

[Cricket]

I mainly use Bytecc external IDE HDD housings with USB 2.0 connections that don't have active cooling so I usually don't have them running unless I'm actively transferring data or working from them. I recently needed 2 more external housings and considered getting the Apricorn external HDD housings since they're actively cooled but just got more Bytecc housings because they're stackable. One nice thing with the Apricorn is it comes with the OEM version of Acronis True Image, but I already have the retail version.

I do have one Vantec external housing but found it to be very cheaply made and don't recommend that brand to anyone.

Cricket

[LeftyAce]

I too would un-recommend Vantec; had two dud enclosures in a row from them.

I am really happy with my Apricorn enclosure. If you want top speed, get one with an eSATA interface; that assumes you have a desktop computer though, as you'll need a spare sata port to put the eSATA on. Mine runs as fast as my internal drive :-)

[glc]

The Apricorn eSATA also has USB 2.0.