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    Best bang for buck on 1TB external hard drive

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Deis, Aug 17, 2009.

  1. Deis

    Deis Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm looking for an external 1TB hard drive. I want a good balance of speed storage and value. I have an eSATA port on my laptop, so I figure the best way to go about it is an internal HDD and an enclosure to take advantage of the potential speed of the eSATA.

    I'm thinking of buying this Western Digital since everyone seems to be happy with their products.

    I've seen a couple people on this forum recommend the Antec MX-1. I don't know anything about enclosures, but this Rosewill got good reviews on newegg and is slightly cheaper. Any advice on which would be a better choice? Also, any alternatives for either a different HDD or enclosure I haven't considered? Like I said, I don't know too much about external HDDs, I just want to get a good value on a good amount of storage.
     
    Deis, Aug 17, 2009
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  2. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    External enclosures tend to run hot, I'd get the WD GP drive instead. The performance difference isn't much and it runs a lot cooler.
     
    sgogeta4, Aug 17, 2009
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  3. BeefyBeefo

    BeefyBeefo Notebook Consultant

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    My external drives, since I don't travel with them most of the time, are the Western Digital My Book series. I'm a big fan of these...
     
    BeefyBeefo, Aug 17, 2009
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  4. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    Best bang for the buck? Look at this $80 1TB eSATA external hard drive. I have one, and it's worked great for me so far. My cousin also has one, and it's going strong. Only critique is that the Hitachi drive in it runs quite hot, but it's not that much of an issue.
     
    MidnightSun, Aug 17, 2009
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  5. Deis

    Deis Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the advice everyone. I've checked out My Books and while they look nice, I feel like I'd be paying more than is really necessary for the storage I'd get. That Cavalry looks nice, but the reviews and the you pointing out that it runs hot makes me a bit nervous about it.

    sgogeta4: I searched for GP hard drives, and is something like this what you were talking about? That looks good and it's cheaper than the other 1TB Western Digital I was looking at.
     
    Deis, Aug 18, 2009
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  6. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Yep that's the drive.
     
    sgogeta4, Aug 18, 2009
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  7. MrX8503

    MrX8503 Notebook Evangelist

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    The antec mx-1 is a personal favorite of mine. The cooling mechanism on that is genius. But it is a bit expensive, I got mine for $30 though when it was on sale at microcenter.

    esata is supposed to be as fast as an internal sata, but I'm not sure if going with a high performance 7200rpm 1tb would make a whole lot of difference. I usually go green power for externals cause USBs are slow anyway, but that may different with esata.
     
    MrX8503, Aug 18, 2009
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  8. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

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    NCIX has Hitachi 1TB ones for sale for about $65USD. The cache is that you have to buy them in Canada.
     
    jackluo923, Aug 19, 2009
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  9. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    no you don't, www.ncixus.com

    I highly recommend ncix, the cheapest shipping gets me my packages in 2 days... newegg is 6+ and it cost more for the shipping, I don't know how it is in the US.
     
    yuio, Aug 19, 2009
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  10. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

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    NCIX canada often has cheaper prices compared ncix US

    Also, for Canadians living in lower mainland BC, we can just order online and pickup in store. The store is a couple blocks away from where I live thus the shipping is considered free.
     
    jackluo923, Aug 19, 2009
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