60 GB pocket drive vs. 250 GB external drive

[soulstar]

Hi to all Muggers and those who own external storage devices!

I'm planning to buy an external hardrive for my storage needs and I was just wondering what's better:

a.) Lacie 60 GB usb2 and firewire pocket drive (5400 rpm, 8 mb cache, firewire powered).

* this was the most portable among the three but would you actually buy it at its $300 price tag?


b.) Lacie 250 GB usb2 and firewire desktop external harddrive (7200 rpm, 8 mb cache, external AC power).

* At the same price as the pocketdrive, would this be a better solution even if its prone to electric spikes from outlets and damage from lugging it around in a backpack?


c.) usb2 and firewire external HDD case plus a separate HDD.

* I'm not really sure about this one but just how heavy would this setup weigh?

[right_stuff]

if you're after the portability and you have the budget for it, go for the Lacie 60GB, this will also save your time from building your own drive. if portability plus a low budget, go for the external HDD case w/ a separate HDD, a lot cheaper than Lacie's 60GB. but if you want a faster HDD w/a huge capacity, go for the Lacie 250GB @ 7200 rpm.

btw, i know someone selling a cheap 60GB HDD (bnew) for an external HDD... msg me so i can refer you to him...

hope this helps...

[soulstar]

thanks carlo!

Would you know if it has both a firewire and usb2 interface?

[right_stuff]

FW and USB 2.0 interface would depend on the HDD case. The cheapest HDD enclosure you can get is a usb 2.0. FW and USB 2.0 enclosures are priced a lil higher. Both are available locally. Check powermac mega, i saw one just awhile ago...

:lol:


sadly, my frnd is only selling HDDs...

[soulstar]

aw shucks...thanks for the advice tho, carlo!

[Henjie]

Originally posted by soulstar
c.) usb2 and firewire external HDD case plus a separate HDD.

* I'm not really sure about this one but just how heavy would this setup weigh?

The enclosures themselves will usually weigh less than 2 lbs. Same with the hard drive (around 1.5 lbs.). You're looking at a total weight of around 4 lbs. The LaCie d2 hard drives are listed as weighing 3.31 lbs.

Normally, I would have chosen Option C (external enclosure + hard drive, self-built). That'll still be my choice if you're going to buy the hard drive and the enclosure in the US or in HK and have someone handcarry them home to you. But if you're gonna buy them locally, it'll turn out to be more expensive, and that's with a bigger and flimsier enclosure (cheap plastic instead of the aluminum unit that LaCie uses) that probably won't have a FW800 port. No guarantee of you finding a 250GB hard drive with an 8MB cache for a reasonable price either. A lot of shops here don't even have 200GB hard drives. :-)

Option B seems to be the best option. It doesn't make sense to go for Option A unless you really need the portability. Same price for 190GB less storage and probably half the performance? ;-)


~Henjie

[Edited on 4-14-2004 by Henjie]

[tdbur]

I was lucky enough to find a very nice external hdd case. I got mine from LMK.. made of aluminum with 2 FW ports at the back. Its AC powered. Got the HDD from them too so I think i spent a total of about 10k for an 80G external.. Could have saved some money though if I had bought the HDD from a place like PCX i guess. Btw.. its a 7200 rpm drive.. i still find it light enough to bring around when the need arises.

[bagwis]

Option A is for portability.

Option B is for large files/ faster transfers. In other words, more space.

Option C is the cheapest.

Like you, I was in the same predicament. I needed the extra space for some video work. Video files are quite demanding (dropped frames, etc.). Speed is indeed a factor (faster rpm the better). I opted for option C. Got a 3.5" firewire enclosure called mobile disk, and an 80GB 7200 rpm HDD. I did the installation myself. Madali lang kasi.

[Edited on 10-7-2004 by bagwis]

[soulstar]

Cool. How much did you spend for everything?

[bagwis]

Got the enclosure (Firewire 400 only, no usb) for 3,000. The 80GB 7200 rpm drive for around 4,500.00.

Around 7,500.00

[Edited on 4-16-2004 by bagwis]