External Hard drives Maxtor or Seagate

Yes the latest drives all need ( iirc as I only looked at a handfull last week while looking into getting one myself ) USB2.0, so you would have to also buy a USB2.0 PCI addon card to run the EHD from.

on the subject of what drives, I have used, either in work or for friends, both Maxtor and Seagate drives and found them to be ok, as for one with a fan, it is an advantage to have a fan if the ones your looking at come with them especially if the room where it will be used alot is warm, but if its well ventilated then they get hot but no hotter than internals can get.

Options I ended up toying with are;

From Seagate

http://www.seagate.com/products/retail/external/usb ( USB2.0 only and slightly under your requested 300gb, max in this range is 250gb at present )

http://www.seagate.com/products/retail/external/usbfirewire ( funny enough datasheet says USB1.1 compatible, but data transfer will be much slower than USB2.0 ) reason I like this option was its stackable.

http://www.seagate.com/products/retail/portable/index.html ( smaller size than what you listed but, we use these in work and they do perform well for drives that will fit in the palm of your hand )

From Maxtor

http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/en/catalog/OTIII_USB/ ( I do like the One Touch Series )



USB2.0 PCI card http://www.verbatim.com.au/products.cfm?productID=KW2580E2 no doubt you can find some at a local retaliers in either 2 or 4 port versions.


another option is build your own external drive from a normal 3.5" HD and pop it in an external enclosure, http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=19&pPath=249&productID=249 some of these newer enclosures are gettinh to a size where they are just as portable as the retail EHDs.