External Hard Drive Opinion...

I have Dell Deminsion 4600
40 Gig Hard Drive
512 MB Ram
2.8 GHz Processor

I need an External Hard Drive because my 40 gigs is quickly running out. Any opinions on what I should be lookin' for because I'm new at this. Thanks.

 

firstly welcome too majorgeeks
is there any reason why you have to have a external hard drive only beacuse you pay more per gig for external than internal expect to pay around 80p per gig for internal and £1.50 per gig for external

look for at least 7200rpm spindle speed , and a cache buffer of 8mb whatever you get

 

Unless you are really worried about putting a hard drive into the computer, or need mobile storage, I wouldn't buy an external drive.
a) it's more expensive
b) if you get the cheaper USB option, speeds will be slow.
c) Firewire is more expensive

And it's so so so so easy to install a hard drive. slot it into bay, screw it in place, connect two wires, and you're done.

A.

 

I'd buy a blank case and purchased the hard drive separate it may be cheaper.
I bought mine at Cool Drives . I got this one so I can use *any* drives I want. They have a lot of solutions, so give them a look.
Or just put pull out bays in your case if you must move the HD frequently.

 

I only have room for 2 drives and those are occupied by the current 40 Gig Hard Drive and my DVD-Rom. So, I don't have another bay for an external hard drive.

 

Sounds like you have a 4600C.

 

id recommend western digital as they've never failed me (knock on wood) ... i hear to avoid maxtor and most HDD issues I hear come from owners of maxtor HDDs

 

You dont need a bay for external hard drives.. like I linked to before the stand alone unit is nice because you are not limited to one drive - you can pull those out and change drives in seconds.

 

I'd say that was just a typo, and he meant internal.

As to Maxtor, I guess it depends on who you talk to. I have dozens of them running and, in all my years' experience with them ever had but one hard crash.

 

yea, i have a maxtor on my other machine it's been running for more than two years and I haven't had a problem with it ... i dunno ... just from others experiences

 

not to get down on anyone but I think I've had 2 maxtors go out & 1 western digiatl.. which should be replaced today.. WD 2 year coverage is nice.
But here at work we have a few old (4gb?) maxtors and they fail frequenty.. but they have lived a life. lol