External Hard Drive

TBH samsung are rather good, wouldn't bother with western digital myself, maxtor aren't bad, seagate are ok imo.

 

I'd buy a hard drive, specifically the WD 2 or 3TB Green series (if for storage only), then an external enclosure.

 

stay away from lacie and iomega

 

Be sure to buy a 7200 rpm or better drive, and if your computer / mobo suppotrs eSATA, then get an external enclosure that also does. Preferably one that does both eSATA and USB....

 

I only ever buy Seagate HDD's. Western Digital are supposed to be ok. I'd steer well clear of anything that has Maxtor in it.

Personally, I always go for a solution that can be RAIDed like a NAS just for extra data resiliance. They're pretty cheap nowerdays but more than a HDD+enclosure.

 

Best advice here. To expand on what is being said here. the biggest enemy of external hard drives is heat. Hard drives generate lots of it and most enclosures do a piss poor job of dissipating it. one of the best fan-less enclosures I have ever used for the money is the I-NIA315Ue by ineo:



It takes standard 3.5 Inch IDE/SATA Hard Drives and connects to USB 2.0 or eSATA. It also has an on off switch (you'd be surprised how many don't) and most importantly, is made of metal and one entire side is mesh, which allows for excellent heat dissipation and ventilation.

I bought mine from amazon here:

Amazon.com: ineo I-NIA315Ue, 3.5 Inch IDE/ SATA Hybrid Hard Drive Mesh Iron Enclosure to USB 2.0/ eSATA (Black): Electronics

For less than $30 that left enough money on the table to buy a really nice 7200RPM hard drive. Since it is generally cheaper to buy hard drives than prepackaged external hard drives (or at least you tend to get better specs for the same money), you can buy a nice big and fast hard drive and put it in the enclosure yourself.

Overall the package is a little bigger than a non-vented external hard drive, but for me it is perfect. I highly recommend it.

I've had this one for about a year hooked up as a network drive to the back of my router. It is always on and I have never had a problem with it.

 

Who cares how good it is? It looks too cool not to own!