Topic: time for a new external, any suggestions on where to buy???

[mikesalvo]

so,

my 250 gb lacie is appraoching its max. Im looking to buy another external. 250-500 gb is most likely what im looking for. I bought mine @ Best Buy. Im sure theres better deals out there. Any suggestions on brands, and where to buy??? Any current good deals???

as always, thanks in advance!

~Mike

[John Kary]

What are you using it for?  Scratch drive for audio/video editing?  Simple storage?  What you need it to do can help with a recommendation.

[tapeworm48]

so,

my 250 gb lacie is appraoching its max. Im looking to buy another external. 250-500 gb is most likely what im looking for. I bought mine @ Best Buy. Im sure theres better deals out there. Any suggestions on brands, and where to buy??? Any current good deals???

as always, thanks in advance!

~Mike

Check the retail space section here on TS, people post good deals on there.  If nothing else, it will give you a frame of reference on pricing and capacity.

[Startstop]

Newegg.com has always served me well.

[calvinroots]

Newegg is nice!

[terrapinj]

frys.com has a smokin deal on Maxtor(or was it seagate) 320GB for like 69.99 a few weeks back

[easy jim]

frys.com has a smokin deal on Maxtor(or was it seagate) 320GB for like 69.99 a few weeks back

They seem to have rotating deals like that with different manufacturers every couple weeks, and you can most of the time get the same pricing in-store.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Whatever you get... Take the time it takes to test the hell out of it before you depend on it. It takes at least 7-9 hours to do a single write/read verify pass on a 500GB USB drive.  Because a lot of these drives shutdown after a few minutes of inactivity (for cooling) it is much harder to get basic burn-in time on the drive.  And because the designs assume they'll be shutting down, they lack fans and can run hot if you run them continuously (via a script, etc).

[terrapinj]

Whatever you get... Take the time it takes to test the hell out of it before you depend on it. It takes at least 7-9 hours to do a single write/read verify pass on a 500GB USB drive.  Because a lot of these drives shutdown after a few minutes of inactivity (for cooling) it is much harder to get basic burn-in time on the drive.  And because the designs assume they'll be shutting down, they lack fans and can run hot if you run them continuously (via a script, etc).

how does one do this?

[kskreider]

If I personally did not get in on the inexpensive 750GB WD deal I would buy a good internal and then slap it into a external case with fans.  I have one here that someone sent me to fill that is from Newegg and is made by Rosewill.  It is a NICE case and is only about $30and has USB/eSATA interfaces.

[keytohwy]

so,

my 250 gb lacie is appraoching its max. Im looking to buy another external. 250-500 gb is most likely what im looking for. I bought mine @ Best Buy. Im sure theres better deals out there. Any suggestions on brands, and where to buy??? Any current good deals???

as always, thanks in advance!

~Mike

There are plenty of cheap ones out there.  I stick with LaCie and roll-your-own cases from Other World Computing.  Crap firewire bridges will make you pull your hair out, so why deal with it.  LaCie's fw bridges are world-class.

My $.02

keytohwy

[mikesalvo]

keytohwy can u suggest a reasonably priced outfit?  +t for the suggestion...

[keytohwy]

keytohwy can u suggest a reasonably priced outfit?  +t for the suggestion...

I get my stuff here.  Always something to fit my needs.  From time to time they have an "open box" sale, which I usually grab stuff from.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/

keytohwy