[persim]

Howdy,

Not sure if this was the best forum for this question but here it goes...

Looking for the best HD and DVD-R I can use as external drives (via USB) with my 2.0ghz Dothan. I don't have an enclosures for either yet but that shouldn't be too difficult (though ideas on those are welcome too). Thanks in advance.

Persim

[turtile]

HD enclosure:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=370891

HD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148065

DVD enclosure:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=370864

DVD Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152060

[Ethereal_Dragon]

As far as 'Best HDD' your looking for, are you looking for something fast, large amount of free space?
Is this going to be for additional storage space, or backing up data?

[persim]

Originally posted by Ethereal_Dragon
As far as 'Best HDD' your looking for, are you looking for something fast, large amount of free space?
Is this going to be for additional storage space, or backing up data?

Thanks for the recommendations turtile.

Dragon, I should have clarified this earlier, thanks for the question. I'm not planning on storing any movies on the HD itself (just editing and copying onto DVDs) so i guess I'd value writing speed over storage space right now but I'd need a minimum of 80GB to start.

Persim

[persim]

Originally posted by turtile

HD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148065

DVD Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152060

A question on your DVD-R recommendation. I noticed this one has a 2MB buffer, is it worth looking into something like this which has an 8MB buffer?

Also, on the HD, the same question applies. The one you selected has an 8MB buffer,

this one has a 16MB but is a SATA.

I'm not being difficult or unappreciative of your advice but, instead, tying to learn a thing or two in my old age Thanks

persim

[Nitestick]

to my knowledge WD's Caviar is the fastest mainstream hdd. so i'd look at them.

[Ethereal_Dragon]

With the DVD burner, I believe the higher the buffer, the lower chance you have of making coasters. I am not too familiar with optical drives though, sorry.

With the hard drives, You will find the best read/write speeds with SCSI drives, but they are VERY EPENSIVE, so I doubt you will want to look into them.
The next step down would be Serial ATA drives. The fastest read/write speeds here would belong to the Western Digital Raptor series, available in 3 flavors,

Western Digital Raptor 74GB - $155
Average Latency: 2.99ms
Average Seek Time: 4.5ms
Average Write Time: 5.9ms
Cache: 8MB
RPM: 10,000

Western Digital Raptor 150GB - $286
Average Latency: 2.99ms
Average Seek Time: 4.6ms
Cache: 16MB
RPM: 10,000

There is also a 36.7 Gig drive, but it's obviously FAR below 80Gig.

Here is an enclosure that looks to be pretty good...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145660

Out of 18 reviews, the only Cons listed are:

Screwdriver required for swapping drives - DUH, this i logical, this person must either not own tools, or not build PC's.

No firewire. Will not support drives larger than 400GB - Newegg lists this with the following external links: USB2.0 (type B) + SATA... But they don't list the fact that it only supports 400 Gig drives & smaller...

[turtile]

If you are using the HD and DVD RW as external drives, the speed will not make any difference at all. It usually stays around 32MB/s. Most drives are capable of 40+MB/s.

The higher cache is not worth the money at. You could buy near 3 of the NEC drives. The NEC also out performs the Plextor. The Plextor will have less trouble if the hard drive doesn't provide a good stream of data.

Its not worth it to buy the drive w/ 16MB cache either.

[persim]

Originally posted by turtile
If you are using the HD and DVD RW as external drives, the speed will not make any difference at all. It usually stays around 32MB/s. Most drives are capable of 40+MB/s.

Can you explain why this is? USB limits?

Originally posted by turtile
The higher cache is not worth the money at. You could buy near 3 of the NEC drives. The NEC also out performs the Plextor. The Plextor will have less trouble if the hard drive doesn't provide a good stream of data.

Its not worth it to buy the drive w/ 16MB cache either.

Ok so the buffer only comes into play when the HD is slow at sending/writing info, if i understand you correctly it acts as a 'depot' for information. Is that right? Thanks

Persim

[Nitestick]

yes the speed is limited by usb. and that basically is the function of a buffer. data is loaded into the buffer in advance, that way if there is an interuption in the data stream it continues from the buffer