External Harddrive

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Anyone have/use one? How do your programs run off them? I plan on getting a 7200 RPM (my internal one is a 5400) with a USB connection. Should I expect slow downs if I run games from it? Thanks.

 

[Ghost Ranger]

Probably, USB 2.0 have transfer speeds of up to 480Mbit/s. SATA has a transfer rate of 3.0Gbit/s.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Running games or even anything off the external will most likely be slow. it would be in your best interest to use it as storage, while keeping all your games and programs on your internals. if you really need the extra space for that kind of stuff, you might as well just get another internal too..

 

[Jamesds]

My external hard drive is comparitively slower than most others (it's a Lacie 160GB Mobile USB 5400RPM drive) since it is so compact, but it is faster than my 2.5" 4200RPM internal laptop hard drive, so it suits me!

 

[kingworldss]

I like my SimpleTech External Hard Drive (SimpleTech 400GB External USB 7200 RPM), it's faster than most others. In fact, the most important is not how fast, just suitable. get one that suits you. you can try this one, maybe it's ok for you too
http://www.dealstudio.com/viewtopic.php?t=32596

 

[Ghost Ranger]

I like my SimpleTech External Hard Drive (SimpleTech 400GB External USB 7200 RPM), it's faster than most others. In fact, the most important is not how fast, just suitable. get one that suits you. you can try this one, maybe it's ok for you too
http://www.dealstudio.com/viewtopic.php?t=32596

I honestly wouldn't trust you on that one because:
(I) That site you linked to is some random site that no-one has ever heard of.
(II) The product you linked is way to cheap to possibly be true.
(III) The poster has only two other posts besides this one.

 

[Sarcasticon]

I've got a Lacie (forgot the model name, one of those red lego blocks) of 250 GB and a Lacie Porsche design 500 GB.
Indeed it will slow down your games and programs. You better move data from your pc to your external hard drive, then run programs on your internal hard disk...
Also note that apart from transfer speed and rotation speed, access time plays an important role. Even if your external hard drive spins faster than an internal one, it might still be considerably slower because it takes more time to access.

 

[Zelig]

(II) The product you linked is way to cheap to possibly be true.

Not really, although low, it looks like a reasonable price.

USB sucks royally for hard drives, get esata if available, or firewire otherwise.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I just need a new computer. I could move all my music, pictures, docuemnts, and data to an external, but 37.25GB of useable storage on my internal isn't nearly enough to run my games.

 

[Sarcasticon]

Not sure that firewire is so much better than USB2.0
At least I've seen a couple of speed tests where USB did better than firewire, in spite of the theoretical higher transfer speed.
I can't imagine any purpose other than running software or burning dvd's of the data, where the speed of USB2 would not be enough for your external hard drive...

 

[Zelig]

Not sure that firewire is so much better than USB2.0
At least I've seen a couple of speed tests where USB did better than firewire, in spite of the theoretical higher transfer speed.
I can't imagine any purpose other than running software or burning dvd's of the data, where the speed of USB2 would not be enough for your external hard drive...

USB 2.0 actually has a higher theoretical speed than firewire (400 that is, not 800). However, in practice, USB transfers have lower speeds, and far higher cpu usage.

See here for benchmarks. I would only use usb for hard drives if it was my only alternative.