Thinking of buying an external hard drive

[Messerschmitt]

Excelent information Zxian. What would be the transfer rate for a 5400 RPM if for 4200 is 25mb/s? For a USB 2.0 I think the transfer rate is 50 or 60 mb/s if I am not mistaken anyway.

I do not know tho what continous file acces would affect.

Are there actualy any programs that would use and require more than 25-40 mb/s transfer rate if you would acces and utilize them directly from the HDD storage device?

[LLXX]

No, unless you're recording uncompressed high-quality video.

You can look at the hard drive specs on the manufacturer site, there is usually a "Maximum read rate" and "Maximum write rate" as well as "Average read rate" and "Average write rate". This is the rate at which the heads read/write the platters, the interface speed will be lower.

...and cache helps with burst transfers, with continuous transfers it's the read rate from the platters that matters as the cache is emptied quickly.

[Zxian]

LLXX said it all.

Bottom line - just about anything out there will do what you need. The extra features such as faster speed or bigger cache are nice, but not having them won't hinder you at all.

[XP_2600]

Hello

Why not make an external drive yourself. All you need is an external case and a HD. Below I listed a couple of references for parts. I did this myself about a year ago, and have had no problems. I listed the Seagate as they have a 5 year warranty. I used to be a hard core Maxtor fanatic until about 2 years ago my drives were failing just after the 3 year warranty was up. Seriously a couple of days or weeks after there was no support.

External Case with USB and IEEE 1394/Firewire

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....&SubCategory=92

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822148036

jd

I AGREE.

[Messerschmitt]

Excelent information guys, the help provided here is realy appriciated, and helped me to a better decission than the previous I wanted.

[Zxian]

Glad to be of help. I know how much of a relief it is when people guide you in the right direction as to what to get or what to avoid. I've wasted countless dollars on products that weren't what I wanted, or didn't do what I expected.

Hope you enjoy your new toy.