External Hard Drive recommendations

[needhelpasappls]

Hi I just bought a new laptop (HP Pavilion dv5-1138nr w/ 320GB hard drive and 4GB RAM) and wanted to buy an external hard drive.

1.) I use my computer to watch movies, play games, and listen to music as well as to run alot of high end programs (AutoCAD, Solidworks) that take up alot of space. Because of this I wanted to get an external hard drive to store these programs and keep my computer running smoothly. I'm not looking for anything costly and am not really worried about size. Just looking for something reasonably priced, decent amount of memory, and most of all dependable. Any suggestions on what type and where I should get one at?


Thanks

 

[ScOuT]

I would suggest a 7200 RPM drive for the increased performance you will need running those types of programs. I have only used Western Digital external hard drives, get them free from work, but they are only 5400 RPM series. I have had the same one for 4 years, it survived a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, had the crap beat out of it. It works like new, great brand and high quality hard drives. Maybe the only brand I will ever own.

 

[massahwahl]

I still have a USB 80GIG western digital from 5 years ago and its still connected to my PC, solid brand.

If your watching movies and such off of this drive like I do, I recommend a firewire interface as its faster than USB.

I use 500GIG Iomega firewire/USB drive and its awesome.

 

[needhelpasappls]

I would suggest a 7200 RPM drive for the increased performance you will need running those types of programs. I have only used Western Digital external hard drives, get them free from work, but they are only 5400 RPM series. I have had the same one for 4 years, it survived a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, had the crap beat out of it. It works like new, great brand and high quality hard drives. Maybe the only brand I will ever own.

I still have a USB 80GIG western digital from 5 years ago and its still connected to my PC, solid brand.

If your watching movies and such off of this drive like I do, I recommend a firewire interface as its faster than USB.

I use 500GIG Iomega firewire/USB drive and its awesome.

Thanks guys, I'll look into both of your suggestions. Keep the suggestions coming, I'll take a look at them tomm.

Also I had another question (not really about hard drives though)
Hi I just bought a new laptop (HP Pavilion dv5-1138nr w/ 320GB hard drive and 4GB RAM) and wanted to buy some new accessories for it.

I've seen a couple of cooling systems for laptops. If I'm going to be using my computer often is this something I should invest in? Any particular brand/model?

 

[laznz1]

if its not allready obvisus go with a sata external HDD there quicker lol also try to get one made by a decent company aka Seagate and so on

 

[needhelpasappls]

Well I've narrowed it down a little bit:
-Less than 150 bucks
-500GB to 1GB (relatively high amount of space)
-7200+RPM
-Probably SeaGate or Western Digital (seem to be the ones I hear the most/best about)
-And I'm not sure about the whole FireWire/USB 2.o thing????? (any help here appreciated)

Here's a couple I've been looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148332
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148350
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148329
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136171[/QUOTE]

 

[massahwahl]

Well I've narrowed it down a little bit:
-Less than 150 bucks
-500GB to 1GB (relatively high amount of space)
-7200+RPM
-Probably SeaGate or Western Digital (seem to be the ones I hear the most/best about)
-And I'm not sure about the whole FireWire/USB 2.o thing????? (any help here appreciated)

Here's a couple I've been looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148332
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148350
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148329
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136171

[/QUOTE]

Firewire and USB are plugs it uses to connect to your computer. USB looks like a rectangle, while firewire is rectangular but one end of the plug is rounded. Firewire has a faster transfer rate.