External HDDs: Some better or just a game of luck?

Rlad78

Rlad78

New Member
Everywhere I go, it seems like reviews on external hard drives have at least a 3:2 ratio between excellent reviews and terrible reviews. Obviously, there's a bit of a bias here, because these are hard drives we're talking about and you're either going to rate it 5 stars if it works or 1 star if it doesn't.

But even taking that into consideration, how are you supposed to know what kind/brand of external hard drive to buy? Or is there not a method to the madness; is it really just a matter of getting lucky with the drive you get?
 
Well when it come to EXHDD's there are a few things to consider.

RPM: most are 5400rpm or 7200rpm, of course 7200rpm HDD's are going to be faster, but I don't know if you can see this difference when connected to USB2.0, maybe USB3.0 you will see a difference. Will you be on USB2 or 3.

Brand: Seagate or Western Digital are my personal choice.

You also have different cache sizes on HDD's, but I never really notice any big difference, but they say bigger is better.

Build quality of the case is something to look into also.

The only other thing I can think off is that some have auto start, sleep and turn off. They turn on when they detect power to the usb, for example the computer booting up, but many mobos have the option on leave power on to the usb's when the computer is off (charging phone or something), so maybe if this is on, the hdd would be on all the time too (Ive never tried it). I did have a EXHDD like this and it was annoying as it kept going to sleep when inactive for a little while, even when I was watching a movie, the movie paused and needed to wait for the HDD to spin up again.
 
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I uh....actually didn't even know those existed Voyagerfan...thanks for the heads up.

What you said actually makes me want to buy this, since the case is apparently pretty easy to open and it's cheaper than a regular 2TB drive + external enclosure.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178587

And Shlouski, I'd agree with your choice of brands. Ironic how the ones that get bought the most often have the most people whining about their products though.
 
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