Good choice for building an ext hard drive?

[jdl]

I'm wanting to get an external hdd for storing my digital photos and other files---are these two items good choices or do you recommend others?

Seagate 250 gb barracuda
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817145656


AMS Venus enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148065

 

[mpjesse]

I would recommend getting a SATA external enclosure. Does your motherboard have SATA ports? If so, you can get PCI panels that have SATA ports on the back... as seen here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812198009

This way you don't have to deal w/ USB and slow transfers. Newegg also has USB and SATA external hard drive enclosures as seen here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155218

That's the ultimate in flexibility! (P.S., I just ordered one of those the other day, I'll let you know how it is)

-mpjesse

 

[jdl]

My PC is almost 2 years old and I don't think I have a SATA port----I plan to also use the external drive on my new Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop---

Do you think it worthwhile to invest in the SATA port and enclosure for the old Desktop?

 

[pat]

I'm wanting to get an external hdd for storing my digital photos and other files---are these two items good choices or do you recommend others?

Seagate 250 gb barracuda
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817145656


AMS Venus enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148065

I did not take the time to look at the enclosure, but get a firewire or an USB2.0 one. The drives inside doesn't matter. That one should be great.

SATA is not that common for enclosure, but if you find a SATA enclosure and a SATA hdd that will be cheaper than the PATA you choose get it. But don't use SATA to connect to the computer. First, not all SATA controller support hot swap, while USB or firewire can be added or released without turning off the computer. Sure, it will be slower that SATA, but hot plugging worth the lower speed. I have 2 bytecc enclosure that use USB2.0 and like them very much.