hard disk

[farhato81]

Hi,
I have a toshiba laptop (pentium III, 650 Mhz, 192 MB ram, 11 GB hard disk).
I was thinking of getting an external 40 GB hard disk. It connects to my computer via USB. (note that I only have regular USB. Not the newer USB... isn't it called USB2 or something?) Anyways, my primary use for the hard disk will be storing and playback of DIVX movies, MP3's etc... and probably intalling and running a few games or programs.

My question is: Will the hard disk funtion too slowly to run the movies, music, or games off it, since it is linked via USB? I mean, will the playback of the movies be choppy? Will my programs/games run slower? Exactly, when will I feel that it is slower than my internal hard disk?

note: the hard disk I saw is 720 rpm. Actually it is an internal hard disk (for a desktop ) but the sales person said that he could install it in an external box/case and then I'd be able to connect it via USB to my laptop.

I would appreciate any info.
thank you !!!

 

[Teq]

USB connected drives are best used as storage devices. Even with USB2 or firewire, they are still going to be slowish compared to an internal drive.

It might be a lot smarter to spend the money on a higher capacity drive for your laptop. 40gigs internal will run circles around an external drive and you don't have anything hanging off the back of the computer.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---