Use portable drive as permanent storage?

[slap_shot_12]

I'm looking for more storage space and I've seen some crazy sales lately for portable hard drives. It seems like internal drives are more expensive than portable drives so I'm wondering if there's any reason I couldn't by a portable drive, plug it in and use it as through it were a permanent, internal drive?

Specifically, using USB 3 would the speed be any slower, and would there be any difference in reliability and life span of the drive?

 

[gilbadon]

I did it with everything from playing games to watching movies. There are also drives that allow you to connect directly to the sata ports. However, most external drives are 5400 RPM and are much slower than an internal 7200 RPM even with USB 3.0. If you do not care about speed, maybe look for 5400 RPM internal drives. They are cheaper.

 

[Onus]

One reason external drives are cheaper is because they are usually slower, 5400RPM drives. If speed is not important to you (and it may not be, for a media or other data drive; usually only the OS and programs drive needs to be fast), you might be well-served by one or more laptop drives. They will be 2.5" drives, but you can typically place two of them into a 3.5" adapter, saving space inside your PC.

 

[kranthi chevuri]

Actually External Drives Also Converted Internet Drive, So No Deference Between Internal and External,
Only Expensive Drives have More speed And More life