[Freeflyer]

I know they always say size doesn't matter ;-)

I'm looking at getting a firewire drive as additional storage for my powerbook.

Coolerexpress have ibm drives in a firewire enclosure at $135 for 120Gb. this seems like a bit of a bargain given that enclosures normally cost around $70.

You can choose 3.5" or 5.25" drives. They have the same seek time (8ms) and spin speed (7200rpm). Is there any reason to choose one over the other?

Shame they don't have 2.5" drives that could be powered off the firewire itself.

Opinions appreciated.

J.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Freeflyer:
I know they always say size doesn't matter ;-)

I'm looking at getting a firewire drive as additional storage for my powerbook.

Coolerexpress have ibm drives in a firewire enclosure at $135 for 120Gb. this seems like a bit of a bargain given that enclosures normally cost around $70.

You can choose 3.5" or 5.25" drives. They have the same seek time (8ms) and spin speed (7200rpm). Is there any reason to choose one over the other?

Shame they don't have 2.5" drives that could be powered off the firewire itself.

Opinions appreciated.

J.

Considering this is for your PowerBook, why don't you just buy a 2.5" drive and enclosure? You can already get 80 GB 2.5" drives. Not screaming fast, but fast enough for most portable usage. I run a 60 GB, and I'm satisfied.

A 5.25" drive would be huge (and monstrously heavy) and a 3.5 is also pretty big. (Or is only ever going to stay in one spot?)

[Freeflyer]

Originally posted by Eug:
Considering this is for your PowerBook, why don't you just buy a 2.5" drive and enclosure? You can already get 80 GB 2.5" drives. Not screaming fast, but fast enough for most portable usage. I run a 60 GB, and I'm satisfied.

A 5.25" drive would be huge (and monstrously heavy) and a 3.5 is also pretty big. (Or is only ever going to stay in one spot?)

Cost is the major issue. An 80Gb drive is around $250 plus enclosure (although I'd swap out the 60 in the book first). Most of the time the drive will sit at home, as I can offload the backups and storage. That would leave me with the main laptop drive for when I'm away. If I really need the extra, then I can take the spare drive and a power brick with me.

I already have 40Gb of mp3's which could be dumped down. My 60Gb internal drive is filling up fast.

J.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Freeflyer:
Cost is the major issue. An 80Gb drive is around $250 plus enclosure (although I'd swap out the 60 in the book first). Most of the time the drive will sit at home, as I can offload the backups and storage. That would leave me with the main laptop drive for when I'm away. If I really need the extra, then I can take the spare drive and a power brick with me.

I already have 40Gb of mp3's which could be dumped down. My 60Gb internal drive is filling up fast.

J.

Then just get the 3.5" drive with 3.5" enclosure. A 3.5" enclosure costs the same as a 5.25" enclosure, but saves a bit of space and weight. Plus they generally look better. The only downside of the 3.5" enclosure is that you can't use a 5.25" optical drive in it. In contrast, you can use a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" enclosure, since the connectors are the same.

Just make sure you get the Oxford 911 chipset. Indigita or Initio or whatever are definitely slower (although you only notice the difference with the faster drives, on very disk intensive tasks).

There are two minor problems though trying to run a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" enclosure.

1) Sometimes the 5.25" enclosures don't have all the right screw holes for 3.5" drives. So you'd be able to run the drive, but may not be able to securely fasten it down on all sides.
2) A few cheap 5.25" enclosures sometimes don't come with the front bezel cover since they assume you're just gonna run an optical drive in it.

One last point. I have hard drives in 2.5" 3.5" and 5.25" enclosures. The only one I ever carry anywhere is the 2.5". I am soooooo glad I spent the extra coin on the 2.5". But then I guess if you're on a budget then what can you do?