[Zoc]

Can anyone help me choose between the internal 60g upgrade for the iBook's HDD, and an external, larger firewire drive?

Here's where I am: 30 gigs is nowhere near enough. 60 is better, but I'd have to order online and wait my ass for the thing to come in the mail. I want it now. Nevertheless, waiting builds character.

I've just about convinced myself that I'm actually *better off* simply picking up the iBook *right now* at the store, and a Lacie drive or something to go with it, since it would be bigger, cheaper, and faster. Am I right?

The question: Is a 7200rpm, 3.5 inch external firewire400 HDD faster than the iBook's internal, ata100 4200rpm 2.5 inch drive or not? If so, by how much? I can't seem to find good, comparable benchmarks for both.

Thankee.

[mike one]

Originally posted by Zoc:


The question: Is a 7200rpm, 3.5 inch external firewire400 HDD faster than the iBook's internal, ata100 4200rpm 2.5 inch drive or not? If so, by how much? I can't seem to find good, comparable benchmarks for both.

Thankee.

Can't really give you benchmarks on that.
you should really ask yourself what you need the external drive for. seriously.

for reference:
i can play dvds off an external 4200 rpm firewire drive just fine, so a 7200rpm drive will at least be able to play dvd video. mp3s will play off the external drive fine, divx too, you should be able to read and write large files to that drive without much noticable difference compared to the internal drive.

if you really want benchmarks, go to tom's hardware or dig through macsales.com..

my guess is that the external drive might be a little faster than the internal one. but that is a guess.