Christmas present for myself

sofa_surfer

First post on these shores - I hope to gather some useful hints.:beer:
I have decided to get this HD http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=006442b3f64f9110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&locale=en-US and to stick it in this enclosure http://www.startech.com/item/SAT2510U2E-InfoSafe-25-eSATA-and-USB-20-SATA-Drive-Enclosure.aspx .
Hardware isn't my forte, so I'd be grateful if I could get some more expert opinion on the possible pitfalls with this configuration. I am particularly interested in would the USB bus powering be enough?
Any comments welcome.

fwor

Looks to be a good combination, though the Startech description is a bit muddled up - in the overview it talks about being a 3.5" enclosure! It also says it has a fan, but it's not too clear about that. If it does, the tiny fan will probably be ~very~ noisy. For laptop drives it's usually ok to go for a metal-cased enclosure without a fan.

On the power side, they say that optionally you can power it from a second USB port, though if it comes with it's own PSU (again a bit unclear) I'd use that in preference.

Finally, if you're using it with a desktop PC, stick an eSata card in that for super-fast transfer speeds that will leave USB way behind...

totalsolutions

It's a laptop drive, is that what you want?

Ready to go, no worries:-
Overclockers: Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB USB2.0 External Hard Drive (ST305004FDD1E1-RK) £55.19

sofa_surfer

Leopard wrote: »

The Seagate drive is a good one.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/notebook-hard-drive,2006-6.html


The enclosure is a very standard and very basic Far East one, of a type universally available for a lot less money. I'd bet a £ to a penny that it hasn't got a fan. Nor does it have an on/off switch - which is very handy to have on any hard drive, so that you can power it down without disconnecting it.

USB2 power should be sufficient but - depending on the type of computer to which you attach it - it may very well need to use both USB leads. (It will certainly need USB power if you use an eSATA lead.)

My advice would be to buy this drive at the best price you can find but to seek out and purchase a better enclosure (perhaps for less money).

Depends on what you want it for, really.

This is one of the few enclosures (no fan, no switch) I could find that are slim and have both eSATA AND USB 2.0. I will start using it via the USB cable but my next PC will be eSATA enabled.
I'll happily reconsider the enclosure if someone points me into the right direction