320Gb External Hard drive. Which to get?

[Garnett]

I'm after a medium sized external HDD to backup photos, and music and free up space on my laptop.

I've seen two:

LaCie 320GB 8MB Cache USB2.0 External HDD Design by F.A. Porsche £76.48

Maxtor 320GB 16MB Cache USB2.0 External HDD £79.95

Apparently the Maxtor is 'plasticy' and feels a bit cheap. But then it is made by Maxtor who are a big name in the business.

The Lacie has half the cache, which may be a problem, but it has a decent metal case, and is easier on the eye.

Can anyone tell me I'm mad not just to go for more cache, or that it's worth getting something you can bear to look at on your desk all day, or that for the same money or less there is something much better out there?

I'll be extremely grateful for any assistance anyone can offer.

Cheers.

Garnett.

[Rick]

I would look at the drive speed. Not just the cache size.
Once the cache is full it's full regardless of it's size

Moving Photos and Music I will assume they are large files
So filling the cache will happen quickly
The drive read/write speed will benefit you more

Go with the one that you can live with ..
If It's going to be sitting on your desk . You have to put up with it

[Garnett]

Thanks Rick.

I can't find read/write speeds for these drives, only spin, seek and transfer speeds. Surely they will all be fairly comparable?

It looks like neither of the two drives have a power switch, which I'm worried may shorten their life expectancy or mean they need to be switched off at the mains, which might lead to corruption. Am I right, or way off the money?

Further research has added the Western Digital My Book to my list, but that too has it's down points:

LaCie
Pros:
Looks
Price
Cons
Possible reliability -what make is the actual drive?
No power switch

Maxtor
Pros
Price
Cache
Cons
Looks (not too bad, I guess)
On/off switch

Western Digital My Book
Pros
Looks
On/off feature
Cons
1 Year warranty only
Price - slightly more expensive

[Rick]

In the area of external USB drives.
You have to stop these units manually using the usb taskbar button
So a power switch in not needed.
So Long as you disconnect it from the computer and unplug it after that.

Lacie brand has had some good reviews
However I have never use one.

I picked up a Maxtor 2 years ago for one of the kids to use at school.
So far No complaints

I have two WD usb powered units.
I prefer to use them with the external power supply
They don't work with long cables

The other USB drives I have built all had WD drives and a number of enclosures
.
I don't mind the larger cases . (Comfort factor ) the included fan(s)
The last I put together I used the Bytec 3.5 enclosure ME-835
Internal power supply, 2 fans, all metal construction black or silver, support for large drives ( 500GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145390

[Sylvander]

I'm using the [VP-9258V] USB 2.0 for IDE version of THIS (http://www.vipower.com.tw/P_ExternalEnclosure.php?model_no=VP-9258V) external enclosure .
I fitted a spare 80 GB Maxtor HDD into it.
This VP-9258V combination uses a VP-9054V "Smart Family" enclosure and a VP-9208 USB 2.0 "Smart Family" cable.
[smart because the USB circuitry is built into the plug on the cable, so the USB2 cable can serve many different (lower cost) enclosures]

INCLUDED
1. USB 2.0 cable.
2. Power unit.
3. Built-in fan.
4. Built-in power-on switch. [I find this very convenient]