Would you buy this WD external drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

Hi all,

I am thinking about buying a Western Digital My Book Premium 500 GB
External hard drive. I will be able to get it for about $200 + tax.

Has anyone had any experience with this this model or heard pro's or
con's. I have a Dell 8400 with 160 GB internal drive and Windows XP.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

John
 
Previously John said:
Hi all,
Click to expand...
I am thinking about buying a Western Digital My Book Premium 500 GB
External hard drive. I will be able to get it for about $200 + tax.
Click to expand...
Has anyone had any experience with this this model or heard pro's or
con's. I have a Dell 8400 with 160 GB internal drive and Windows XP.
Click to expand...
Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.
Click to expand...

From reading this group here, and the fact that stock WDs are
too unreliable for RAID, I would say: "Don't buy WD or Maxtor",
since significantly better drives are available (Seagate, Samsung,
maybe Hitachi).

Arno
 
John said:
I am thinking about buying a Western Digital My Book Premium 500 GB
External hard drive. I will be able to get it for about $200 + tax.
Click to expand...
Has anyone had any experience with this this model or heard pro's or con's.
Click to expand...

The main con with all these packaged external drives is that you only
get a 1 year warranty. If you buy the case separately and put a standard
hard drive in it yourself, you get either 3 or 5 years warranty on the drive.
I have a Dell 8400 with 160 GB internal drive and Windows XP.
Click to expand...
Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.
Click to expand...

Even obscene ones ?
 
The main con with all these packaged external drives is that you only
get a 1 year warranty. If you buy the case separately and put a standard
hard drive in it yourself, you get either 3 or 5 years warranty on the drive.
Click to expand...

So what would you suggest for a case for a 500GB drive?

Thanks.
 
jesse wrote
So what would you suggest for a case for a 500GB drive?
Click to expand...

Dont have any suggestion.

I'd personally go for one that supports both eSATA for normal
use so you can do stuff like monitor the SMART data easily,
and the temperature, and which has USB2 as well for the
occasional use on systems that dont have eSATA, and one
that has decent fan cooling of the drive, with a big thin fan
that covers most of the bottom of the case, with decent
slots to let the air circulate thru the case.

Unfortunately that combination isnt that common at all.
 
Rod Speed said:
I'd personally go for one that supports both eSATA for normal
use so you can do stuff like monitor the SMART data easily,
and the temperature, and which has USB2 as well for the
occasional use on systems that dont have eSATA, and one
that has decent fan cooling of the drive, with a big thin fan
that covers most of the bottom of the case, with decent
slots to let the air circulate thru the case.
Click to expand...

I haven't even seen any plain-USB2 cases with cooling like that.
 
I haven't even seen any plain-USB2 cases with cooling like that.
Click to expand...

I have seen just one. Dont have a link to it tho,
likely its marked in the newsgroups I read.

Havent done anything more than notice that one tho, havent looked for others.
 
Nice fan, but does it support eSATA?
Click to expand...

One of the reviews says that you have to use a eSATA cable to get
the full speed tho a normal SATA cable will fit, so it looks like it is.
It looks like it might have what's supposed to be an
internal SATA connector on the outside of the box.
Click to expand...

Doesnt fit with that review comment.

Main downside is that its not all that cheap.
 
Dont have any suggestion.

I'd personally go for one that supports both eSATA for normal
use so you can do stuff like monitor the SMART data easily,
and the temperature, and which has USB2 as well for the
occasional use on systems that dont have eSATA, and one
that has decent fan cooling of the drive, with a big thin fan
that covers most of the bottom of the case, with decent
slots to let the air circulate thru the case.

Unfortunately that combination isnt that common at all.
Click to expand...

Thanks anyway Rod. They all seem to be valid points.
 
I haven't even seen any plain-USB2 cases with cooling like that.
Click to expand...

And its not allways needed. I posted a review here of a 500G
Samsung and passively cooled USB/eSATA enclosure that has no
overheating problem.

Arno
 
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