Topic: pros and cons of an internal/external hdd?

[anya618]

me advantage ba ang internal over external hdd?

[iiinas]

me advantage ba ang internal over external hdd?

pag para sa nmt. ang advantage lang nanakikita ko is, you will be able to use the network capabilities of your nmt, like downloading through torrents, directly connect to flickr and saya tv etc. sa external hindi pwede, watch video, listen to music and look at pictures lang. and of course less clutter ang internal hdd. but for me since maliit lang pareho ang foot print ng nmt and external hdd, oks lang. iba ba rin that the nmt is running cooler. and of course internal hdd usually cost lower.

although if you get the egreat, my internal fan na sya, kaya it runs cooler even with internal hdd. kasi popcorn, walang internal fan, unless ipa-mod mo, meron na dito naka gawa ng internal fan mod for popcorn.

[Clondalkin]

In usual cases now, external drives are connected via USB 2.0 while internal hard drives are through SATA.  So for me, the biggest advantages of an internal drive are:

a.  speed of data transfer, especially if you are copying or moving really large chunks of data.
b.  price
c.  less burden on your system

The biggest advantage of an external drive is mobility and convenient interchangeability.   If you have multiple PCs or NMTs in the house, it's quite expedient to have a couple of external drives so that members of the family can enjoy watchin their own stuff.  For archiving purpose, external drives are also better suitable as you dont have to power up the device all the time.

[anya618]

salamat sa input sir iiinas and Clondalkin 

[ninjababez®]

if you have an option to purchase an external HDD with an ESATA port, this would be a very big advantage. 
mobility is the reason why we purchase external hdd, so i would prefer internal HDD, unless i need to move it most of the time ..

[Alfie]

ESata is highly recommended. 

Imagine moving files at 150Mbs. 

However, there's one setback. 

Your MoBo has to support it, otherwise, nunca. :'(

The cheapest enclosure with an esata is the Ovation Enclosure.
At most times, it comes with a WD HDD(250/500/750G).

Prices of the enclosures hover around 1.5K to 2.5K and you can find one at the PC shops in Gilmore or Mega Mall, with an incorporated HDD, goes for 6K.

[ninjababez®]

ESata is highly recommended. 

Imagine moving files at 150Mbs. 

However, there's one setback. 

Your MoBo has to support it, otherwise, nunca. :'(

The cheapest enclosure with an esata is the Ovation Enclosure.
At most times, it comes with a WD HDD(250/500/750G).

Prices of the enclosures hover around 1.5K to 2.5K and you can find one at the PC shops in Gilmore or Mega Mall, with an incorporated HDD, goes for 6K.

you can get a sata to esata adapter .. costs around 300 pesos ..


this is what i got .. comes with power molex for internal hdd full sata 2 speeds .. 

[Alfie]

The above came free with my Ovation enclosure, however, when I installed it on my MSI Neo MoBo,there was no support,the OS simply won't recognized the external drive and despite the numerous updates I did...Nunca...still no support, hence, I searched for possible drivers and solutions(since I thought it was software based),and from various forums, that I gathered, it stated that only the Asus company gave driver support for their dual core based MoBo.   

So with my 2 desktop, I can only use the 2.0USB with my Ovation and I can only utilize the esata only on my Acer X3200. 

Anyway, will just keep on modifying.

Or rather...build another PC.

BTW....good news for those who had bulit theri pcs just the start of this year, all can fully support esata despite having XP as your OS. 

[Clondalkin]

ESata is highly recommended. 

Imagine moving files at 150Mbs. 

The highest transfer rate I've actually experienced through ESata is between 50-60Mb/sec for chunks of files bigger than 100GB (aggregate).  Dont know if it's due to the size of data, or the limitations of my hardware, or Vista, or other applications running simultaneously.  But that's fast enough for me.  Anything above 25MB/sec sustained is OK.  

[Clondalkin]

The above came free with my Ovation enclosure, however, when I installed it on my MSI Neo MoBo,there was no support, and despite the numerous updates I did...Nunca...still no support, hence, I searched for possible driver and solutions,and from various forums, I came up with the Asus company giving support for their dual core based MoBo.   

Perhaps a solution would be to use an eSATA PCI card with its own circuitry and drivers, and not just an adapter.  Around 1.5K to 2K pesos in Tokyo (multiple eSATA terminals na), maybe meron din sa Gilmore.

[Alfie]

Sabi sa isang forum, kung 40-50mb ka lang daw...eh...parang USB.

Lalo' na kung naka C2D ka daw.

Baka may problema.

Eh' iyun' naman ay' nabasa ko lang.

[ninjababez®]

Sabi sa isang forum, kung 40-50mb ka lang daw...eh...parang USB.

Lalo' na kung naka C2D ka daw.

Baka may problema.

Eh' iyun' naman ay' nabasa ko lang.

the processors impact on this is very minimal .. the ram size though would be one of the factors here as well as the HDD speed ..
btw i am using this right now (with my internal 80gb sata2 hdd),



whenever im copying from my cousins "collection" and i can say it is way faster than usb .. ill try to check it out on friday for the actual speed  ..

[Alfie]

Sa Vista, maganda...naki-kita ang speed.

Natu-tuwang tignan....parang nag-ka-karera sila
Tuwang tuwa na nga ako sa Vista ko eh'
Dati' die hard XP ako. 

BTW...iyun' esata adaptor mo, uso ngayon iyan' sa Gilmore, marami akong naki-kitang nag-pa-pa-kabit.
Mas mabilis daw sa Firewire.....kaya lang, ang video cam naman firewire lang.
Natawa nga ako eh 
Siguro future proofing lang sila. 

[Clondalkin]

Sabi sa isang forum, kung 40-50mb ka lang daw...eh...parang USB.

Lalo' na kung naka C2D ka daw.

Baka may problema.

Maybe they dont transfer 1TB data too much...hehehe...(baka ma-BAN)

Even between my 2 internal data drives (both 7200rpm Seagates) na obviously connected through SATA, I can only manage 50-60MB/sec kung maganda panahon.  Maybe problem, maybe not, but that's OK with me - kase through Buffalo external drive via USB 2.0 with Turbo USB enabled, I've never seen the speed beyond 35MB/sec sustained.

[Alfie]

Maybe they dont transfer 1TB data too much...hehehe...(baka ma-BAN)

Even between my 2 internal data drives (both 7200rpm Seagates) na obviously connected through SATA, I can only manage 50-60MB/sec kung maganda panahon.  Maybe problem, maybe not, but that's OK with me - kase through Buffalo external drive via USB 2.0 with Turbo USB enabled, I've never seen the speed beyond 35MB/sec sustained.

Naka-katawa naman tayo...pinag taluhan pa ang speed. 

Eh' sa totoo lang, ang bilis bilis na nang 40mbs, eh' 60 mbs pa. 

Hapi-Hapi na lang talaga tayo,dati nga, 4-5kbps lang, na-ko-korupt pa,

Masyado lang talaga siguro tayong' na-ba-basa, na-niniwala tayo ga-agad.
Malay mo naman kung totoo iyun' baka bola lang.

Pasalamat na-lang tayo, at tayo ay naka-katikim na nang esata. 

[Clondalkin]

Saan ba mas malaki chance ng data corruption, fast transfer or abnormally slow transfer?  Minsan parang jeep ang arankada ng speed diba.   Unti-unti na parang nabibitin sa paakyat.   And kapag masyadong busy ang hard drives sa heavy torrent downloading and uploading, bumabagal din ng husto ang data copying or moving between hard drives.

[Alfie]

I get corrupt files when I do multi-tasking. :'(
for e.g. burning a CD together with transferring >5Gigs,and converting video to MP4 files.

I don't think it's due to the speed of transfer, rather it's the capability of the HDD to handle and write the files.

[ninjababez®]

I get corrupt files when I do multi-tasking. :'(
for e.g. burning a CD together with transferring >5Gigs,and converting video to MP4 files.

I don't think it's due to the speed of transfer, rather it's the capability of the HDD to handle and write the files.

i agree 

[aremdvna]

I prefer internal drives, because they're a lot cheaper.  If you get an external hard drive you don't know what's inside.  Is it a 7200 RPM, 5400 RPM, or 4200 RPM drive.

I'm surprised I haven't seen any 2.5" 7200 RPM SATA hard drives locally.  320GB 2.5" 7200 RPM hard drives have been around for a while.  2.5" 500GB hard drives are out now, but I'm waiting for a 2.5" 500GB 7200 RPM drive to be released before I upgrade my laptop.

If you have the money to spare, I'd suggest you get a 2.5" 7200 RPM SATA drive, even if your using it for a desktop.  It will have the same performance as a 3.5" drive, will emit less heat, and use less energy.

3.5" SATA enclosure's can be expensive.  A cheap alternative would be to get a SATA to USB cable from CD-R King.  I got it for 450 pesos, because my mobo's sata ports where filled.  They also have a IDE to USB cable for 220 pesos.

SATA to USB
http://cdrking.com/local/products/index.php?action=&temp=2&typeno=8176890-373780-839110596-1439562&prod=IDE/SATA%20Cables&prodcode=3341379-246948-410382915-8619755

IDE to USB
http://cdrking.com/local/products/index.php?action=submnu&temp=2&typeno=8176890-373780-839110596-1439562&prod=IDE/SATA%20Cables&prodcode=6700461-804855-990326070-9149949

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

500GB Price Comparison Example:
from PC Gilmore (October 29, 2008 Price)

Internal 500GB 3.5" 7200 RPM SATA Hard Disk
Samsung (3,500 pesos)
Seagate (3,600 pesos)

External 500GB
Western Digital MyBook (4,800 pesos)

Conclusion:  Price difference is 1,200-1,300.  Seems fare considering prices of external enclosure's, but I don't recommend you getting a 3.5" external drive.  Do yourself a favor and read amazon.com reviews for the external drive you want to get before purchasing it.  If you really want an external drive get a 2.5" external drive that doesn't require it to be plugged into an AC outlet. 

[anya618]

what's the difference of a 16mb cache to a 32mb cache? do all hdds have this? (internal and external)

[ninjababez®]

what's the difference of a 16mb cache to a 32mb cache? do all hdds have this? (internal and external)

check this out ..

techreport
overclock.net
dslreports
anandtech

aremdvna im planning to do that myself .. (2.5 sata as my system drive) 

[anya618]

how many years ba usual life ng hard disk? pareho ba for both internal and external?

[Clondalkin]

how many years ba usual life ng hard disk? pareho ba for both internal and external?

Depende sa gamit mo yan.  If you are a heavy downloader na higher than normal ang number of SEEK (or access in and out ng HDD), you're killing the HDD faster than its normal deterioration.

Pero kung mainly storage lang and playback of contents, it should last very long, unless matapatan mo yung lemon.

Advantage of external connection is that you have the option not to power it on, which should extend the life of the HDD assuming the HDD is handled properly (kung internal connection, you dont have to worry about handling because it's screwed firmly in the HDD bay). 

 

[anya618]

hindi pareho ang drive speed ng internal and external di ba?
if im not mistaken meron 5400 and 7200rpm, malaki ba difference nito sa pag transfer ng data?

[ninjababez®]

hindi pareho ang drive speed ng internal and external di ba?
if im not mistaken meron 5400 and 7200rpm, malaki ba difference nito sa pag transfer ng data?

yes it is definitely faster.  drawback, heat. 

[anya618]

yes it is definitely faster.  drawback, heat. 

noticeable ba ung bilis sir?

[Clondalkin]

noticeable ba ung bilis sir?

What kind of application Anya?

For instance, I have been comparing a variable speed WD Green (5400-7200 RPM) and fixed speed 7200RPM Seagate.  SATA to SATA transfer - I cant figure out the advantage of fixed speed 7200RPM.   In fact, I'm getting faster sustained data transfer speeds with the WD Green.  This was surprising because I was expecting a 7200rpm to smoke a low power drive via SATA.   But probably because the Seagate heats up so high, it cant sustain fast data transfer contiguously.

I think you would notice the advantages of high speed drives sa applications requiring intermittent and short drive access.  For instance boot-up of OS, applications, gaming.  Kung baga sa kotse, mabilis ang acceleration.

And there's another utility where you'd notice a 7200rpm drive to be faster - full hard drive format. 

[anya618]

what if sir kung gagamitin lang pang store ng files/pics/ etc?

[Clondalkin]

what if sir kung gagamitin lang pang store ng files/pics/ etc?

Are you talking internal or external?

Internal drives, Im 1000% a fan of WD Green for storage of files/pics.  You dont need 7200rpm drive for that kind of use.  An idle 7200rpm Seagate gets hotter than WD Green at constant seek. 

External drives - If you can find models having cooling fans or add-on cooling fans, the better.   Otherwise, just buy whatever is cheapest in the market and provide good ventilation in your working area.

[anya618]

assuming for both sir, kung ano meron mas mura