external HD. or internal + enclosure?

[capr]

hello, I can either buy a Western Digital Caviar and an enclosure or I can just buy a WD mybook.

which one you think is a better option? the enclosure route seems to be cheaper and faster but I have never done anything like this so I am not sure if it's worth it.. as far heating problems and case safety goes.

any help would be appreciated.

thank you.

[RAID 0]

I'd pick the Caviar and the enclosure. It's more about looks really, since they come out to almost the same price... from what I've seen.

[Grand Maester]

hello, I can either buy a Western Digital Caviar and an enclosure or I can just buy a WD mybook.

which one you think is a better option? the enclosure route seems to be cheaper and faster but I have never done anything like this so I am not sure if it's worth it.. as far heating problems and case safety goes.

any help would be appreciated.

thank you.

I went the internal with an enclosure route and really wish I hadn't. I think if you are never going to move it, than it would be fine to go that route. But if you plan to move it around at all you should definitely get one made to be an external.

I had to replace the hard drive via warranty twice because I was having problems that constantly caused me to have to reformat them. The third one lasted a little less than a year, before it started failing validation tests post-backup. I have a feeling it's because there is some wiggle room in the case. When you buy an enclosure separately the space inside is always going to be a little bigger than the hard drive which means there's room for it to flop around; and this isn't just one enclosure, I actually had to replace the original enclosure because one of the ends snapped off. When you buy one made to be an external they don't rattle around at all. As it is, I'll probably be replacing it within the next month or so with one made as an external.

I would definitely recommend the Western Digital external line, I got one for my mother a few months ago and it works like a charm. That's probably what I'm going to buy.

So while you might save $10, even $20 (US), it's probably not going to be worth it in the long run.

Edited November 23, 2008 by Grand Maester