Lidl Hard-drive

Brian017

Is the 400gb external harddrive Lidl are offering at €220 any good??

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20061204.p.400GBExternalHardDrive

shaneos

That seems very expensive!

The aldi one is much cheaper 320GB for €120
(see http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055021102)

also check out http://www.komplett.ie/ and the like

GerardKeating

Brian017 wrote:

Is the 400gb external harddrive Lidl are offering at €220 any good??

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20061204.p.400GBExternalHardDrive

PC World do a USB 400GB for 149.99, so if this is USB then not really.

But there is one odd item in the description, "Power lead RJ45" and there is no mention of USB.

If it is a Ethernet drive, then it is a good price, Maplins do "network external HD" for €280

Brian017

So what do you advise? Should I get it or buy another one?

Ruu_Old

Get the aldi one, link here or this 400GB Freecom one from PC World would work too, link here.

Bard

Hmm... just to throw another ingredient in the pot, er, as it were... Harvey Norman are doing a 500GB external USB2 Hard Drive for €199.

cormie

Bard wrote:

Hmm... just to throw another ingredient in the pot, er, as it were... Harvey Norman are doing a 500GB external USB2 Hard Drive for €199.

Nice, what make is it? Can you get us all a staff discount? 20% is it?

Brian017

Bard wrote:

Hmm... just to throw another ingredient in the pot, er, as it were... Harvey Norman are doing a 500GB external USB2 Hard Drive for €199.

Is it any good? I don't think there's a Harvey Norman around here. Are they online?

nava

Hi

In Expansys they also have some ok prices in HD

Freecom 400GB USB2.0 for €178

LaCie 400GB Extreme Firewire400/800 USB2 7200rpm 8MB d2 for €254

LaCie 250GB USB 2.0 for €109.18

Regards

Kristok

anyone get the brochere yet for lidl ? the fact that it says rj45 maby its a network drive not a usb one which would be just what i need.

cormie

What's the difference

xebec

cormie wrote:

What's the difference

An RJ-45 cable looks like this and would mainly be used for networking purposes.

USB and firewire use different cables, get different speeds and are more common on individual devices connecting to individual computers.

netwhizkid

Don't waste your time with Lidl, I have a bought a few "specials" in my time and my experience is if the thing is good forget it because unless you pitch a tent at the door the night before and arm yourself with a chainsaw and baseball bat you will only get empty shelves.

The also deliberately get in a small amount of stock to entice people into the store where they inevitably buy some of their other junk. And may even come back again in the vain hope of more Tv's etc being got in. It is a fine thing to park up at some store and pay the extra few bob for something that will be instore.

blorg

I got that Freecom 400gb from dabs.com for just a little over £100 (sterling.) It's a very nice solid neat looking drive, cool running too.

Oracle

Kristok wrote:

anyone get the brochere yet for lidl ? the fact that it says rj45 maby its a network drive not a usb one which would be just what i need.

I was just about to say that. Are we dealing with a 400 Gb drive which could be used as Network Attached Storage (NAS) via an RJ45 connection? That's a horse of a different colour and very handy to have. Mind you I wouldn't want to pay €100 extra for the privilege.

generalmiaow

GerardKeating wrote:

But there is one odd item in the description, "Power lead RJ45" and there is no mention of USB.

If it is a Ethernet drive, then it is a good price, Maplins do "network external HD" for €280

Hmm. Looking for it on the net I can only find others asking the same question. But it should be noted that cheapo stuff does often use RJ45 connectors for power from an otherwise regular power supply. My cordless phone for instance. I have my doubts that it's a network drive.

Kristok

Well I dont think a rj 45 is going to be able to supply enough power for a hard drive phones use very little power its a big difference in power consumption.

If its a nas device then its a fairly good price as a nas enclosure costs anything from 50 upwards.

Stokolan

generalmiaow wrote:

Hmm. Looking for it on the net I can only find others asking the same question. But it should be noted that cheapo stuff does often use RJ45 connectors for power from an otherwise regular power supply. My cordless phone for instance. I have my doubts that it's a network drive.

Yeah I have seen stuff use an RJ45 connector as a power lead before. Haven't a clue why. But I'm guessing the same that its not a Network device. and if it aint the Drive in Aldi might be a cheaper alternative.

Kristok

Actually price isnt that great a nas enclosure and a 400 gb hard drive new off ebay works out at about 180.

Best value is at Harvey Norman :

Iomega 500GB External for €199.

cormie

hellboy99 wrote:

Best value is at Harvey Norman :

Iomega 500GB External for €199.

Have you got this one? Sounds good alright. Are Iomega generally good drives?

makeitso

Aldi have a 320GB External Hard Disk Drive for 119.99 this sunday the 4th December you will as you know need to be early.

Rick:D

j4vier

any1 can tell me where is the harvey norman store in dublin and how to get there?

blastman

There's one in Airside on the Swords side of the airport and one in the retail park in Blanchardstown shopping centre. They're probably the handiest to get to in Dublin (unless there's one in Dundrum or the Square for southsiders!)

MisterAnarchy

Would one of those USB2 Hard drives be fast enough to burn a DVD off at 8x or would I need to use an internal drive ?

blorg

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Would one of those USB2 Hard drives be fast enough to burn a DVD off at 8x or would I need to use an internal drive ?

They would be more than fast enough; in fact you will likely even get away with 16x (21.6mb/sec) - typical USB drive will have a linear read around 25mb/s. Certainly not a problem, especially if you have burnproof on the DVD writer.

MisterAnarchy

blorg wrote:

They would be more than fast enough; in fact you will likely even get away with 16x (21.6mb/sec) - typical USB drive will have a linear read around 25mb/s. Certainly not a problem, especially if you have burnproof on the DVD writer.

Cheers ,thanks for that info.
I have run out of IDE connectors on my PC so I'll either get an IDE controller card and an internal drive of just an external one.

blorg

Sure, external drives are great for media storage etc. and will be fast enough for burning DVDs, etc. They are still around three times slower than internal though (~25mb/s for my USB, ~32mb/s for my Firewire, ~75mb/s for IDE connection.)

MisterAnarchy

blorg wrote:

Sure, external drives are great for media storage etc. and will be fast enough for burning DVDs, etc. They are still around three times slower than internal though (~25mb/s for my USB, ~32mb/s for my Firewire, ~75mb/s for IDE connection.)

How can I measure the transfer speed ?
I bought a USB2 PCI card but the speeds on it seem low ~2Mb per sec.
That seems odd almost USB1 speed but the card and USB drive are USB2.

rossallan

j4vier wrote:

any1 can tell me where is the harvey norman store in dublin and how to get there?

There's a Harvey Norman in Rathfarnham (Nutgrove Shopping Centre)

generalmiaow

Kristok wrote:

Well I dont think a rj 45 is going to be able to supply enough power for a hard drive phones use very little power its a big difference in power consumption.

If its a nas device then its a fairly good price as a nas enclosure costs anything from 50 upwards.

RJ45 is just the connector, why would it not be able to carry 12v @ 1.5a? It connects to an ordinary power supply.

I really don't think it's an NAS, since it's not advertised as one, and they tend to be very expensive, even without the HDs in them alrady. Then again it's not advertised as anything in particular.

thefinalstage

This particular external hard-drive has both an ethernet (RJ45) and a USB 2.0 port fo connecting to devices.

Oracle

I've seen a photo of the connectors on the back of this drive on a poster in Lidl. It's got one USB2 connector, one RJ45 connector and a separate power supply connector. Also said it would be formatted with NTFS file system.

chilli_pepper

why not buy an internal drive and a caddy ? much cheaper;)

blorg

chilli_pepper wrote:

why not buy an internal drive and a caddy ? much cheaper;)

Because:

• Very often it's _not_ much cheaper - e.g. from dabs.ie, Freecom 400gb external drive €153, cheapest internal (Samsung) 400gb €123. Difference €30, you would do well to get a caddy cheaper. In the Lidl case, it's a NAS, and NAS enclosures tend to be expensive.
• A lot of the cheap caddys from eBay are shíte. I know, I've used enough of them. The better caddys are still far worse than most of the brand name external hard drives. A key feature enclosures all seem to lack that all the brand name extenals have is a standby mode where the drive powers down after X minutes without being accessed. The Freecom I mention above is very nice indeed and no way would you get a comparable enclosure for €30.
• All in one, any problems and you just send the lot back, no figuring out whether it is the enclosure or the drive.
• Comes fully assembled, this is a lot easier for the casual user.

The only real advantage to getting an internal in a caddy is that you can often get a better warranty on the actual drive, e.g. you can get an internal Seagate with a five year warranty but the externals all come with one or two.

cormie

Plus some of us have laptops;)

So is it actually a good deal since it's a NAS case with the rJ45 and USB? It got some bad comments about it's price at the start of the thread, what about now?

blorg

It's arguably a good deal if you need a NAS, e.g. if you need to share the drive between multiple computers and you don't want to leave one of them on all the time. If you don't you would be better off with a USB2 external such as the Freecom for €153. The network connection will also probably be 100mbs and a fair bit slower than USB.

Valentia

Thicko here!!:rolleyes:

Does this mean that you can plug this drive into your router and share it with all PC's on that router?

blorg

Valentia wrote:

Thicko here!!:rolleyes:

Does this mean that you can plug this drive into your router and share it with all PC's on that router?

Depends on the exact drive and the software it comes with, but generally, yes, that is the idea.

C Fodder

from targa website





Model DataBox NDAS 400
Type External 400GB hard disk for networks (LAN) and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (downwards compatible to USB 1.1)
Memory capacity 400 GB memory capacity (unformatted), brand name harddisk, 3.5" format, 7200 r.p.m., 8 MB cache memory, pre-formatted for Windows XP, Windows 2000 (NTFS)
Housing Exclusive, high-quality and solid stainless steel case withsilent 75mm fan for optimum cooling and protection
Measurements (WxHxD) 120 x 48 x 213mm
System requirements Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, Mac OS 10.2LAN interface, USB 2.0 (recommended) or USB 1.1interface
Scope of delivery Housing with built-in hard disk
External power adaptor
Stand for vertical installation
USB cable
Network cable
CD with driver for Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, Mac OS 10.2
User manual
Highlights - Network storage with NDAS technology
- high-quality stainless steel case
- ready for immediate use with WindowsXP/2000 (NTFS formatted)
Warranty 36 Month



Damn fine if you have need of that sort of thing.

corkproducers

blorg wrote:

Because:

• Very often it's _not_ much cheaper - e.g. from dabs.ie, Freecom 400gb external drive €153, cheapest internal (Samsung) 400gb €123. Difference €30, you would do well to get a caddy cheaper. In the Lidl case, it's a NAS, and NAS enclosures tend to be expensive.
• A lot of the cheap caddys from eBay are shíte. I know, I've used enough of them. The better caddys are still far worse than most of the brand name external hard drives. A key feature enclosures all seem to lack that all the brand name extenals have is a standby mode where the drive powers down after X minutes without being accessed. The Freecom I mention above is very nice indeed and no way would you get a comparable enclosure for €30.
• All in one, any problems and you just send the lot back, no figuring out whether it is the enclosure or the drive.
• Comes fully assembled, this is a lot easier for the casual user.

The only real advantage to getting an internal in a caddy is that you can often get a better warranty on the actual drive, e.g. you can get an internal Seagate with a five year warranty but the externals all come with one or two.

That freecom hard drive, only has 2MB cache which is pretty low to todays standard of 16MB.
Would that make a big difference?

candyman

anyone any idea what size cache the harvey norman iomega 500gb drive has in it?

sounds like the best deal of all listed here so far.
also any pics would be very helpful!


cheers.

blorg

I am pretty sure that cache size will make absolutely no difference at all, the USB connection is going to be the limiting factor. As I posted above, my external USB drives operate _three times_ slower than my fastest internal drive (25mb/sec vs. 75mb/sec.)

EDIT: It might also be worth noting here that my Firewire external drives are 5400 RPM and outperform the USB externals which are 7200 RPM. If you had a choice you would actually be better off with a slower USB drive due to lower heat/power consumption etc.

jpfahy

Got the 400gb drive in Lidl today. Its a samsung disk in a Targa enclosure. It comes with a (flimsy) stand, psu, cat5 and usb lead, printed manual and CD rom. It works either as an external HDD via USB2 or as a NAS. For NAS use you must install client software on each machine on your Lan. I have done this and it works fine. Wish I had gigabit lan though.
All in all, a great deal imo

daveyjoe

jpfahy wrote:

For NAS use you must install client software on each machine on your Lan.

So would I be correct in thinking that the client software does not support OS X?

jpfahy

Don't see OSX mentioned anywhere

steve66

I have a lacie 300 gig external hard drive, which I got from contek from around 200. Now I see they have an iomaga 500 gig for around the same price,
M

dl

LaCie 500gb External Hard Disk... €189.00 Jaguar Computers

sambora

Harvey Norman has Iomega 500GB at €199!

Excellent value

cormie

dl wrote:

LaCie 500gb External Hard Disk... €189.00 Jaguar Computers

That's Ex-Vat

Looks like Harvey's Deal is the best