500GB External Hard Drive Comparison

rcs

Hi,

I am going to buy one of the below hard drives & just wondering which one is best? Is there any difference between them, which is the better brand etc.?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kcp.asp?sku=318909&sku=333054

One is a Western Digital Mybook Essential Edition 500GB (€135) & the other is a Seagate FreeAgent 500GB (€140)

Cheers

snappieT

I don't know about the Seagate one, but that WD one is quite chunky indeed.

In my experience, Seagate drives are quieter than WD ones.
Personally, I'd go for the Seagate.

clubcrown

rcs wrote:

Hi,

I am going to buy one of the below hard drives & just wondering which one is best? Is there any difference between them, which is the better brand etc.?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kcp.asp?sku=318909&sku=333054

One is a Western Digital Mybook Essential Edition 500GB (€135) & the other is a Seagate FreeAgent 500GB (€140)

Cheers

I have a WD; no access or setup problems, runs quite fast and cool, powers down when the PC does, etc. Good drive.

Cabaal

Running two of the WD Mybooks, no problems with either, friend of mine has five of them and no issues either

Their well worth the money in my book, I'm even looking at a 3rd one

ethernet

I have the 500 GB FW/USB version. It's very quiet and powers down if not used after ten minutes. I've using it as a NAS device and I'm very happy with it.

hopeful

Another vote for the WD from me.
Quiet and well behaved bits of kit.

rabbitinlights

Has anyone used one of the LAN Drives? Im looking to get the WD 500GB drive for my laptop, but I dont want to be always connecting it when I want a file (The laptop wanders from room to room with me), Im planning to just attach it to my Wireless Router?

What will speeds be like? Good enough to stream videos?

Thanks
Sean

EDIT: LInk: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=332165

rcs

Aldi are doing a 500GB Sata Hard Drive on Thursday..

Which is not much good if u don't have an E-Sata connection but it comes with an E-Sata PCI upgrade kit though.. think i might go for this one, €139.99

JackKelly

I have a 500gb mybook and it's perfect. No complaints.

po0k

I got a 500GB MyBook Essential yesterday (ordered from Komplett).
It rocks.
Would've preferred a metal case though.

ethernet

rabbitinlights wrote:

Has anyone used one of the LAN Drives? Im looking to get the WD 500GB drive for my laptop, but I dont want to be always connecting it when I want a file (The laptop wanders from room to room with me), Im planning to just attach it to my Wireless Router?

What will speeds be like? Good enough to stream videos?

Thanks
Sean

EDIT: LInk: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=332165

I have the MyBook connected to a file server, the Linksys NSLU2 ["the slug", also on Komplett's site for E100]. I get speeds of 4 MB per second which is not blisteringly fast but acceptable. You could stream some media using that. No HD content, mind!

Perhaps WD's own NAS offering can offer better speeds that this. I only have this setup because it's cross-platform and there is no need to install any extra software on any client PC.

degsie

rabbitinlights wrote:

EDIT: LInk: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=332165

Is this a standalone NAS that can be used to serve data to a non pc device, eg an XBOX?

rabbitinlights

Anything with a web browser ive been told.