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I'm still whining about the cost of external storage, but my cow-orker got a nice esata/USB enclosure today, so I was playing with prices. This is pure http://www.noobie.com.au pricing because we like them, not even http://www.staticice.com.au

What's interesting is that once I add the cost of the enclosure, the bigger disks are cheapest per gig. Not surprising, just interesting. So I think I'll grab a 500GB plus enclosure, and a second enclosure for my existing spare 300GB disk.

<pre>
Manufacturer GB $ raw $/GB +enclosure Actual $/GB
Western 400 175 0.44 240 0.6
Western 500 235 0.47 300 0.6
Western 320 129 0.4 194 0.61
Western 320 129 0.4 194 0.61
Seagate 500 240 0.48 305 0.61
Samsung 400 189 0.47 254 0.64
Seagate 400 192 0.48 257 0.64
Seagate 750 417 0.56 482 0.64
Seagate 320 144 0.45 209 0.65
Samsung 250 106 0.42 171 0.68
Samsung 500 277 0.55 342 0.68
Samsung 300 169 0.56 234 0.78
Samsung 200 102 0.51 167 0.84
</pre>

I picked up a Samsung 400Gb for $129 and an enclosure for $25 at a swap-meet/PC market here in Nowra, so I reckon you may even do very slightly better in the city.

Are the warranty periods the same, across all the brands? You'll be kicking yourself if you choose the brand that offers the lowest upfront cost, but fails outside of its potentially shorter warranty period.

Over the years i've seen little difference in reliability between brands. Fujitsu has been the worst so i steer clear of them but the others seem pretty much the same.

But that's why i have two backups on different brands.

what sort of enclosures are they? i have a vantec USB 2.0 enclosure which cost me $55 and does the job, ill get another larger HDD soon which ill connect to my firewire port using the same enclosure, do the ones you listed have their own cooling fans?

Thanks for posting the comparison Moz. There are a couple of alternative you may consider if you are still shopping.
http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/ have quite a selection of HDD cases and external drives. Your prices are pretty reasonable, auspcmarket did have a complete 500Gb external drive (with spin-up/down feature) for less than your combined HDD+enclosure price - http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_prod ... .php?input[product_code]=CA-S3380-500&input[category_id]=339

You may also want to think about one of these - http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_prod ... .php?input[product_code]=CO-SKU2SI&input[category_id]=245
The AUSPC price on this is a bit steep - I picked one up at one of the computer stores near Pitt street for about $20

Cheers
Gary

Fluidtek have been selling 500GB drives - Samsung, I think - for $159 if you buy in pairs, but IT Estate were even cheaper at $154, with no need to buy in pairs.


At those prices, some sort of NAS device may be a worthwhile option for this household.

Killakoala wrote:Fujitsu has been the worst so i steer clear of them but the others seem pretty much the same.

I haven't tried Fujitsu, but Seagate are pretty much the ones I'd steer clear of more than any other brand. I've seen more failures of their drives than any other in PC's, Mac's, and LaCie external drives...

Mind you, I'm finding the Seagate-owned Maxtor quite impressive. On my HDD checking application, it seems to report that my Maxtor is the healthiest drive on my system, even beating my 6 month old Seagate that made clicking noises (and still does) since I first bought it.

this is what im using externally http://www.itestate.com.au/products_det ... PD00003390 + http://www.itestate.com.au/products_det ... PD00003929 works great, im getting a 500gb next week with the firewire port external case http://www.itestate.com.au/products_det ... PD00003504, you can also get the coolmaster ones which i believe are stackable http://www.itestate.com.au/products_det ... PD00004422

I reckon I'll give this a go.

I was thinking about buying a Vantec Nexstar 3case, but no-one stocks them in Brisbane. I would have to purchase on-line.
They seem to be available at reasonable prices from iTech.

Has anyone used Itech and if so, any comments?

I've been researching these lately on Ebay, but i'm after an ethernet interface not USB so I can plug into my router and all PC's are happy.

The ethernet based cases seem to be around $70 on Ebay + HDD. Seems a little expensive to me considering there isn't that much in the way of "smarts" needed for the ethernet interface. I could quite easily build a small PC based NAS box and run Linux FreeNAS OS or similar, but really I wanted the ease of a small external case and not another PC to run.

Cheers

Wocka wrote:I've been researching these lately on Ebay, but i'm after an ethernet interface not USB so I can plug into my router and all PC's are happy.

The ethernet based cases seem to be around $70 on Ebay + HDD. Seems a little expensive to me considering there isn't that much in the way of "smarts" needed for the ethernet interface. I could quite easily build a small PC based NAS box and run Linux FreeNAS OS or similar, but really I wanted the ease of a small external case and not another PC to run.

That's about where we are too.

For the cost of a couple of cases ... plus the extra cables and power bricks etc ... it's almost easier and more convenient to just run up another box. with a couple of disks.

We're starting to look at small pc cases and throwing in an embedded CF reader.

cricketfan wrote:I was thinking about buying a Vantec Nexstar 3case, but no-one stocks them in Brisbane. I would have to purchase on-line.
They seem to be available at reasonable prices from iTech.

Has anyone used Itech and if so, any comments?

I’ve used iTech and they are superb - excellent delivery times (to Sydney) and the prices are good too.

They're a long way from the cheapest storage option, but I still like my LaCie Brick drives.

They look pretty cool stacked on top of each other.

Wocka wrote:I've been researching these lately on Ebay, but i'm after an ethernet interface not USB so I can plug into my router and all PC's are happy.

The ethernet based cases seem to be around $70 on Ebay + HDD. Seems a little expensive to me considering there isn't that much in the way of "smarts" needed for the ethernet interface. I could quite easily build a small PC based NAS box and run Linux FreeNAS OS or similar, but really I wanted the ease of a small external case and not another PC to run.

Cheers

Not being anything more than competent at PC-related mechanics, I tried the Netgear SC101 as a network based backup, and it was hopeless, just hopeless. There are web pages full of people who have had similar experiences. Most have decided that the SC101 is only useful as a door stop.

Hence my decision to take the drives out of it and put them in USB enclosures.

I currently have a 320GB Western Digital hanging off my rig with an e-SATA connection. I drop photos on it, and my wife drops her videos on it. Over 100Mbps Ethernet, the speeds are fine for her work.

Trevor,

I agree with your Netgear issues, I have read that you can only use them with the supplied Netgear client on the PC ( and there is no MAC client? ). Hence it's not a true "mapped" network drive, but an application that allows you to connect to the HDD in their Netgear enclosure.

Cheers.

cricketfan wrote:I was thinking about buying a Vantec Nexstar 3case, but no-one stocks them in Brisbane. I would have to purchase on-line.
They seem to be available at reasonable prices from iTech.

Has anyone used Itech and if so, any comments?

Hi Trev. http://www.gamedude.com.au/ have Vantec enclosures listed. They are at Springwood.

Cheers, John

JED wrote:[

Hi Trev. http://www.gamedude.com.au/ have Vantec enclosures listed. They are at Springwood.

Cheers, John

Thanks for that John - I appreciate it.

I was also able to track them down at:
http://www.umart.com.au
who have a pickup depot at Milton.

No probs, Trevor. Forgotten about Umart.

Checked another firm I use regularly http://www.surpass.com.au and they have them as well. They're at Taringa, still fairly handy.

I've used both and have not had any problems.

Cheers, John

Looking around the place and seeing I have basically a spare rig anyway, I've changed my mind. I'm going to drop a large drive into my home server and use that instead. It will solve the spindown problem, and I know I won't have any problems with networking.

Trevor, I'd use Umart over Gamedude myself.

Thanx Leigh. I ended up going to Umart 'cos their price was right, and I could pick up fairly close to my place.

For anyone interested, as an absolute numb-nut when it comes to IT knowledge, to take the WD Cheetah 320 out of the Netgear SC101 and put it in the Nexstar case was a no-brainer (must've been - I did it ) and it's now working a treat in the Vantec firewire enclosure as my main backup.

Although it's not network based, it works without any complaints, so it's ace in my book!

I've got a vantec case and a 300gb Seagate PATA drive. Probably owned it less than a year (bought around XMAS just before I left Oz). It died abour 4-5months ago. Still haven't replaced it and living life on the edge with practically no backup (still have a spare 120gb drive that I'm using to backup).


Looking at getting a Maxtor Onetouch Turbo III 1TB (2x500gb) or the Freecom 1TB (2x500gb Samsung Drives) and configuring it to RAID1. Apparently the Western Digital MyBook are very noisy. The LaCIE drives were the only others I were considering but they're way too expensive at about £600 (approx $1500) for 1TB (2x500GB). The other two are about £250 (approx $625).

kipper wrote:I've got a vantec case and a 300gb Seagate PATA drive. Probably owned it less than a year (bought around XMAS just before I left Oz). It died abour 4-5months ago. Still haven't replaced it and living life on the edge with practically no backup (still have a spare 120gb drive that I'm using to backup).

Yup. Sounds like a Seagate to me.

Being a nerd, I am a member of http://www.overclockers.com.au forum.
They have a photography forum, but it is nowhere near as good as here (but then what is?)
Anyway, they have a section on the forum called Sponsor Specials. If you are patient they have some good deals.
They currently have some good 3.5" sata 500gb drives there on special that may attract some of you.
I did a bulkbuy of a monitor calibrator some time ago and it was a great deal.
Just a thought.

kipper wrote:Looking at getting a Maxtor Onetouch Turbo III 1TB (2x500gb) or the Freecom 1TB (2x500gb Samsung Drives) and configuring it to RAID1. Apparently the Western Digital MyBook are very noisy.

I have had two Maxtor One Touch drives for some years now and they have proven to be bulletproof. Note that they also have a range of external drives with no buttons called Basics which are bulk cheaper to buy. I have just sold one to a customer and it works great. Just no one button backup on the front. All you have to do is use a backup application such as Second Copy to automate the backup and Bingo!
Col

on Sunday I picked up a nexstar3 e-sata case for $46 and a 500GB seagate sataII drive for $195 at the computer markets at North Rocks
it feels real good to know that I have copies of all my photo in at least 2 places now

Update. I bought a Samsung 500gb sata the other day and now have that internally with my photos backed up on it. Still looking at getting an external raid1 drive though. The maxtor onetouch turbo is looking tempting as it's instock and £230 compared to the freecom that is £274 (about $100 more). The other option is the maxtor onetouch shared drive (think it's the same as the turbo but networkable) and it's only £20 ($50) more.

Leah, not sure if the seagate has bad sectors but I had quite a few files (5-10) with CRC errors. I ran chkdsk but that found nothing. Trying to find a more intensive scanning program, looking at ontrack data advisor.