IDE questions

sbluetruck · 04:51 PM

Okay, so I was using my homemade external drive I cobbeled together from an old IDE drive and a nice but relatively inexpensive enclosure, and I got the "infamous" clicking of it dying. I was (fortunately) lucky enough to get all my data off before it finally bit the dust and now i'm in the market for a new drive.

I see that Newegg has some nice 3.5" IDE drives, 80GB for ~$40 seems like a great deal to me. my questions are.... what are the differences between IDE Ultra 100 and 133??? Also, I was looking at an 80GB, 7200RPM WD Caviar for $40, and the same model for $45. My question is, would a 8MB cache as opposed to a 2MB cache for an external drive be worth the extra money?

If I can use IDE Ultra 133 in an IDE enclosure, I would rather spend the money on this Hitachi drive, because it seems like the better value.

I'm not looking to spend much, seeing as I got the original 30GB drive for free and spent $30 on an enclosure, but any other options are greatly appreciated! If I can spend under $50, seeing the options already out there, it would be great!

EDIT: oh, and size doesn't matter as much, but i'd look foward to maybe doing the occasional backup on it if i had the option, so i'd have a bootable disk image, maybe install Ubuntu, and get the most bang for my buck

Thanks for all your help guys!

sbluetruck · Oct 15, 2007, 10:21 PM

just confirmed my thought that Ultra ATA100 and Ultra ATA133 are interchageable.

gonna go with the Deskstar unless otherwise told, it seems like 160GB, 7200RPM for $54.14 after shipping is a great deal!

Makosuke · Oct 16, 2007, 02:25 PM

Just one thing you might keep in mind: Depending on how old your enclosure is, it may not recognize drives bigger than 128GB (the specs of it should say somewhere). If not, I think a 160GB drive will just appear as 128GB and still work, but if the price is the same or cheaper, there's no real advantage to getting over 120GB.

sbluetruck · Oct 16, 2007, 04:39 PM

i bought the enclosure about two weeks ago off newegg. haha lucky me, i thought i was saving money doing it this way with a free drive

THIS is the enclosure though. Pretty nice, nothing fancy and works every time.

Consultant · Oct 16, 2007, 05:13 PM

Drive price: $60 for 300gb ATA drive... I only get drives with 5 year warranty now (3 year if the price is really good), never 1 year warranty.

dealmac.com/deals/Seagate-Barracuda-300-GB-IDE-Internal-Hard-Drive-for-60-shipped/191894.html

From my experience, home made external drive (especially with the cheapest enclosures) seems to die quicker / can experience more problems than pre-made or internal drives.

Trepex · Oct 17, 2007, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbluetruck

oh, and size doesn't matter [...] bang for my buck

Hehe, this made me smile. I know, I know... I'm immature.

Oct 15, 2007, 04:14 PM	#1
sbluetruck macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Wisconsin der hey	IDE questions Okay, so I was using my homemade external drive I cobbeled together from an old IDE drive and a nice but relatively inexpensive enclosure, and I got the "infamous" clicking of it dying. I was (fortunately) lucky enough to get all my data off before it finally bit the dust and now i'm in the market for a new drive. I see that Newegg has some nice 3.5" IDE drives, 80GB for ~$40 seems like a great deal to me. my questions are.... what are the differences between IDE Ultra 100 and 133??? Also, I was looking at an 80GB, 7200RPM WD Caviar for $40, and the same model for $45. My question is, would a 8MB cache as opposed to a 2MB cache for an external drive be worth the extra money? If I can use IDE Ultra 133 in an IDE enclosure, I would rather spend the money on this Hitachi drive, because it seems like the better value. I'm not looking to spend much, seeing as I got the original 30GB drive for free and spent $30 on an enclosure, but any other options are greatly appreciated! If I can spend under $50, seeing the options already out there, it would be great! EDIT: oh, and size doesn't matter as much, but i'd look foward to maybe doing the occasional backup on it if i had the option, so i'd have a bootable disk image, maybe install Ubuntu, and get the most bang for my buck Thanks for all your help guys! __________________ Power Macintosh: 5500/225MHz, 2GB HDD, 64MB RAM, OS 8.0 MacBook Pro: 2.53GHz, 250GB HDD, 4GB RAM iPhone 3G: 16GB Last edited by sbluetruck; Oct 15, 2007 at 04:51 PM. Reason: COMMA SPLICE ZOMG!!!!!!!!!!
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Oct 15, 2007, 10:21 PM	#2
sbluetruck Thread Starter macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Wisconsin der hey	just confirmed my thought that Ultra ATA100 and Ultra ATA133 are interchageable. gonna go with the Deskstar unless otherwise told, it seems like 160GB, 7200RPM for $54.14 after shipping is a great deal! __________________ Power Macintosh: 5500/225MHz, 2GB HDD, 64MB RAM, OS 8.0 MacBook Pro: 2.53GHz, 250GB HDD, 4GB RAM iPhone 3G: 16GB
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Oct 16, 2007, 04:39 PM	#4
sbluetruck Thread Starter macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Wisconsin der hey	i bought the enclosure about two weeks ago off newegg. haha lucky me, i thought i was saving money doing it this way with a free drive THIS is the enclosure though. Pretty nice, nothing fancy and works every time. __________________ Power Macintosh: 5500/225MHz, 2GB HDD, 64MB RAM, OS 8.0 MacBook Pro: 2.53GHz, 250GB HDD, 4GB RAM iPhone 3G: 16GB
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Oct 16, 2007, 02:25 PM	#3
Makosuke macrumors 603 Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: The Cool Part of CA, USA	Just one thing you might keep in mind: Depending on how old your enclosure is, it may not recognize drives bigger than 128GB (the specs of it should say somewhere). If not, I think a 160GB drive will just appear as 128GB and still work, but if the price is the same or cheaper, there's no real advantage to getting over 120GB.
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Oct 16, 2007, 05:13 PM	#5
Consultant macrumors G5 Join Date: Jun 2007	Drive price: $60 for 300gb ATA drive... I only get drives with 5 year warranty now (3 year if the price is really good), never 1 year warranty. dealmac.com/deals/Seagate-Barracuda-300-GB-IDE-Internal-Hard-Drive-for-60-shipped/191894.html From my experience, home made external drive (especially with the cheapest enclosures) seems to die quicker / can experience more problems than pre-made or internal drives.
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