external hard drive suggestions

[washer]

I am looking at an external hard drive for christmas to ease the strain on my aging imac and to back up my photos and music and I plan on taking this to college to use with my laptop as well. I have an old iMac G4 with firewire 400 and USB 1, I work on my photos on my family's newer iMac G5 with firewire 400 and USB 2, and plan on purchasing a laptop in the next six months but it depends on which college I go to, so it could be either a MBP or a dell. So I think the best idea is to get a triple interface drive with firewire 400/800 and USB 2. As for the size, I'm not sure, but my parents have said they are going to top out at $500, so I'd like to stay below that point.

My question is this, I have been looking around at B&H and MacMall and see a lot of drives between a wide price range. I have had a LaCie 120GB drive before, but don't know all of the differences of all of these drives. After the triple interface, I guess I'm looking for size, speed, and cost, roughly in that order.

Any suggestions?

 

[AppleIntelRock]

LaCie all the way. Also, maybe try and type "link" and then link the the url instead of pasting urls that are multiple feet in length.

 

[washer]

any reason to prefer lacie? and why are some smaller drives (like the lacie 800GB, $675) more expensive than some larger drives (like the lacie 1.28TB, $598)?

is 500GB going to be enough, or should i think about paying for more? are these reasonable prices, or can better deals be found?

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

Go with the Western Digital MyBook external HD. Its a great value and it works awesome! I would definately recomend it over a Lacie especially for the money.

 

[washer]

isn't the lacie Big Disk 500GB cheaper than the WD My Book 500GB? I'm seeing $265 vs $300...

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

isn't the lacie Big Disk 500GB cheaper than the WD My Book 500GB? I'm seeing $265 vs $300...

I thought you wanted 250gigs or smaller? Plus Lacie and WD have several different models. You need to just find what you want and then compare the two.

 

[wiseguy27]

Go with the Western Digital MyBook external HD. Its a great value and it works awesome! I would definately recomend it over a Lacie especially for the money.

Yes, I second that! Go for the "Western Digital MyBook Premium" (which is the one with USB 2.0, FW400 and FW800) - it's great value for money and is pretty good. USB 2.0 is nothing compared to FW400! And FW800 is just awesome!!!

Check http://www.buy.com - they seem to have some very good deals for these drives right now!!! The 500GB drive is probably around $220 or so! Also check http://www.edealinfo.com for deals (go to category and select Hard Drives) that change ever week.

LaCie is overpriced for what it offers. Even if you decide to buy a LaCie, don't buy the ones under the Porsche series - they don't have fans for cooling and they do get very hot (heat is the worst enemy for hard drives).

Another brand I like is Seagate. Just ignore Maxtor (Seagate's low end drive brand).

 

[DEXTERITY]

if you search for external hard drives you will find a lot of topics. I would suggest the following:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/800+USB2/

they usually use seagate hard drives. You can request one when you order. but 99% you get an internal seagate. they also have a better oxfor chip then the lacies. I own two lacies and two of the above. I haven't had problems with either. But I am sticking with the mercury elites from now on based on the seagate drives.