Am I Crazy? 250GB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro vs. 160GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go

[maninthemoon]

I'm going to get either a 250GB 7200rpm OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro usb 2 and firewire 400. $129
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/400+USB2/
or
a 160GB 5400rpm OWC Mercury On-The-Go 2.5" firewire 400 only portable drive. $139
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

This drives main purpose will be as a time machine drive connected to a Mac Mini 1.83 Core2Duo and also backing-up a 1.67 G4 powerbook over a G network.

Both computers have 80GB hard drives and both have about 50GB free. I don't see either of them filling up fast.

The Elite Al pro is bigger, faster and cheaper.

The on the go. is bus powered = less wires, easier to move, physically smaller.

I'm leaning towards the on the go drive. I hate wires. If I need to move or backup a large file from the powerbook I can easily move it to the powerbook to do the transfer. Sometimes I need to transfer files from offsite locations often I can move these files with a CD. CD's can kinda be a hassle so having a portable hard drive would be cool. Since both computer hard drives are only 80GB each 160GB total for backup seems like enough. So I'm choosing less, wires and portability over more space and faster rpms.

Any flaws in my logic?

 

[Rizvi1]

Hmm.. if you were going to get a portable drive, why use it for time machine purposes? I would think that you'd want somethign for that purpose to remain at home. You don't need all your previous versions on the go right?

That's some good info on the portable drive. For my portable needs, I use a WD passport I picked up from costco a few months back for $99. I Feel wrong using a USB 2.0 external though w/ a MacBook Pro. I feel I should be using Firewire. Seems the one you're considering is not much more and has a good amount of HD space.

Are there any portable Firewire 800 drives out there?

 

[Spikeanator6982]

Are there any portable Firewire 800 drives out there?

why do you want FW800? from what I have read, I could be wrong tho, firewire400 can keep up with the output of a 5400rpm drive which most/all portable drives are, so u gain nothing from fw800. but like I said, I could be wrong.

to the op, the portable drive will make your laptops battery drain faster. and costs more for less space. i would go with the desktop one, unless u want to use it on the go.