external hard drive with fan

[modestvolta]

So here's another "what hard drive, blahblahblah?!!!" thread...

I'm looking to install old Windows games to play on my MacBook Pro, but I don't have enough room on my internal hard drive to install them. So I'm going to install them on an external hard drive to play from there - obviously looking at Firewire 800 hook-up, but do I need to find a hard drive with an internal fan? As the thing will be on for hours (assuming I find the time... here's hoping!), I tend to think a fan will be a good safeguard.

Does anyone know of a good external hard drive with a fan? The closest I can find is the LaCie Hard Disk Quadra (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11395), which mentions in passing a ventilation fan in the online user's manual.

Any other ideas out there? or am I wrong to think I need a fan?

 

[J&JPolangin]

...go to www.newegg.com and get yourself a bare drive to install into the many case choices they sell that you can get fans with = you'll also be able to choose your interface type that way as well...

 

[ski2moro]

I have been quite satisfied with this inexpensive Eagle Consus 3.5 dual bay JBOD with a small fan.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0283764

Also at newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?

Item=N82E16817193042&cm_re=eagle_consus-_-17-193-042-_-Product

HTH

 

[modestvolta]

I have been quite satisfied with this inexpensive Eagle Consus 3.5 dual bay JBOD with a small fan.

looks promising; mind if I ask how long you've been using it?

thanks!

edit: dang it, just noticed the USB 2.0 connection. I got to use this FW port for SOMETHING!

I'd looked at the build an external using an enclosure method earlier, but it seemed that to get parts that were from companies I knew about the price would be much higher than an external on its own. But maybe I just suck at looking.

 

[ski2moro]

Hard to say how long I have had it, but it is at least 2 years old. I bought a couple of Hitachi HDs to put in it. I went the cheap route, but it has been reliable for me.

 

[modestvolta]

For those interested, I decided on the Verbatim 96798 hard drive - 1 TB, 7200 RPM, Firewire 800, and (according to Newegg reviewers) 32 MB buffer/cache (all I know is bigger = better in this department, so sue me). Oh yeah, and Verbatim hides the "silent cooling fan" description depending on which website you see the drive at!

The seven year warranty isn't too bad a deal either.

 

[RoseJan1]

external hard drive with fan

I built my external hard drive with a fairly inexpensive Western Digital 120 GB hard drive I bought at Circuit City and a Byte cc external snap-on enclosure I got online. I built this less than a year ago. The thing has been running great since then, but last night, the fan got incredibly loud. It is so loud that it has become very annoying. I have kept the hard drive off, testing it every once in a while to see if the fan has gotten quieter, but it remains at a very high volume