external HDD help

[stealthsniper96]

i just found this and it seems to good to be true. am i missing something, or is this REALLY a 500gb external firewire drive for $100? if so, is that the firewire 400 that the macbook uses, or the higher speed one that the macbook doesnt have? thanks for the help.

==edit==
just found the kink, its got a mail in rebate.

 

[richardson.hila]

It doesn't have a fan so you may have problems with it over-heating? Just a guess. On the other hand it would be extremely quiet. I don't think that your money would not be well spent, what with probable hard-drive failure in the future. It seems like the reviews for this aren't in favor of it at all. I would probably avoid it if you're going to be using it as a backup drive/for information that is important to you?

But the good news is that it is compatible with your MacBook! As it's firewire 400 i think, according to the specs elsewhere?

 

[stealthsniper96]

ok so heres my next question.

i can afford to have a set-up of either an external with firewire, but the case can only support IDE. or, an external case that only has USB, but can support SATA. and since IDE is older and slower, im wondering if i wouldnt gain any speed from the firewire due to the old IDE drive inside?

 

[plinden]

USB will limit the transfer speed more than using an IDE drive will. But all r&d effort is going into SATA nowadays, so IDE is becoming obsolete if it isn't already.

What will you be using the drive for? If just for backups, USB2 will be fine.

 

[stealthsniper96]

yea, just for backups.