Which external hard drive should I buy - Seagate vs. LaCie vs ????

[Chupa Chupa]

FWIW LaCie doesn't make HDs they just put other companies (like Seagate) drives in their enclosures. So unless you are in love with the enclosure there isn't any real reason to pay for their premium.

Personally I buy bare drives and bare enclosures. You usually get more GBs for the buck, it's easy to upgrade, and bare drives usually have better warranties.

 

[DoFoT9]

FWIW LaCie doesn't make HDs they just put other companies (like Seagate) drives in their enclosures. So unless you are in love with the enclosure there isn't any real reason to pay for their premium.

QFT. they buy whats cheapest at the time they dont check which is the most reliable.

Personally I buy bare drives and bare enclosures. You usually get more GBs for the buck, it's easy to upgrade, and bare drives usually have better warranties.

that is what i do too, you cant go wrong! pick the HDD that you like, buy a really nice enclosure and you're set. i have been buying dual bay enclosures lately, more logical.

 

[cluthz]

The drives inside external HDs are pretty much the same for most, but the case design is unique.
LaCie has (my opinion) the best designed cases, they do supply lots of cables.
(I got FW400, FW800 and USB2.0 cables with mine, it's a d2 triple, so no eSata)

The power management is very good on the d2, much better than most other externals I've used.

I bought my LaCie d2 the same time as I bought my 1.33GHz Powerbook G4, and it's still going great, used everyday!
(The PB, on the other hand, did die after a year and got replaced by a 1.5GHz for free)

 

[Habitus]

I'm looking to buy an external hard drive for my MBP & I'm not really sure what to get. I have been looking and looking & the reviews on multiple sites are always mixed.

I want a hard drive with 1Tb, 7200 & I hear that cache is also important though I'm not sure how much I really need. My mac has a port for firewire & from what I have read, this is much faster than USB, so that would be preferable. Also I'm trying to stay under $200 & would like to be closer to $150 (if possible).

These are the two drives I have narrowed this down to as of right now, but I am open to suggestions if people think there is a far superior drive out their in this price range.

LaCie d2 Quadra External Hard Drive - 301442U

Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 1TB USB 2.0 & FireWire 400/800 External Hard Drive for Mac - ST310005FJA105-RK

Here is a side by side comparison of the two on newegg (+ various other sites have info on these two drives):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000552&Description=external%20hard%20drive%201%20tb%20mac&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=False&CompareItemList=N82E16822154332%2CN82E16822148359

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions you can offer me!!!

P.S. I am running Snow Leopard & want something that works with this (as I'm hearing not all external hard drives seem to do this well yet) ~Thanks!!!

I have a freeagent. I have no complaints. I even swapped out the drive and placed it in my TC and used my TC's 500GB drive and placed it in the casing with no issues. Seagate's are usually on the affordable end, too. Go with the seagate.

Habitus