external hard drives, looking for recommendations Options

[illumineering]

I'm hoping to find a few recommendations for external hard drives. I run XP and have a free USB 2.0 port.

I've narrowed my search to Western Digital, Seagate and Maxtor.

From what I've read, it seems like a good idea to go with 7200rpm.

I'll probably get 160gb.

As far as cache size, are there major performance differences between 2 or 8mb? I don't think I need 16mb.

Does anyone have any other specs they think are important? Does anyone have manufacturer preferences or ones to avoid?

[sadolakced acid]

i've heard avoid maxtor, although that was from before they were bought by seagate...


although, i suggest you just look through the sunday ads every week. sometimes you can get external drives for under 50 cents a gig.

usually every few weeks.

i have a 160 gig western digital. works fine.

[*kryogenix*]

Seagate = King. Try to avoid Western Digital unless you're getting a Raptor (but they don't make external raptors, so avoid Western Digital. Hitachi is also another good choice. Try to get a firewire HD over a USB HD if you can. Or network storage if you want to share between computers.

[yo pusha]

i use seagate got a good deal on one now if the feds come to my house for my music i can just take the external and run

[illumineering]

Seagate = King. Try to avoid Western Digital unless you're getting a Raptor (but they don't make external raptors, so avoid Western Digital. Hitachi is also another good choice. Try to get a firewire HD over a USB HD if you can. Or network storage if you want to share between computers.

Yeah, I'd love to use firewire, but I need my pcmcia slot for my network antenna. My laptop isn't upgradable - no extra room for more ports. I think I'm pretty much stuck w/ usb 2.0. I haven't heard of a card that serves both functions at the same time.