Cheapest Disk Space?

[CaZeek]

Hello,
What is the cheapest way of storing/using disk space. I already have 2 120GB hard drives in my PC and an external 120GB. I don't have any more slots in my PC.. should I just buy some more external USB hard drives? I was wondering if it's cheaper/possible to build a sort of hard drive tower and connect it to my PC. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks =)

[Shocker Milwaukee]

When you say slots, do you mean PCI or physical space?

[glockjs]

yeah they make em, with their own PSU and everything that can be hooked up by firewire, usb, or ide. forget the exact name of em though

[CaZeek]

I'm not at the computer right now, but I think I'm out of PCI slots too. I did not even think about the IDE option though. I may have one open, but then where would I actually fit the hard drive in the case? Currently, there is a metal slot to put them both into. Also, would this be a problem (power-wise)?

Edit: Any reccomended brands / models of IDE controllers?

[holistic]

This would be your cheapest option. Unless of course you need all the drives all the time !



http://www.directron.com/mr27.html

[ViRaL1]

You can get something like this at Computer Geeks for less than $100. It holds 4 drives up to 120GB each and since it's external you can move it from one computer to another.

More info here... http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=MAP-504F1-01&cat=CAS

[rallynavvie]

If you have 2-3 5.25" slots open you can find brackets that convert that to fit 4-5 hard drives. Assign one IDE controller to it and you're set.

However the big advantage of having an external hard drive system like the one posted is that you're taking that much more strain off your power supply. You're also getting the heat that brick of hard drives is giving off out of your main case. I highly recommend getting one of the external enclosures like that with a FireWire bridge since with those you can usually turn off the enclosure while your PC is running. If you get hot-swap trays for each slot you can do this individually as well. I've looked into it and decided just to get a server case with room for a second PSU to power just hard drives. Certainly not the cheapest route to go though

[CaZeek]

The thing with that is, it seems pretty expensive for it's purpose. I could just buy an external HD for about 20-25 dollars more than the internal and save myself some money. It would be very convenient to have a portable 1200 gig unit though (if I get one that's capable of 300GB drives).

Holistic, I'm not quite sure what that thing is. I'm reading the description and still not understanding. How do you hook it up?

[rallynavvie]

I'm assuming it's a hot-swap tray. You install a hard drive in there and there is a slot that it fits into that takes up a 5.25" bay. Then you just slide the cartridge in and you have access to that drive. The "hot-swap" ability means you can do this without having to power down the computer to switch drives. It incorporates the power and IDE into a single connector, usually has jumper settings for master/slave/cs as needed. Very handy thing to have if you don't need access to all drives at once. That's what I do with my archive drives.

[Solarflair]

or you can get a pci adapter that provides for more IDE channels. You might also think about getting a full tower, with 6-7 5.25in bays