How fast are external hard drives?

[thefiddler]

If I buy an external HDD that runs at 7200 rpms, can I expect it to give me speeds comparable to an internal hard drive, running at the same speed. Or will the USB 2.0 or FireWire connection create a bottle-neck and slow it down some?

I want to use one for video editing, but am not sure if it's worth the money.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[ViRaL1]

The external connection may slow it down a bit but that depends more on what else you're running on that particular bus, since the devices share bandwidth. Theoretical maximum on USB 2.0 is 60MB/s, Firewire 50MB/s and IDE / SATA are between 100MB/s and 150MB/s. Keep in mind that none of these ever really hit the maximums, but for most things a USB2 or Firewire connection should keep up just fine. Many users here run both with hard drives and burners without any problems.

[thefiddler]

So what you're saying, is that if I hook my external HDD to its own USB port, and use the other one for other things, I should be able to video edit with it just fine? It won't create a bottle-neck where the rest of my system is just waiting on data from the external?

Thanks for the help so far, I just want to be sure on all this.

Thanks,

--the Fiddler

[Soopafresh]

Consider a Firewire connection. It is much faster than USB 2.0 in real world situations.

[ofbarea]

Also USB2 uses a bit more CPU during transfers. This is not an issue with desktops, but with laptops you will notice the difference.

Finally you could always get a firewire 800 case and card and get 100MB/s.

Note: For WXP SP2 a case firmware upgrade may be needed for 100MB/s performance.

For more info on firewire cases firmware upgrade check this link: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1277953&highlight=#1277953

[thefiddler]

is firewire really that much better? What if I only have one firewire port? And need to hook a camera to that? If I get an enclosure that has another firewire port on it for something else, is it going to be a problem to plug my HDD to the laptop, then the camera in to the HDD?

I'm not too worried about USB using a little extra processor speed, my laptop will have (I've already ordered it) an Athalon 64 3500+ processor in it. So a little extra processor ussage shouldn't be a problem. However if you guys really think firewire is the way to go on this, then that's what I'm going to shoot for, I just need to figure out how to make it all work right.

As my questions above suggest, if I daisy-chain firewire devices, will it slow the bandwidth of firewire, just like USB 2.0?

[ofbarea]

I use an IBM Thinkpad X31 (Intel centrino 1.4 GHz). This machine has USB2 and firewire built in. If I do big file transfer, DVD ripping or DVD burning at 8x through USB2, I will always have higher CPU utilization that the same operations done through firewire.

Given the CPU of your machine I do not think the extra CPU utilization will be noticeable. Both interfaces will work, but I still find firewire a better choice just because I have never had any big problem with it.

In firewire, once a data transfer operation has started, the bus will reserve the requested bandwidth during the whole I/O transaction. USB cannot ensure that the minimum bandwidth will be maintained over time, but if you just have one HD device you should not see any problem.

[Soopafresh]

You should be able to daisy chain your camera off of the second firewire port on the Drive enclosure. Just make sure the enclosure you choose has 2 firewire ports.

[thefiddler]

Okay, I really appreciate you guys help so far. I've researched it some starting with the link to the thread that ofbarea posted. I now understand why firewire is better and am convinced to go that route.

Just one more question: Is an enclosure (such as the BYTECC ME-320U2FB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145346) going to give me performance comparable to an external hdd that is manufactured to be an external hdd such as the Maxtor OneTouch lineup?

I have a 160GB 7200rpm (8mb cache, I think), HDD that I would just put in the enclosure. But if the performance is going to be significantly less (or there will be problems with the data transfer) then I'll probably have to go ahead and spend the extra money. What do you think?

Thanks again.

[budz]

I would suggest you get a aluminum enclosure for your internal hard drive. I have one of the plastic bytecc firewire enclosures and it does get hot when in use which houses a 250 gb hd. Take a look at the aluminum enclosures that newegg.com has in stock. If you have the money to spend then get a external hard drive like the maxtor one touch series. Internal hard drives are so cheap that I went with getting many external hard drive enclosures. Just my 2 cents!

P.S. make sure the enclosure you choose is compatible for a 160 gb or bigger hard drive. some only are compatible for up to 80gbs.

[sitlet]

Just one more question: Is an enclosure (such as the BYTECC ME-320U2FB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145346) going to give me performance comparable to an external hdd that is manufactured to be an external hdd such as the Maxtor OneTouch lineup?

i have three hard drives (2-250gb and 1-160gb) in that same enclosure, except i have the firewire only one. i tried the usb2.0 exclosures and they did not work at all with my motherboard for some reason. i also have a dvd burner in a 5.25 bytecc enclosure. i have them all daisy chained together, along with my dv cam, and they are all hooked up to ONE firewire port on my laptop. i have had no problems. i can burn a dvd off one drive, while capturing dv to another. and about them getting hot, the only time mine got hot was when i put all of them on top of each other. the bottom one got pretty warm. but now, i have them next to each other, and i leave them on most of the day and they dont get hot at all. a little warm, but nothing to worry about. there is a fan on the bottom too.

[thefiddler]

Thanks for the replies guys. They are very helpfull, especially yours sitlet. I think I'll go ahead and get the BYTECC ME-320U2FB and stick my deskstar 160 in there. I'm glad to know that I can add external drives like that to my laptop without too much worry (or price).

I'm definitely going to hook it up firewire and possibly daisy chain other drives on later. I'm getting the one that does both firewire and USB just for compatibility reasons, incase I ever need to transfer large amounts of data to a machine that doesn't have firewire.

Thanks again, everyone who's posted to this thread has been most helpfull.

[pfh]

Bytecc cases are pretty good- set your drive as master and you should be good to go.

[macrovision]

I use usb2.0 with external an Nec 3500ag and a lacie 400gb harddrive that runs at 7200rpm I get an error message that states "Delayed write failure".."windows was unable to save all $data" only when I use my usb2.0 pinnacle pctv capture unit... It does that because of shared bandwith so I have to use the control panel to disable the usb enhanced controller... It'll run at 1.0 speeds but to the capture card it's normal.... as for the hard disk it will be O.K. with 2.0 alone or with a burner if it has a large buffer because usb 2.0 will transfer faster than the hard disk can write causing a over-flow in the buffer...same rule applies with the burner

[normcar]

I would suggest that you find an all aluminum case. This will help dissapate heat, and increase the life of your HD. I have 2 300 GB w/16MB cache external HDs from Maxtor which have aluminum cases, and they get hot when the HD is in use. However the aluminum case allows it to act as a very good heatsink, where the plastic case wouldn't.

[macrovision]

I agree about the alluminum cases...My lacie 400gb is crazy heavy(alluminum cased) and it gets so hot when it's not in use I unplug it...Just to be safe! :P

[thefiddler]

The Bytecc I mentioned has a fan built into it, and from what I've read, that keeps it pretty cool, so I'm not too worried. In fact from my experience cooling, I'd rather have a fan than a heatsink anyday (both is best of course).

If someone thinks I'm very wrong then let me know. But it seems like in my research, I read several people who commented on the fact that these Bytecc's with the fans only got mildly warm because the fan cooled it well. They only had any real heat when they stacked several of them.

[budz]

The Bytecc I mentioned has a fan built into it, and from what I've read, that keeps it pretty cool, so I'm not too worried. In fact from my experience cooling, I'd rather have a fan than a heatsink anyday (both is best of course).

If someone thinks I'm very wrong then let me know. But it seems like in my research, I read several people who commented on the fact that these Bytecc's with the fans only got mildly warm because the fan cooled it well. They only had any real heat when they stacked several of them.

I have one of those plastic BYTECC enclosures that has a small fan. When in use especially when doing video encoding the enclosure does get quite hot which is why I've never purchased another one. I have 3 other enclosures which are aluminum and they do not get hot like the plastic enclosure. I power off the enclosures when they are not in use.

[sitlet]

like i said, my plastic bytecc enclosures do get a little warm when i leave them on for more than an hour or so. but i dont think its anything to worry about. most manufactured computers (dell, compaq etc) have barely any ventalation for hard drives. i have a 6 year old compaq where the hard drive is at the very top of the case where all the heat rises to with no ventilation at all, and it still works great. at least these cases have a fan to get some of the heat out. as long as you dont leave them on 24/7, you shouldnt have a problem. my 160gb maxtor is almost 2 years old, and i use it about 2-3 days a week for at least a couple hours a day, and i havent had any problems with it.

[thefiddler]

Okay budz, you've got me mostly convinced. So if I buy an aluminum one, I should be okay, even if I've got the HDD on for a day or two straight? Right? I mean you said they don't get all that hot, so there shouldn't be much of a problem right?

[normcar]

I did see an aluminum enclosure the other day with a fan on both sides. Input and output. The best solution. I am thinking about getting one, since I have maxed out my cases.

[budz]

thefiddler wrote

Okay budz, you've got me mostly convinced. So if I buy an aluminum one, I should be okay, even if I've got the HDD on for a day or two straight? Right? I mean you said they don't get all that hot, so there shouldn't be much of a problem right?

Yes, you should be ok even if you leave the enclosure powered on for days. There have been times that I have left it on for days without any problems. I have (2) 250 gb hard drives in 2 of my aluminum enclosures. I ordered my first BYTECC (plastic) enclosure with the built in fan from newegg.com. Then found a local pc shop that sold the aluminum enclosures and they matched newegg's price.

[macrovision]

Always remember the construction of the hard drive's platters(disks)(the material is like that of cassette tapes) and excessive heat can corrupt or destroy the information... Unless you get a liquid cooling mod I don't recommend testing the limit of the drive...