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external hard drives

In theory, metal cases are superior to plastic, because (a) more conductive, helps heat dissipate faster, and (b) better EMI/EMC. But does it really make any difference ?

What exactly is the difference between a "pocket USB hard drive" and a "external USB hard drive" ?

Some technical jargon explained.

prices as of 2005-01-18

external hard drive enclosure prices as of 2005-01-12

hard drive enclosures are empty boxes. They convert off-the-shelf internal (IDE) hard drives into external (USB or FireWire?) hard drives.

You install a standard IDE drive inside the box, then plug the box into a PC with a USB or FireWire? cable.

A long list of external hard drive enclosures at: http://www.newegg.com/app/ListProduct.asp?Submit=list&catalog=92&DEPA=9&description=&sortby=22&orderby=1 including:

It doesn't make any sense, but sometimes external hard drives cost more than the equivalent hard drive enclosure plus IDE hard drive.

external hard drive prices as of 2005-01-12

a long list of USB hard drives at http://www.pricegrabber.com/search.php/form_keyword=usb%2520hard%2520drive%2520review/skd=1/mode=googletkgen/ut=440df7a483bd39fc includes:

http://resellerratings.dealtime.com/xPP-Hard_Drives--price_range_0_1000-price_range_10_100-enclosure_external~S-213 has a list of external hard drives (sorted by price) including

http://www.nextag.com/ has a long list under All Categories : Computers : Storage Devices : Hard Drives : External : Under $170

I tried to search for external hard drives on http://www.epinions.com/Hard_Drives-External-Standard but it seems unreliable – none of the items I selected were actually available at the listed price.

prices as of 2004-11

$ 179.99 : Medion(R) External 200 GB Hard Drive, from Aldi ( http://usa.aldi.com/ ), a grocery store (!)

prices as of 2004-04

Internal drives: about $100/ 80 GB.

External drives: about twice that.

80 GB drives:

http://OfficeDepot.com/

http://CompGeeks.com/

$58 IBM 80 GB Deskstar 120GXP - hard drive - - ATA-100 from cnet reviews

$56.00 80GB [188 items from $56.00] from streetprices.com

$58.99 Deskstar 80GB IDE Hard Drive from techbargains.com reviews

120 GB drives

$78.00 120GB [184 items from $78.00] from streetprices.com