External hard drives,USB 2.0. Is it worth it?How fast is it?

x_rex30 · Post by **x_rex30** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 6:16 pm

I need space on my computer and im just looking for some insight about External Drives using USB 2.0. Is it halph the speed? Does it work well when running with programs? How fast does it transfer files? The more info I can get about it the better. Please can anyone give me there perspectives about using an external hard drive, like you would an internal hard drive. Any kind of knowledge givin about them is greatly appreciated^_^.

madmag9999 · Post by **madmag9999** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:03 pm

why do u want an external drive?
i think usb 2.0 transers at 15mbps(i think

) so its prolly aorund there

narcted · Post by **narcted** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:17 pm

External drives are okay. They're great for sotring excess data and taking it with you. Their data transfer is slower than internals, so I caution using it when actively editing. The data does not move quite fast enough. it's always best to make sure the video files you are editing are on internal hard drives.

Corran · Post by **Corran** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:20 pm

x_rex30 wrote:I need space on my computer and im just looking for some insight about External Drives using USB 2.0. Is it halph the speed? Does it work well when running with programs? How fast does it transfer files? The more info I can get about it the better. Please can anyone give me there perspectives about using an external hard drive, like you would an internal hard drive. Any kind of knowledge givin about them is greatly appreciated^_^.

Check out this link, there is a lot of information starting at this post to the end of the thread. http://animemusicvideos.org/phpBB/viewt ... 943#448943

madmag9999 wrote:why do u want an external drive?
i think usb 2.0 transers at 15mbps(i think ) so its prolly aorund there

USB 2.0 is reated at 480mb/s

USB Drives are good for portable use. They aren't as fast as Firewire Drives, for some reason they aren't optimized for USB 2, however depending opon their application they are very convenient. I have an 80GB external drive that I use to store my music and AMVs on and I love it. They are too slow in my opinion if you intend to edit video with them though.

madmag9999 · Post by **madmag9999** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:32 pm

o wow i was totaly off. well anyway if u dont have enough ide channels get a raid card and get more internal drives

x_rex30 · Post by **x_rex30** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:29 pm

I mainly want it for transfering. I want to transfer DVDs straight from my DVD-rom to the external hard drive. Does it transfer around the same speed of a cd-rom? Also if I play a video from the external hard drive, in a video player from the internal drive, will it play fine in most cases? Im not planning on editing videos when there stored on a external drive. I simply want to use it for huge storage and transfer. Also to play videos from it. Is it good for those things? Im mainly looking for the input of those who have it or know a great deal about it. But even mild info is OK. The more info I get about them the better.

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 4:15 am

I keep my AMV collection on a 4200 RPM laptop drive in a small Firewire external case. The case also supports USB2, but the USB ports don't supply enough current to make the drive work (& I've tried it on several PCs). With a Firewire connect it works fine. I play videos directly from the drive. In fact, dwchang's Evolution is playing now; the piano keys are spot on, no lags or stepping even with WMP.

Tom's Hardware page just posted a Firewire 800 overview last week. Even though it focuses on the new 800 spec (IEEE 1394b), it's worth reading for background. And the benchmark charts also compare against Firewire 400 and USB2. The review is here:
http://www20.tomshardware.com/storage/2 ... index.html

x_rex30 · Post by **x_rex30** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 2:19 pm

I just went out and got myself a USB 2.0 External Hard Drive. I cant realy compare the transfer rate between the internal drive and external drive, because the transfer rate feels about the same between both of them. If your runing out of space on your computer and cant afford a new computer, I highly recommend getting one.

aznfs · Post by **aznfs** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 2:38 am

i have a 200gb 7200rpm external usb 2.0 and i capture all my footage on to it. i haven't had any dropped frames... though the transfer isn't as fast as firewire, it is fine... i recommend it

akicafe · Post by **akicafe** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 8:04 am

I use 2x120gig 7200 RPM firewire drives and have never had problems at all, they've been running with my system on all the time ever since the great power outage of 2003. firewire is fast, and good for storage, as far as I've seen it's the best option for using external HDD, you can get a firewire PCI card for your computer for less than $50 (average $25 from what I've seen) and it's easy to install and update your system with the necessary codecs and such. oh, and with firewire, you can plug in your iPod ~_^