best (and cheapest) external hard drive?
 

Can someone give me the heads up on the best ext hard drive for the money?

Probably an internal drive inside an external enclosure. Cheapest is bad...the HD is already OUTSIDE your computer - don't need to skimp on safety. I recommend the Vantec NexStar combo enclosure.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...137&CatId=1204

Very compact, Firewire is good, and the base to mount it vertically is very stable. Both of the plates on the sides are aluminum, which act as heatsinks. I have a 160GB Maxtor in mine, nice and quiet (compared to my prebuilt Western Digital external).

Look on NewEgg for good prices. Alot of times, you can get free shipping.

Checkout www.techbargains.com for insane deals on external hard drives. They have them on there VERY frequently.

Funny, I went to the techbargains.com website, and saw an ad for NewEgg. Define irony.

yep. techbargains and newegg.com are like this, yo

newegg has great deals all around,



techbargains.com has the SUPER FREAK deals that come once in a lifetime. I got all three of my 160 GB maxtor hard drives from bargains listed there.

my last 160 GB hard drive (8 MB cache, 7200 RPM) I got for 70 bucks, NO rebates, brand new.

I have a 160Gb lacie drive - I have used this brand quite a bit without any problems, and also used them as offsite backup (carried around in my backup) without.

I'm in Australia, so price is probably not something I can help you with.

I've found that dealsonic http://www.dealsonic.com/ has a better selection and better prices on external enclosures when compared to newegg.

In general it's much better/cheaper to go with the external enclosure and hd combo.