Better HD for building an external HD?

[bigblueman]

My first attempt at this question went unanswered so I'll ask a little more specific question. I appreciate the advice in advance.

Out of these drives which would you prefer for building an external hard drive for storage? (Taking into account heat, speed, power consumption, etc)

WD

Western Digital Caviar Green WD6400AACS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

 

[nerp]

For storage? Green, all the way. The black would be wasted performance.

 

[bigblueman]

Thanks. That is basically what I was looking for. Would you stick with this size or is the 1TB size worth it? I've been reading that the 640GB size might be the best because it uses only 2 platters. The $25 price difference really is no big deal to me but I just want to get the best drive I can for this application.

I'm going to try to hook this thing up via eSATA but if that doesn't work it will likely be via USB.

 

[TBSN]

well, I guess if you calculate the price-per-MB...
1TB Green Drive~ $0.10 per MB ($104 on Newegg)
640MB Caviar~ $0.12 per MB ($74.99)

so... Basically the same bang for the buck, but I would go with the Green because, as per the Anandtech review, it is cool, quiet and doesn't consume a lot of power.

Edit: don't listen to me, read the review

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3161 -- review of the Green drive

 

[California Roll]

For external I'd go for the best bang for the buck in terms of TB size. I use multiple external drives for video editing/storage/backup. I won't buy any new drives under 1tb. Will probably be buying 1.5tb solely pretty soon.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

for storage only get the CHEAPER one /$$

 

[BoboKatt]

I've got this great docking station type for my external drives. It takes SATA drives and has a USB2 and eSATA out option. I've used many different drives (hooking it up to my PVR and PS3 as storage drives for movies etc) and honestly the best I've ever used is the WD green 1TB. It was the only one to run so quiet and so cool. The worst was the Samsung 750 I had... freaking thing was HOT HOT.

In regards to size get the what is the best deal at the time. I really never thought I would fill a 1TB up... heck that was 3 1TB drives ago 🙂

 

[Team Spicoli]

I've read good reviews about the 640GB caviar black. Speed appears to impressive, even surpassing older Raptors, and coming close in speed to the Velociraptor.

(Reviews read at Newegg)

 

[Team Spicoli]

Keep an eye out for the cashback through live.com that Microsoft is promoting. Recently it was as high as 30%, and just today it was at 20%.

With the holiday sales going on, you could score a Caviar Green 1TB through buy.com via ebay, for around $80 shipped! There's your best bang for the buck!!