SATA Hard Disk Drives, better to have internal or external?

[GundamF91]

I'm getting a second hard disk drive. My main drive is big enough for OS, apps and games. But I'm wondering if I should have a second drive as internal drive, or external drive?

It seems internal drive is better protected, but it's on all the time the computer is on. External drive takes some space, and I'm not sure how heat dissipation is, and also more vulnerable, but it only needs to be on when I power it on separately.

So are there distinct advantages or disadvantages to having external drives?

 

[mozirry]

well, external drives generally use usb 2.0, which is slower then an internal SATA connection

I had a external WD hard drive, accidentally knocked it over, and it died =( , On the second one, I accidentally broke the USB2.0 port (not really my fault, manufactoring error probably)


usually it comes down to function...if you want to store stuff but move it around (laptop, etc.) get external. If you want more storage but want to keep it under $ and want fast speed, get internal

 

[dunkster]

I've been using a StarTech HSD100SATBK Trayless SATA Drive Bay. 'Trayless' means that no tray/carrier is required. The bay uses SATA power and signal pass-through connector, converting a bare SATA drive to a plug-in device. No USB/eSATA interface involved - all operations at true SATA speed. Fast, simple and highly recommended.

I have a Thermaltake blacX docking station, but I suffered about a 20% eSATA data throughput penalty versus SATA throughput on my PC. Exact-cloning a 250GB Seagate to a 250GB WD drive takes 2 hours @ SATA versus 2.5 hours @ eSATA. That problem may be due to my particular hardware or configuration, but it's a time penalty I don't need.

Hope this helps!