USB Hard Disk on T42

[astpaul]

Hello,

Proud owner of a T42 2373-9XU (1.8Ghz, Hitachi 80GB 5400rpm), i'd like to get a faster boot and usage at least when i am at the office.
Therefore i was considering buying an external hard disk 200GB (or more) with 2-8MB cache that would be plugged to my dock station.

Now my questions:
1- has anybody got the same config?
2- is it advisable vs. a config with an additional Hitachi 60GB 7200rpm?
3- which is the best in performance but also silence-wise external USB2 HD ?

thanks to all

[lfeagan]

As for item 3, it is a far better idea from a performance and price standpoint to buy your own USB HDD enclosure and IDE HDD separately from eachother. You can pickup a very good enclosure for $35 or so. Then just pick a HDD with an 8MB cache and 7200 RPM spindle speed. I would say that some Western Digital or Seagate would be your best bet there for speed and noise considerations. It's really just your preference what you get. Check out Storage Review FMI on hard drives.

[astpaul]

As for item 3, it is a far better idea from a performance and price standpoint to buy your own USB HDD enclosure and IDE HDD separately from eachother. You can pickup a very good enclosure for $35 or so. Then just pick a HDD with an 8MB cache and 7200 RPM spindle speed. I would say that some Western Digital or Seagate would be your best bet there for speed and noise considerations. It's really just your preference what you get. Check out Storage Review FMI on hard drives.

Thanks.
But did someone has the same config i am thinking of ?
How does it compares to having a supplementary internal HD ?

And BTW, are the USB ports the 'powered' type ?

[beeblebrox]

yes, I have that configuration. With a 200gb Seagate in an ICY Box enclosure.
I highly recommend that ICY Box.

However, I use it only as a backup and Video/Mp3 server.

There is no USB drive that can come close to an internal hard drive. The max is something like 25Mbyte/s. wait for Alviso next year, when they support Serial ATA, then those Serial ATA drives can be connected directly (150Mbyte/s).

So, better use a good internal 5400 drive and TweakXp and load all boot stuff to the outer area (faster).

[astpaul]

So, better use a good internal 5400 drive and TweakXp and load all boot stuff to the outer area (faster).

You got me their.

How do you use TweakXP to enhance HD speed ? and, how do you put boot stuff to the outer area ?