Which external hard drive to get??? Suggestions??

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I'm looking to get a 1TB external hd to hook up to my new mac mini that I use as my media center. I would most likely use it to dump my entire itunes library and iphoto. I would like it to be firewire 800 and quiet.

I've just started looking, so I'm open to all suggestions.

Thanks!
 
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Whatever choice you make, make sure the case it is in has a fan. I bought one of the Freeagent drives and it had a 1TB Seagate inside. It ran quite warm so I split the case and used a generic case with a built in fan. If you are hooking to a Mac perhaps looking for a Firewire connection may(should) increase throughput for a media centre.
 
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Personally, never had a problem with hard disk enclosures without fans..... and I've had and supplied many.

Just adds to the noise...
 

chscag

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Here's one of the best drives for external use. Highly recommended by MacWorld.

OWC (Other World Computing) LINK

Regards.
 
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I own this... I love it. Quiet and has a nice little lighting system.

Its been very fast (6.2GB was copied in under two mins) and like I said its very quiet. They top it off with a five year warranty too, which while it may never fail or you might have something different by then... is still two more years than Western Digital gives you (mind you I like both brands, so don't take that as a knock at WD, they make great drives too).
 
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chas_m

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Whatever choice you make, make sure the case it is in has a fan. I bought one of the Freeagent drives and it had a 1TB Seagate inside. It ran quite warm so I split the case and used a generic case with a built in fan. If you are hooking to a Mac perhaps looking for a Firewire connection may(should) increase throughput for a media centre.

You probably yourself through a lot of work for nothing. I have generally found that fanless cases work fine *IF* they are in a ventilated area *and* are set in such a way that no one side is blocked (by this I generally mean "vertically"). Western Digital cases, for example (I'm thinking of the My Book series here), seem to work MUCH better if you lift them up a bit so that air can flow underneath them.

Fanless drives are OF COURSE going to feel warmer than non-fanless ones, but what you are feeling is the heat *dissipating.* The back-top of any iMac would feel much the same way for the same reason. They are both using "convection cooling."
 

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