Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Building an external

Dec 12, 2006 1:43AM PST

Hi everybody,

I'm thinking that I would like to build an external hard drive for my brother-in-law for Christmas this year and would like some input.

He says he wants an external with USB and FireWire cables (he wants both because all he has open is a FireWire port on his Mac but he knows USB is more common) and he wants it to be at least 250Gb.

I'm thinking that I was going to buy an aluminum case with both connectors on it off the internet (thank you Newegg and/or TigerDirect). I'm also going to buy the internal (3.5") hard drive on the internet too.

My main question is what sort of internal connector would you recommend? Obviously it's no useless to get the fastest internal connector as the FireWire or USB will be the limiting factor but I'm not sure if there are other factors that I should take into account. So, any suggestions on this (or anything else I outlined above) would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
For this, PATA is fine.
Dec 12, 2006 1:47AM PST

PATA is many times faster than the USB or Firewire speeds so there's no downside here.

BOb

- Collapse -
kits
Dec 17, 2006 1:01AM PST

you can buy inexpensive kits at places like compusa, microcenter (i live a mile away from one Happy), ect. these will probably suit your needs, but you'll have to ask around for a firewire, and usb one.