Hi All, With going off to Dubai, I need to massive downsize all my tech stuff, and the easiest thing for me to do in terms of getting it all out there, is to just bung everything Ive got onto a big external HDD and sort it out when I get a new PC out there. I haven't had an external HDD since ~2008, when I had a big 3.5" mains powered WD one. Now, my questions is, with USB 3 etc, is there still a dramatic speed difference between the 3.5" mains units, and the 2.5" USB powered ones? As it will just be shipped in my airfreight, it doesnt really make a huge difference, only thing is, if the 2.5" is as quick, I'd grab that as i could much more easily stick it in hand luggage when Im coming back for Christmas. These are what im looking at: Seagate Expansion 4TB 3.5" Seagate Expansion 4TB 2.5" (also, no I can't go Cloud due to some of the docs on there)
I've had a USB3.0 based 4TB Samsung 2.5" drive for 2 years and it's been more than good enough. I suspect the read/write isn't quite as good as a 3.5" version but it can move a 1GB video in around 20s - speed varies between 60/90MBps but spends most of the time at 80 or more. For £90 at the time was too good to pass on, mainly thanks to not needing an AC power adapter. For the £10 difference I'd probably go smaller, though iirc Dubai uses UK plug sockets and voltage so going with the 3.5" version won't cause any problems if you'd rather go with the potentially faster option
The smaller drives are a tad slower due to the nature of the drive, but not by a massive amount. It’s just limited by the rusty spinner that’s inside more than anything.
It seems every single drive on offer is a 5,400 RPM option which is going to be the limiting factor unless Im going to get an enclosure and a separate drive.
I think the 2.5" drive uses SMR, Shingled Magnetic Recording to cram the data on the platters so is slow at writing small files. I use 3 of them but to store mp4s so don't notice the performance hit.
This is what I did. I had a spare 2.5" 7,200rpm drive so I bought a cheap enclosure and it's working like a charm. Even if I'd had to buy the drive it wouldn't have worked out much more expensive than a standalone external drive, which would have been a bit slower given that they are almost universally 5,400rpm jobs.
Gonna go with the portable 4TB option, and then buy myself a proper NAS when im out there. Means I can just stick all my data in my backpack to get there on day 1. Thanks all.
