hey guys bought a brand new western digital 2.5inch passport size portable harddisk it has got caseing with it too. only rs 3600 from lamington road, its a steal man at this price with three years onsite warranty.
its very lite in weight and also looks killing. recommend this very very much.
also the maxtor 80 GB 2.5" with casing available for Rs.2850/- at prime with 5 yrs warranty
WD 120 GB at prime for Rs.3600/-
getting a 2.5" HDD + Transcend casing now proves to be expensive (120 GB + casing comes for around Rs.3800)
WD or the Maxtor seem to be great buys:clap:
What do you think of this ?? Not mentioned but I am sure it is a 3.5" HDD.
Source: primeabgb - Home
BTW last week I got from Prime for someone the external 2.5" WD 250 Passport HDD for around 7k
above looks like 3.5" - yesterday saw someone taking something similar but 500 GB at Prime for 8000
yup thats definitely an 3.5" hdd.I have the 500gb version which my brother got me from states for just 5k.
I got a Hitachi 100 GB + Transcend Casing for 2950/-
yesterday Gulbir had some new 60 GB 2.5" HDDs from Toshiba laptops without warranty for 1500.. people interested may contact Prime & get the HDD + casing separately
Freeagent comes in 2.5 and 3.5 both if I’m not mistaken. I’ve read some reviews where customers have preferred FreeAgent over the 2.5 WD 250GB external drive because of power issues. Apparently, the WD is hard to drive off USB power.
Can you let us know how the 250GB WD is faring at your friends place?
In one word, F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C !!
Before I gave it to him I connected the HDD to the powered USB2 hub on my Viewsonic LCD Panel and copied 200GB of “STUFF” on it and it was super smooth in copying, got around 35mb/s, which is pretty good for USB2. The case was a bit warm to touch after the copying was finished and the table too was quite warm where the HDD was placed, so I would not want to have this HDD powered on for hours at a time.
^ anything to help it cool. i plan to buy the same and use it for hours for torrents downloads. but then that will be like slow transfer rates i guess. ?
I suppose placing the external case under a table or ceiling fan would help. When I have a bare HDD running on the table I place 4 smallish rubber tap washers under the HDDs corners, this seems to keep the HDD a lot cooler 
Dont understand why you mentioned “slow transfer rates”, this drive can handle write speeds of 33 MB/s which I am sure is much faster then the MAX download speed of any Indian ISP 
Same here, am planning to get a casing to use it for torrents 24*7. Planning to get the Antec MX-1.
@Eazy, sir is there any other alternative to Antec MX-1??
You mean for eSATA ? The only other eSATA case I know which is locally available is the Vantec one which I use. I think the Antec seems better.
I am quite happy with my Vantec eSATA case, I get good speeds and the HDDs keep quite cool, dunno about the Antec MX-1. HDD temperatures should be an important point in making a choice of external case.
actually am planning to use it with my usb port, no free sata port available. For me the most important factor is the temperature. As far as Antec MX-1 is concerned i have reviewed it here http://www.techenclave.com/forums/antec-mx-1-hdd-enclosure-review-91375.html hehehe. I think when it comes to cooling MX-1 takes away the crown. I got 39c after using it for more than an hour (this was during summer, and my room was very hot ) . Only cons is the pricing, i was quoted Rs.3250/-
I think the Vantec eSATA case is more expensive then the Antec, unless APEX has reduced the Vantec prices recently.
As far as I know USB cases cannot show the HDD temperatures, only a HDD connected with an eSATA cable can do this.
^^ yeah, i know, the temp i got is when i tested with e-sata only ( 39 c in a summer noon 
).
Good to know about the performance. But, since the USB2 hub was powered, one cannot tell whether USB power is enough.
Btw, the cable that you used, did it have the additional USB connector at one end for surplus power?
@eazy , i mentioned slow transfer rates because i was like if the hard runs smaller chunks of data will it remain cooler as less stress will be upon it. ?
NO - It had only one USB connector on the cable for data and power and this cable was only about 12- 18 inches long, that is why I attached it to the Monitor as it was not long enough to reach the back of the computer 
If I am not mistaken the USB connectors on the computer can handle the same load as a powered hub - 500mA per port.
@200 - possibly the HDD would be a bit cooler with small chunk writing but not by much as the platters are spinning constantly and thats where the most heat is generated.
Ok. Thanks for the info. Looks like WD is confident of running their drives of 500mA of USB current.
I think every port on a powered USB hub is capable of delivering 500mA of USB power. In the case of USB connectors on a PC, some of them may be low power ports capable of delivering 100mA only or high powered ports capable of delivering the whole 500mA of current. This depends on your motherboard.
OT:
USB supports power negotiation. i.e. every device is first recognized as a low power device and their power requirement is negotiated in 2mA steps.
Only 100mA of power is required for negotiation. This is why some devices are detected in Windows(a connect sound is heard) but the drive letter does not appear(a connection failure sound is heard thereafter) if the port cannot provide power(for eg: if it is a low power port and a device requiring > 100mA current is connected or if the port is a high power port but the device itself requires >500mA of power). The system shuts down service on that port. Improper negotiation can also shut down service on a USB port.
W.r.t bus powered USB hubs, they are capable of delivering a total of 100mA or 500mA as they are powered by the USB port on the system. Again, it depends on whether the system USB port is a high powered one or a low powered one. Connecting a self powered hub to a low power port may create a lot of issues even for low power devices.
Here are some links on USB power.
Power Management DesignLine | Get the most (charging) out of your USB port