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Weekend project - DIY cheap 500GB external drive

Ah, the weekend; it stretches out before you like an open field, waiting to be plowed into furrows of laundry, errands, home improvements and recreation. Of course, for us, recreation = new stuff for our beloved Macintoshes! Ready to load up that shiny new Airport Extreme with some capacious shared storage to hold your iTunes library? Let's see... mix one part Staples $140 closeout deal on 500GB Maxtor PATA internal drive, add in one part external FW/USB enclosure with wicked flame graphics for $30... result: one excellent drive that wouldn't look out of place alongside the Mystery Machine. If you prefer the MacAlly cases (rugged!), there's a free shipping deal on those too.

Now, for only $20 more you can have these guys assemble the USB-only case and drive for you, or these guys I've never heard of for only $145... but no pretty flames. Of course, if you want it to actually look good under the base station, then the Newer MiniStack is probably a better bet: the empty USB enclosure is only $60/$40 for an open-box unit, so add that Maxtor for some storage that's both functional AND stylish. Happy shopping!

Update: The trend of the comments is decidedly unfavorable towards the reliability of both the Maxtor drive and the Metal Gear case, so: message received. Here's a deal on a cheaper DiabloTek enclosure, which makes up for the extra you'll spend on a Seagate or WD drive. If you'd prefer a SATA drive, there is a Maxtor out there for a strangely low $127, as pointed out by Trojan below.

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Ah, the weekend; it stretches out before you like an open field, waiting to be plowed into furrows of laundry, errands, home improvements...
 

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Elvedhel

I also went down the dual hard drive road with a couple of seagates. That 5 year warranty makes it woprth it when you only get 1 year on the pre built cases. checked out the Taurus too and picked mine up from here. http://www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=19_1302_1324&products_id=8102

so far great unit, looks the nuts alongside my g5 and quiet as anything too.. now i can downlaod even more stuff with 1TB of storage sitting on my desk

March 21 2007 at 12:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stephen

let's hear it for jumping on the bandwagon.... first, as mentioned...Seagate and Maxtor are now the same company...products could be coming off same manufacturing lines, don't know.

having owned many many drives over the years, internal and external, the only hard failures I have ever had are Maxtor....and it's been 3 drives in the last 6 months, two 250gigs and one 500gig....seems like somebody lost the recipe

March 12 2007 at 10:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dean Thompson

Re: #13, how is the noise level on the Igloo and Taurus?

That's one thing I like about fanless enclosures... very little noise. Positioned strategically cooling hasn't been a problem.

March 10 2007 at 5:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rich Schmidt

I bought three 200 GB Maxtor drives last year from Staples at $50 each, after mail-in rebate. One went into the old Windows tower, one went into an external drive enclosure for use with my MacBook Pro, and one's still waiting to go into service. It'll probably end up in the tower, too, eventually.

March 10 2007 at 12:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
khawk

If you just want to do it on the cheap and aren't scared of refurbished greatness:
LaCie refurbished 500GB usb drive
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/clearance/products/?id=10007

Pretty solid construction :)
Refurbished 180 day warranty :(
No idea on the drive itself.

March 09 2007 at 10:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Clair

Seagate bought Maxtor over a year ago. I guess they haven't passed on their quality.

March 09 2007 at 6:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ben

I always go for a dual-bay drive enclosure. They're a little more expensive, but you can add another drive later. I use a lot of external storage (1.5TB so far and counting) and if I had each drive in its own enclosure, that'd take up a lot of desk room and need twice the number of cables. The 5-bay (etc) cases are waaaay too expensive, but the simpe dual bay ones are reasonable. One example is the ones from Macpower, the Igloo for PATA or the Taurus for SATA.

http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/hdd3/

If you get a dual enclosure, you don't have to go and get another enclosure when you want to add another drive later. And for me at least, I'm frequently adding yet another drive :-)

March 09 2007 at 6:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
The Centurion

I currently have 3 Metal Gear Box Substance II models in diff colors. Easy to assemble, sturdy, aluminum sides so they run cool. Never a prob. Bought them at diff times from diff vendors.
Be aware that there are diff models out there. Maybe some of the older ones were more prone to problems.

March 09 2007 at 4:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian

If you don't like Maxtor, skip this, but otherwise, you can get a Firewire 800/400/USB 500GB in a case for $180 at Fry's:

http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4951741

March 09 2007 at 4:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tony Barnhill

Western Digital's come with 5 year warranty now too.

March 09 2007 at 4:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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