Hi since I missed my chance with best buy's memorial day sale on the Seagate 750gb external for $170 (After reward zone % off coupon), I've started lookin at 500gb drives again. I was just wondering do people like WD's Mybook 500gb or the Seagate's FreeAgent 500gb more? It seems that neither one is bad... If they are anything like their internal hdd parts, I've read that the WD runs cooler and quieter than the Seagate, but it seems everybody says that both are very quiet. Looks like with the Seagate too that the cooling is done passively. I have an internal Seagate 320gb 7200.10 and usually it's quiet, but when it's doing some heavy accessing it'll make a pretty noticeable sound. Not sure if that's just my computer amplifying the vibrations or what, but my WD drives never did that... I guess what it really comes down to is just whichever one is cheaper? Oh and which one looks nicer I suppose lol. Oh yea I think the Seagate has a 5 year warranty too.
Also some general questions about external drives..
1) do they not come with power buttons to turn on and off? I think the Seagate doesn't have any on/off switch...not sure about the WD. Though I think they both have some kind of feature that will turn itself off if it senses that the computer is off or it isn't connected. My computer is always on so I guess my only other option would be to just plug and unplug the usb cord?
2) How well does playing content over a network work with external drives? I stream videos and other content on my laptop from my desktop all the time over wireless. Would streaming it off the external drive cause videos and such to stutter? I'd most likely be connected through USB2.0 since I don't (think) I have an eSata port
Also some general questions about external drives..
1) do they not come with power buttons to turn on and off? I think the Seagate doesn't have any on/off switch...not sure about the WD. Though I think they both have some kind of feature that will turn itself off if it senses that the computer is off or it isn't connected. My computer is always on so I guess my only other option would be to just plug and unplug the usb cord?
2) How well does playing content over a network work with external drives? I stream videos and other content on my laptop from my desktop all the time over wireless. Would streaming it off the external drive cause videos and such to stutter? I'd most likely be connected through USB2.0 since I don't (think) I have an eSata port