[gomcse2002]

Cannot find a small portable drive comes with 7200 rpm from Future Shop, Best Buy or London Drugs, none of the USB 2.0 drives are indicating are 7200 rpm. Please help

[Eclypz]

You want a 3.5" drive or a 2.5"

I'm assuming you're looking for a 2.5"?

Buy a HDD and buy an enclosure separately.
Check out NCIX.

[ime2006]

You want a 3.5" drive or a 2.5"

I'm assuming you're looking for a 2.5"?

Buy a HDD and buy an enclosure separately.
Check out NCIX.

+1

[lilaznviper]

fs,bb,ld jack up the price like crazy

NCIX.com is the way to go or a-power.com or anitec.ca or expc.ca

[asian_XL]

LOL why do you want a USB2.0 HD @ 7200rpm.

unless the enclosure supports ESATA as well, then get 7200rpm

[!SG]

bought the wd elite 500G passport from costco when it was on sale ($139)

so far so good. its a 2.5, not sure on the actual hd specs though.

[Jmac]

You won't find a 2.5" 7200 RPM in a branded external drive; too much noise, too much heat, too high of a cost to support.

As mentioned, you're going to have to go the DIY route. I recommend the WD Scorpion Black drive.

[syee]

Besides, real world USB throughput won't even come close to reaching the data throughput of a regular 5400rpm drive. It's kind of a waste of money, and like others have mentioned, it generates more heat (and probably draws more power so may need an enclosure that occupies 2 USB ports instead of 1 to operate properly).

It's much like driving a Ferrari in the city - you can only go as fast as the road allows and if everything is traveling at 40km/h then your top speed of 300km/h means nothing because you're stuck at 40km/h.

I'd stick with a 5400rpm drive if you're just going to throw it in an enclosure.

[nabs]

i did it the DIY route, and it runs really fast only when using 2 usb ports.

[!MiKrofT]

Yeah 7200rpm is useless for a usb2.0 drive. Unless it's esata don't bother.

[asian_XL]

A 7200rpm 2.5HD can't be running too hot or too noisy.

the newer sata2 HDs manage it quite well compare to the older IDE HDs.
I have a 60gb ATA 4200rpm and a 160gb SATA2 7200rpm, both running on the hard drive
dock. The ATA drive gets quite warm after 50gb of files cut and paste, whereas the 160
gb also gets warm but at similar noise level.

Performance wise, I can't tell any difference on USB2.0

[ime2006]

if you have eSATA, go for eSATA is way way way way way way faster.........than USB2.0