Tell me where to put it.

May 16, 2006 1:27 PM

Where shall I shove a new HD?

The HD on my desktop is getting fullish, so I'm yanking the ~120GB drive out of my wife's old machine and using it on my machine. One IDE ribbon is taken up with two cd/dvd drives, so an internal drive would have to go on the same ribbon as the system drive. Would it be smarter to throw the additional HD in a USB2 or firewire enclosure to get it on a different bus? Or should I just throw it in an empty internal bay?

I am slightly leaning towards an enclosure. I'm a little worried about heat since the machine now has a faster, hotter video card than it came with, and eventually I'll throw the HD back into the machine it came from for use as a half-assed htpc. Am I an idiot? For this reason, anyway?

posted by ROU_Xenophobe to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Best answer: I'd go with the enclosure: for heat reasons, and because of the various good reasons to have an external drive (sneakernetting large files, quick and/or automated backups, etc.)
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:32 PM on May 16, 2006

Best answer: Yeah. Go with an enclosure if it's in the budget. If nothing else, you'll probably appreciate the flexibility in the long run.
posted by selfnoise at 1:38 PM on May 16, 2006

Best answer: Two hard drives and two CD drives aren't going to produce that much heat. I've got 5 hard drives in my machine, and it stays pretty cool. As long as you're ok with formatting down the drive, you can slave it to your master hard drive no-problem.
posted by SweetJesus at 1:39 PM on May 16, 2006

Best answer: I'd vote for an external enclosure - not because of heat or space contraints, but purely for convenience.
posted by voidcontext at 1:50 PM on May 16, 2006

I'm not sure I understand why you'd have to format the drive if you use it as a slave--can't you just change the pin to "cable select" and plug it in?

Second the notion that having two hard drives in the case isn't a very big deal, I always try to have a data drive and a system drive in my computers...

Also second the idea that external drives are way better, if you can afford them.
posted by Squid Voltaire at 2:00 PM on May 16, 2006

There are claims that USB enclosures can shorten the life of the drive if you leave it on all the time. See the usually reliable Dan's Data for more details.
posted by bonehead at 2:03 PM on May 16, 2006

I'm not sure I understand why you'd have to format the drive if you use it as a slave--can't you just change the pin to "cable select" and plug it in?

Doh, you're right. I'm too used to thinking in terms of RAID setups. There's no need to reformat.
posted by SweetJesus at 2:04 PM on May 16, 2006

re: bonehead's link and worn out HDDs... My LaCie external FireWire and USB drives spin down when not in use on my Macs. I would think they would do so on Windows as wel, since as the article suggests, the USB controller on the enclosure determines if it spins down. But if they are spinning 24/7 in Windows, that can't be good.
posted by birdherder at 2:12 PM on May 16, 2006

Best answer: I would just toss it in there, I've been doing this for years (upgrade to new drive, toss in old drive as secondary, lather, rinse, repeat)

in response to bonehead's comment,
With USB enclosures you can shorten the drive life if it never spins down the drive (which some don't).

You won't see a performance increase / decrease of your other drives if you drop it into secondary, there is plently of bandwith on the ATA133 spec. You should not see a heat increase from dropping in one more HDD, the heat output is much, much lower than a video card. If your case really is that hot, you are putting your main drive at risk already, and additional cooling should be installed. (Find a spot you can drill a hole and shove a 120mm fan, run it at 7v, you won't hear it and it'll cool things down)
posted by defcom1 at 2:20 PM on May 16, 2006

Response by poster: Okeydokey. I'll look at how much of a pain in the ass it is to install it internally and that will be the decider.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:27 PM on May 16, 2006

Response by poster: Okay then! I opened the recipient machine and discovered that there's no way to get the power cables to reach both drives. Fuck you, Dell; at least I know better now.

Can anybody recommend a decent, cheap enclosure that spins the drives down? Lack of blinkenlights is a plus, especially lack of night-sun blue LEDs.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:15 PM on May 16, 2006

Okay then! I opened the recipient machine and discovered that there's no way to get the power cables to reach both drives.

CompUSA (any computer store, really) sells really cheap little Y power connectors and extender cables for those four-pronged internal power plugs. Would be cheaper than an enclosure, for sure.
posted by SweetJesus at 5:25 PM on May 16, 2006

Response by poster: Yes, but you'd have to be not an idiot to remember that. Ahem. Now that I'm hopefully done embarrassing myself for the day, I'll look into that.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:33 PM on May 16, 2006