External hard drives....... what are the best quality brands?

[True Colors]

My PC specs(in case you want/need this)

dell
core 2 duo
3.0 dual core processor
8 gig ram(DDR2)
operating system: 64 bit windows 7 professional

Here is the deal.... My budget is approximately 175 dollars. I want to buy a 3 terabyte external hard drive. It definitely needs to have a USB 3.0 port. Also, if possible, I would like an eSata port as well.

I am not interested in power consumption or saving the environment or any of that crap. I just want a good quality product that I can trust not to break down.

I want quality and reliability. And hopefully something that runs at a fairly cool tempterature. A few months ago I purchased a Simpletech prodrive and it has been crappy. It has been so bad that I am afraid to use it because it might corrupt the data that I put on it. It has a very noisy fan, it runs hot, and the red light comes on and flashes.

Here are a few external hard drives that I looked up. Can anyone tell me if these are good? If not, can you please recommend something to me.

seagate goflex
STAC3000101 | Seagate

western digital my book
Untitled Page

buffalo drive station
Products - DriveStationâ„¢ Axis USB 3.0 - HD-LBU3 | Buffalo Technology

Thanks!

TC

 

[Brinson]

I would buy this:

Newegg.com - Rosewill METAS Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" USB3.0 & eSATA External Enclosure

and put this in it:

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Green WD30EZRX 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

You're going to have a hard time finding a USB 3.0 / eSata hard drive. Easier imho to just put the two together if you really need those features.

 

[MindoverMaster]

True. That would be cheaper than buying just an external drive. You can replace the drive if ever needed, and still have the enclosure.

 

[True Colors]

I had not considered purchasing an external enclosure and then purchasing a drive to put inside of it. But that idea does sound appealing to me.

Does this type of setup work well? If you buy a fast drive will it run fast in the enclosure? Any loss of data, or other problems? Any other advantages/disadvantages that you can tell me about?

Also, which brand of internal hard drive would you recommend? I have had good luck with 2TB western digital drives. But I am open to other suggestions.

Thanks!

TC

 

[MindoverMaster]

Your transfer speed is limited by the cable. eSATA is about the closest you'll get to realistic speed.

About the only plus is, that it is portable. Also nice to have if you have limited space in your case. Otherwise, I would go internal, best way to go.

Anything WD is good. Seagate would be my second choice.