Hi, I have $350 (AUD) coming to me soon (for my birthday (January 3rd :D)) and I was wondering if anyone can recommend any good 100-200GB external HDDs. They need to be able to be bought in Australia and preferably pretty cheap (I wanted to get a GameCube too). So far, I'm looking at an IOmega 160GB USB 2.0 External HDD, for $198 (although, I've never heard of IOmega before...) or one of those Maxtor OneTouch 180GB drives (I already have a Maxtor HDD and it's good, if a bit noisy). AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 512MB RAM 120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus/60GB stock HDD Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE 256MB 16x DVD-ROM 42x CD-RW 16x External DVD RW

My recommendation to you is buy a regular IDE (internal) hard drive, and an external enclosure. Then take the five minutes (at most) to assemble the two items; basically placing the hard drive into the enclosure and fasten with screws. You will save a lot of money. I took an 80 GB hard drive ($20 US with rebate), and a $20 enclosure; total $40. I've seen 160 GB drives for $40 US with rebate. Check out these 3.5" enclosures; Australia has the same. Make sure the Enclosure Material is Aluminum. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2213&Nav=|c:1204|&Sort=3&Recs=10 Good luck. I - Sandor J Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of the wise man. - William Penn (1614 - 1718)

agreed. but a 250GB internal IDE and buy an external enclosure. for example https://www.dttechnology.com/showproduct.aspx?productid=9&categoryid=15 and http://www.pcimicro.com/.sc/ms/dd/1101348996228650/9/nc/External%20Enclosure--USB%202%2E0/2569/Generic%20%20PLATINUM%20Series%20%203%2E5%26quot%3B%20USB%20Enclosure%20%20 these ext enclosures only support up to 250GB. I have bought several of these and never had a proble, so far, been using them for over a year. 130$ total for a nice one.

Wow, thanks for the info! Amazingly, there is a computer fair coming up this Sunday and I have $43. I will get an enclosure and buy the HDD with my B'Day money. thanks again, you have both helped heaps! AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 512MB RAM 120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus/Barracuda 60GB HDD Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE 256MB 16x DVD-ROM 42x CD-RW 16x External DVD RW

I have built several and it does save a lot of money. They are very easy to build. I bought two Seagate 200 gig hard drives for $29 each after rebates and a Hitachi 160 gig for $20 after rebates. The enclosures were $32 each plus postage. Newegg.com is a good site for enclosures because the selection is very large and they have many good reviews written by buyers. I ended up with a two AMS Venus enclosures because of such positive and detailed reviews and these are very good, aluminum enclosures. A couple of years ago, I got a Belkin enclosure and it is OK but is plastic, not very solid, and was hard to assemble. It cost $49 with some kind of rebate but the usual price is nearer to $100 and I have not seen any more sales on it. I would not buy another of these anyway.

Thanks DCM, If I can't find anything at the comp fair, I'll buy one from newegg. AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 512MB RAM 120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus/Barracuda 60GB HDD Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE 256MB 16x DVD-ROM 42x CD-RW 16x External DVD RW

Forgot to mention. I buy the 5.25 inch models because they could be used for CD or DVD drives too if I ever have a need for them at some time in the future. I have a 3.5 inch model too and it is nice but could not be used for anything but a hard drive.