USB Hard Drive

[OUPentecostal]

I'm wanting to get a USB hard drive for my laptop and I'm pretty clueless when it comes to computer hardware. I'd like some input from you computer gurus on here.

I guess I have a couple options (?). I could buy a USB hard drive, or I could just buy a hard drive and a USB enclosure thing and do it that way.

Do you guys have any brand recommendations or know of any web sites where I could find good deals on something like this? It would need to be like at least 80 GB as I'm working with digital audio quite a bit. Oh, and I'd like to keep the price in the $100-$130 range if possible.

Thanks!

 

[idigTexas]

Several from which to choose, including an 80GB for $114.

The Link

 

[Sasquatch69]

Make sure your computer is set up for USB 2.0, and that the drive you are buying is a USB 2.0 drive. First-generation USB that is still on many computers (1.1) has a bandwidth rate that is too low for a USB HD to operate effectively. It cannot play audio/video clips without stuttering, for example, and can cause other problems that will make your machine's performance suffer. If you have the means, I highly advise getting a FireWire card and buying an external FireWire drive instead.