External hard disks

[DirectOR]

Hi -

Couldn't find anything on this subject so would appreciate help to decide which external hard disk drive to attach to my new 15in PB (1.67/512).

I've just shot 3 1/2 hrs of HD video which I need to edit down to a 10-15 min short film. Don't think somehow my remaining 40-odd gig of internal storage will cope!

So which external drive do you think I should go for? Any brands recommended? I presume I go for firewire connection over USB. And what size disk should I expect for £150 ($300)?

Thanks

[Franz Josef]

I've a similar question. I'm looking for a fast external hard drive - 300-500GB - to store photos, movies and media-rich Keynote and Powerpoint presentations for use with a 12" PB (and my wife's 15" PB).

The "LaCie d2 BigDisk 500GB triple interface hard drive (8MB cache)" looks good - any thoughts, experience, other recomendations?

Thanks in advance :)

[Jay]

I would build your own. It's generally cheaper. I built a 200 GB drive back in Sept 04 and it cost me around $210 for the case and a Seagate Barracuda. It was a matter of attaching 2 cables and putting in 5 screws and plugging it in. I would at least get a Firewire 400 connection but go with 800 if you have it, don't bother with USB 2.0 unless you are short on Firewire ports. USB 2.0 is noticeably slower when transferring larger files. If you want pre-build models I've heard good things about LaCie, we have two 500 GB models in our school's studio and we haven't had any problems with them.