Can I do this or am I missing something
 

Hi guys,
Clear and simple - I need an external drive. I've looked at prices of external drives such as Maxtor and WD and then looked at induvidual prices for internal HDDs and Cases. Can I just buy a normal hardddive separately and put it into a case? I think I can but I might be missing something crucial.

Take this for example. I'm looking at this drive: http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=4593

And this case:
http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=18431

Can I do this? Because really the saving are quite significant. Has anyone else done this? Is there anything specific I should know, for example ATA100 or ATA133 aren't compatible with cases or something...

I'd appreciate any info on this issue. Cheers,

Alex

Alternately, you can buy internal drives and buy the firewire/usb enclosure, and put it together to make an external drive. I have two of 'em. They seem to work fine, and it was a little cheaper than buying the external drives.

That's exactly what I meant. Just as a curisousity, what are the specs for the drives and case (eg speed, intreface, etc)

Ok, sorry, I'm not that computer savvy (I can't get the computer to tell me the brand name/model of the drive), and I got these drives a while ago. As far as I can remember they're seagates (maybe only one is). One of them is a 150MB drive, the other is an 80 MB drive. The enclosures I have are an adaptec, and a nextar 2. They're built for 3.5" hard drives, so make sure everything you have matches up. Theyr'e also both firewire/USB. I got the enclosures at Fry's, don't remember about the drives themselves. Best Buy, or maybe one was from Fry's. The enclosures were around $50 or less each, the drives--I don't recall. Hope some of this is helpful.