Adding Reply Archived Topic: It will not be bumped to the top of the forum. Topic External HDD Membername   Not a member? Sign Up Free (takes 20 seconds) Password   Forgotten your password? Post Font: Verdana Arial Black Georgia Comic Sans Impact   Size: Tiny Normal Big Huge   Color: Default Dark Red Red Orange Brown Green Olive Cyan Blue Dark Blue Indigo Black [ Check Spelling ] [ Post Preview ] [ LiveTags ] FAQ Keyword Search: Post Options Favorites Manager Notify me of new replies to this topic by email Notify me of new replies to this topic by private message Original Post skateryanboarder Posted at 12:10 pm on Oct. 18, 2006 I'm thinking about getting an external hard drive for my computer. It's old, but I can't afford a new one right now. It runs on a Pentium 4. What I was wanting to do was put all of my big media (ex. Game Review Videos, Music Videos, MP3s) on the external to take the load off of the internal. One thing came to mind that might be a problem. Would I be overloading my processor by making it read from two hard drives?

Replies Stormblazer Posted at 12:00 pm on Oct. 19, 2006 Quote: from Zw33K3RB0Y at 1:17 pm on Oct. 18, 2006 Uh, no. Why don't u just get a new internal hard drive? They're faster, bigger (in storage space) and cheaper, a lot cheaper.   Also, no, having two hard drives won't even come close to overloading your processor. For one thing, processors don't over load, they just lagg if you have to many programs running. If you have a slow processor, and running a high end program or game, it won't "over load", it'll just run slow, and do as much work as it can. Internal is neither faster nor bigger, (unless the external you're looking at is a 2.5" drive), they're just simpler because you don't need an external power supply and casing. If you're computer is old enough to not have any USB 2.0 connections though, you definitely want an internal drive. An external drive going through a USB 1.1 connection would be excruciatingly slow. Size is whatever you want to buy, but I reccomend staying away from the 750GB drives, as they're not really very reliable yet. Further, you're going to want a drive that uses an IDE interface of some sort, since I figure your system's too old to have any SATA connections, and I strongly doubt you have any SCSI hardware in there. Reading from the drives is the job of the motherboard and the harddrive controllers, not so much the processor. If the processor and computer is over 6-8 years old though, then you may as well just get a new system. skateryanboarder Posted at 2:04 pm on Oct. 18, 2006 Quote: from Zw33K3RB0Y at 2:17 pm on Oct. 18, 2006 Uh, no. Why don't u just get a new internal hard drive? They're faster, bigger (in storage space) and cheaper, a lot cheaper.   Also, no, having two hard drives won't even come close to overloading your processor. For one thing, processors don't over load, they just lagg if you have to many programs running. If you have a slow processor, and running a high end program or game, it won't "over load", it'll just run slow, and do as much work as it can. I use the term overload as giving it too much work. So, if the processor is running slow due to too many programs running, it would fall under the category of overload. Although, I do know why you would take it differently. I'm sorry for not using correct computer jargon. I'm going to stick with getting an external. In my case, it's easier. Zw33K3RB0Y Posted at 12:17 pm on Oct. 18, 2006 Uh, no. Why don't u just get a new internal hard drive? They're faster, bigger (in storage space) and cheaper, a lot cheaper. Also, no, having two hard drives won't even come close to overloading your processor. For one thing, processors don't over load, they just lagg if you have to many programs running. If you have a slow processor, and running a high end program or game, it won't "over load", it'll just run slow, and do as much work as it can. Spuddlesworth Posted at 12:16 pm on Oct. 18, 2006 I think your computer would run quicker if you bought a second internal HDD.  I have this sort of setup and it works pretty well considering I have an old 2.4GHz Socket 478 processor.  Then again, external HDDs have their advantages (whack a load of porn on it and hide it under your bed :D).  Just make sure you're using USB 2.0 and it shouldn't be a problem, my computer runs fine (albeit slow). All 4 previous replies displayed.