Why Go Internal? Price, Price, Price

Here's why you should buy an internal hard drive over and external hard drive: price. For example, as of March 2006, you can by a Samsung 250GB SATA internal drive for $97 online. A 250 GB USB 20 external hard drive from Western Digital costs $159, about 33 percent more for roughly the same storage capacity. Some argue that an internal hard drive has less vibration and will last longer. Others think it's more convenient to deal with a drive within the machine, rather than connected through a USB or Firewire port. Bottom line: The only difference between internal and external hard drives is price. You pay more for an external drive because it includes a housing and connection.