Well, I broke down today and pushed back my new computer purchase. I picked up the Buffalo LinkStation and a 200 gig hard drive at Fry's. The HD was $119 for 200 gigs with a $50 mail in rebate. I really would have liked to get the 250 gig Maxtor they had on sale yesterday, but I didn't see the ad until it was too late and I'm too impatient to wait for the price to come down again (they had the 250 gig Maxtor for $109 with no rebates - it was back up to the usual $189 today). So, I've got a Seagate in there and I've never really had any problems with them, so I figured I'd give them a try - plus, at $120 with a $50 MIR, the price is right. The LinkStation, on the other hand, can't be had for under $300 anywhere on the net, so when I saw it advertised for $299 (regular price: $349), I had to get it. I ended up paying about $12 more than if I had ordered it online (thanks to taxes), but I have the piece of mind knowing I can take it back should it not work and not have a hassle.

The new TV-SERVE 200 gig drive is being formatted - it uses EXT3 - a linux format I believe - so it's a good thing I just got a new drive rather than trying to transfer over the 250 gig Maxtor I've got in my computer right now. After it's done being formatted, I'll copy over some test files (both XviD and MP3) and then boot up the LinkStation for the first time. I can't wait!

URL: Seagate Technology Parallel ATA (PATA) Hard Drive Interface Overview