Are all external hard drives the same?

I agree with Rlwainwright.

Externally powered HDD enclosures are reasonably priced, especially if all you want is USB 2.0, which is fine for audio. Since you don't want a fan you are looking for a chunky aluminium unit that will dissipate the heat from the drive. Typical prices are around $40.

A nice 3.5" 1TB or 2TB Western Digital drive ("Red" series) consumes a small amount of power and does not require a fan. These drives are marked by their low energy consumption and quietness. Maybe around $90-130

Regards,

Thank you all so much! I want to put Blu-ray, DVD, CD, lossless on the drive. What is the best way?
Thanks
Greg

Since I backup the music files on my PC anyway, I use the USB external drive hooked to the USB input on my BDP-95. I presume the hard drive is controlled by the OPPO. Does this make it effectivly asynchronus? If not, what is it called? Can someone explain to me what might be the benefit (at the cost of increased noise in the room) to drive the asynchronus USB input on a BDP-105 directly from a PC?

Oldears, "asynchronous USB" refers to an interface between a computer and the USB input of a DAC. When the Oppo player is used to play files that are on an external hard drive that is connected directly to it via USB, the Oppo can be thought of as acting as the computer, with the computer-to-DAC interface being internal to the Oppo, and implemented in a different and more simplified manner than USB, asynchronous or otherwise.

As to how results would compare between playing a file from a computer into the BDP-105's USB DAC input, and playing the same file from a hard drive into a USB port on the BDP-105, that would be dependent on many design variables involving both the player and the computer, and perhaps even other parts of the system which might be affected by computer-generated RFI or digital noise. I doubt that the answer can be determined without trying it both ways in your particular setup.

Regards,
-- Al

Could I just buy a heavy duty external hard drive and get a Blu-Ray recorder card to put in my current computer? If I record on my current computer and put the data on the external hard drive, could I just unhook the external drive and hook it into my Oppo 95?
If so, what recorder card would you recommend? Could this be an external recorder / drive? I do not care to record blu-ray onto discs, I want to upload them to a hard drive.
Thanks
Greg