Digital BW, The Print

Dear friends,

I'm out of disk space.  My research on the web for a reliable, 
affordable and quiet 500 GB external hard drive for my Mac G4 dual 
processor has narrowed the field to the following:

LaCie Big Disk Extreme
LacCie d2 Extreme
G-tech 500 GB.

The Big Disk has the advantage of a 16 MB buffer, and it is the 
cheapest.  But is it reliable?

The d2 Extreme has only an 8 MB buffer, but it comes with a fan, 
which leads me to believe it might be more reliable than the Big 
Disk.  But I would have to live with the fan noise.  It is more 
expensive than the Big Disk.

The G-tech looks sweet, but it's also the priciest.  It has no fan, 
but is designed to stay cool; it has a two-year warranty compared to 
the one-year warranty that LaCie offers, but it's $$$.

Any of you hard-driving disk space users out there want to weigh in 
on your experience with the disks mentioned above?  We have also 
looked into buying the components and building one ourselves, but I'm 
not a techie, and I would prefer not to go that route.

Many thanks for your help.

Christy