Travel Hard Drive

Dan

You also have to consider what kinda of use you'll be putting it through.

FW800 is not fast enough for FCP r/t or even playback sometimes,depending on how full the drive is. If you want a mobile editing station that is bus powered, then your only real alternative is the La Cie little big disk on FW800 or putting together your own RAID with 2 enclosures (watch out for heat issues). FW400 isn't fast enough for FCP r/t nor is a single 2.5" drive able to hold much(100GB for 7200rpm drives)

Although you need a power brick and it is a bit bulkier, the external SATA solution described by Lloyd Chambers in his blog looks way better than any FW (even 800) solution. Another nice advantage is that you can use it with a 15" through the PC express slot. It is obviously more expensive, but is claimed to offer the fastest disk performance of any drive (even faster than the internal disk in the MBP).

Should be nice for FCP I would have thought.

Anthony, I have that setup at home... it's not a bit bulkier...it's a lot bulkier than a single Wiebetech UltraGB bus powered drive. I also prefer having the Wiebetech enclosures as they allow multidrives per SATA port.

For max performance and lowest bulk, the little big disk is the best thing out there for FW800 macs. For none FW800, FW400 enclosures with Oxford 911 boards are the fastest and most consistent.

Thanks Drew. I haven't seen one and appreciate your insights on size. It really does sound like the little big disk is the thing to use for performance on the road. I guess if people wanted to make their make their 15" MBPs FW 800 compatible they could use an express card adaptor.

Another company to consider is Other World Computing:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/

They sell really good drives, including FW800 RAID-drives for reasonable prices. I use them with no problems at all and the reviews on these systems are very positive.

The Mercury Elite Aluminum Pro is a really good choice. A 500GB RAID is just under $300, or you can use two single drives and make your own RAID just like with the LaCie or other brands.

Worth checking out...

Anders