Best External HDD for my new MBP

Hi All,

as the title says....

I was looking at a Lacie 500GB for starters... but whats your opinions....For my up and coming EX1...

Lacie, seagate, western digital...etc

USB1.1, USB2, Firewire, or anything better...

Its for home editing use not travelling about... Thats another story...

Come on everyone... Lets have it....

Dive safe

DeanB

Dean

Do a search in the Unrequited gear forum on harddrives. Plenty of RAID and other options.

Good idea

Dive safe

DeanB

I think the most unusual external drive is the G RAID mini. It's a two drive RAID 0 product that is totally bus-powered through FW800. It benches at twice the large, sequential throughput of an internal drive as you would suspect. Right now it's only available in 2x250GB but I'm sure it will take 320s and the new 500s. I have a 2x250 model and I like it. Well made and the styling matches the MBP as well.

Good idea

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

In general you would want a eSATA connection or Firewire connection to your drives, not USB. Also I perfer the faster drives (7,200RPM)

Western Dig My book pro 5ooGB looks like a front runner..

Got Both firewire FW400 & 800 and USB2....

Dive safe

DeanB

I think the most unusual external drive is the G RAID mini. It's a two drive RAID 0 product that is totally bus-powered through FW800. It benches at twice the large, sequential throughput of an internal drive as you would suspect. Right now it's only available in 2x250GB but I'm sure it will take 320s and the new 500s. I have a 2x250 model and I like it. Well made and the styling matches the MBP as well.

Matches my new MBP eh ???? I'll take a look..Cheers Craig...

Dive safe

DeanB

Bloody hell !!!!! How much ?????

£250.00 against £105.00...

Dive safe

DeanB

Might want to give these folks a look-see. Their enclosures are certified for all major NLE and DAW apps. Their top external drives utilize an Oxford 924 chipset and I have found them to be the best available.

They have 320GB, 500GB and 750GB complete kits (3.5" drives) as well as enclosures only so you can add your own HD. I have two of the 2.5" laptop firewire enclosures (1 - 80GB for audio & 1 - 250GB for video editing) for my laptop attached via a PCMCIA firewire card and one of the 3.5" enclosures with a Seagate 7200RPM 320GB eSata connection to my desktop. I plan on purchasing a couple more since moving to HDV. I prefer to run Seagate 7200rpm drives so I order only the enclosure and purchase the drives from NewEgg.

Just beware that present Express/34 cards have a 120MB/s limit so you cannot do uncompressed HD 4:4:4 work. Otherwise they are much better for home use than FW800 drives.

I'm moving this to the unrequited gear section.

Tried posting and the thread moved

Keeping in mind what Drew mentioned about speed an HD 4:4:4...

£250.00 against £105.00...

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

You can often save a couple of £ by making your own. For a drive or two not a big deal, but if you start getting many drives to save footage it can add up. You can get 500 Gig bare drives for about $100 or so, $750 Gig drives for $150 or so. For instance, Wiebetch makes a couple of options including a SilvaSata one bay option for $99 and you can get trays for $20. (The one bays do not have fans, but I have not had an issue with heat, I have 1 of these running 24/7 pretty much since 2006 and have two more that get constant use. Except for one external power supply brick which went bad, no issues.) So the initial outlay for that set-up, if you buy a bare drive, $230 or £115. If you buy an extra tray and another 500 Gig Drive that is another $120 or £60, instead of £105.00. Applies to the other options, they all have different points where they make sense. I also have the two-bay RAID 0/1 which runs with or without a computer. I will take one tray and have it rebuilt/backed up without really thinking about. The ones with fans are noiser.

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/silversata.php

I recently got the SeriTek 5-Bay enclosure http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/ (only using a software RAID right now with that one) after reading some good things about them and that they are quiet for a 5 Bay. So far the review is right - it is fairly quiet for a 5 Bay ( I have 5 1 Terrabyte Drives in it) and about the same noise level as my MacPro Tower, not bad at all and the quietest of any I have. It also has a Fan speed switch when you really need quiet. It is about $600 (you need to add drives). And you get the card in the package they offer. If you put 5 500 drives in there you are looking at around $1,100 (though you can start with one drive).

eSATA is the fastest solution to adding drives to a port limited MBP. I've already posted solutions elsewhere.

Dean i'm going shopping in Singapore tomorrow, i'll have a looksy for you.

Just so you can see how much more expensive it is in the UK!

I have several lacies and have never had a problem, however they are 320s and below. I have heard that the 500+ Lacies have had difficulties. The hot external these days seem to be the G tech externals.

Scuba_SI , I will be very interested on what you will be paying for externals in Singapore. Please let me know as I will be there in a couple of weeks. I've always found Singapore to be a bit expensive but if you find a place where the prices are good and the warranty counts, let me know.

Steve B)

I'm pretty sure that Western Digital provides the drives for LaCie. I've got a 7 year old 200GB LaCie that's still kicking but I wont buy them anymore. I just upgraded the 4 drive bays in my MacPro to each house a 750GB Seagate. I've also got a few dual drive enclosures that have the same drives in them. I agree with therealdrew when it comes to setting up your own drives. It's cheaper and IMO more reliable, as long as you use good drives.

I can also attest to the reliability of G-Technologies drives, they're pretty top notch. Before I started buying enclosures and drives I used G-Raids.

Billy