300GB HD or 4GB of ram?

[RevToTheRedline]

I have $120 to spend on one iMac upgrade, a OWC Mercury Elite Pro or MiniStack V3, Firewire 800 enclosure for a 300GB S-ATA Seagate 7200.9 HDD or 4GB of ram, to upgrade the 2GB I have.. What should I go with?

On one hand I have a lot of photos that I'd like to backup for safety, plus a place to organize all my videos and music without having it taking up space on the iMacs internal drive. But on the other hand 4GB would greatly increase my photo editing productivity. It's a toss up.

[xUKHCx]

Loss in productivity is better than lost photos.

Do you regularly get lots of page outs?

[trainguy77]

I would go for the HD if you don't currently back up.

[RevToTheRedline]

You guys have a suggestion of what enclosure of those two to buy? It has to be one of those, can't be the clear enclosure from OWC or the MiniStack V2 since those are for IDE drives. And I want FW800 so that rules out a lot of other enclosures on the market.

[Leon Kowalski]

Get the enclosure now -- RAM prices are falling faster than enclosure prices.

IMO, you're on the right track; definitely a USB/FW800 enclosure that uses
SATA drives -- I'd also suggest looking for an Oxford OXUF924DSb chipset.
(There's also a new OXUF934DSb chipset, but I don't think any 934 products
are in production, yet.) Google: OXUF924DSb enclosure

You'll get quite few hits, but my personal favorite is IcyDock's MB559UEB-1S
(on sale until 11/29 at newegg.com -- $70 after MIR). Extremely high quality,
with a unique quick-swap drive tray feature. Rave reviews from newegg's
customers -- and I liked mine so much that I bought another. There's also a
USB/FW400 model for $30 less (MB559UEA-1S). The FW800 model also works
with FW400 controllers (with a 6-pin to 9-pin adaptor cable, $3 from newegg).

http://www.icydock.com/product/mb559ueb-1s.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198006

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=986&pageID=2689

http://www.oxsemi.com/products/storage/index.html

...shop 'til ya drop,

LK

[basesloaded190]

You guys have a suggestion of what enclosure of those two to buy? It has to be one of those, can't be the clear enclosure from OWC or the MiniStack V2 since those are for IDE drives. And I want FW800 so that rules out a lot of other enclosures on the market.

i would go with the one from owc. as you can see in my sig below that i have one and love it. i don't have fw800 on my macbook but i use the fw400. i love it and i would highly recommend it to you.

[DoFoT9]

hhhhmmm id say go the RAM... i dont know why, but the RAM just seems the best option

[RevToTheRedline]

Get the enclosure now -- RAM prices are falling faster than enclosure prices.

IMO, you're on the right track; definitely a USB/FW800 enclosure that uses
SATA drives -- I'd also suggest looking for an Oxford OXUF924DSb chipset.
(There's also a new OXUF934DSb chipset, but I don't think any 934 products
are in production, yet.) Google: OXUF924DSb enclosure

You'll get quite few hits, but my personal favorite is IcyDock's MB559UEB-1S
(on sale until 11/29 at newegg.com -- $70 after MIR). Extremely high quality,
with a unique quick-swap drive tray feature. Rave reviews from newegg's
customers -- and I liked mine so much that I bought another. There's also a
USB/FW400 model for $30 less (MB559UEA-1S). The FW800 model also works
with FW400 controllers (with a 6-pin to 9-pin adaptor cable, $3 from newegg).

http://www.icydock.com/product/mb559ueb-1s.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198006

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=986&pageID=2689

http://www.oxsemi.com/products/storage/index.html

...shop 'til ya drop,

LK

All the enclosures that OWC sells are Oxford 924 chipset.

[LaJaca]

My vote is for the HD, for 2 reasons:
1) Changing (adding) a bigger HD is much more difficult than adding RAM.
2) RAM is so cheap, you can afford to wait it out and switch later. AND it will be easier to do so than changing the HD.

My 2 cents.

[RevToTheRedline]

My vote is for the HD, for 2 reasons:
1) Changing (adding) a bigger HD is much more difficult than adding RAM.
2) RAM is so cheap, you can afford to wait it out and switch later. AND it will be easier to do so than changing the HD.

My 2 cents.

Not quite understanding your #1, I have a 500GB in the iMac, and a 300GB sitting on my desk, therefore it needs an enclosure, I'm not changing or adding anything.

[Leon Kowalski]

All the enclosures that OWC sells are Oxford 924 chipset.
All their enclosures for SATA drives are 924's -- their IDE/PATA enclosures use
Oxford 911 or 912. Stick with SATA-based, because IDE/PATA is on the way out.

Nothin' wrong with OWC, I just prefer the IcyDock's quick-swap drive trays.

Looby

[LaJaca]

Not quite understanding your #1, I have a 500GB in the iMac, and a 300GB sitting on my desk, therefore it needs an enclosure, I'm not changing or adding anything.

Oops, my bad, completely misunderstood your original question - I thought you meant a new computer: option for bigger HD or more RAM. Nevermind!

[RevToTheRedline]

All their enclosures for SATA drives are 924's -- their IDE/PATA enclosures use
Oxford 911 or 912. Stick with SATA-based, because IDE/PATA is on the way out.

Nothin' wrong with OWC, I just prefer the IcyDock's quick-swap drive trays.

Looby

It would have to be anyway, my Seagate drive is s-ata. :)

I'm leaning towards the MiniStack V3, I like it's looks, the IcyDocks are nice but i don't need it's features.

[Leon Kowalski]

It would have to be anyway, my Seagate drive is s-ata. :)
Yep, I noticed that. The SATA recommendation was for the benefit of others;
some enclosure makers hide that information in the fine print, if they mention
it at all.

The IcyDocks are nice but i don't need it's features.
No argument here. I was just pointing out some other options.

LK