Recommended external hd for video editing

The G-Tech seems to be the one to go for, but I'd wait for the new models if I could, probably due sometime this month:

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=120297

I was looking at getting a G-Tech for myself, but ended up borrowing a LaCie Quadra for now. Handles 5 multicam DV streams through the eSATA cable (MBP with Sonnet eSATA adapter), which was not going well via FW400 on a Seagate Drive. Haven't had any problems with LaCies (I own a couple of triple-interface D2s, probably have used a dozen others at various times), but apparently some people have. Personally I haven't heard much about WD.

Good luck!

The MyBook drives are okay (I have two of them I use for general backup), but they aren't the best drives for editing, in my experience. They also tend to be a bit flaky mounting at times.

G-Tech is a great alternative to LaCie. A G-DRIVE-Q costs about the same as a D2 series LaCie drive and performs much better. Performance is rated at 85MB/s, which is about as fast as you'll get out a single-disk drive. That will be fine for typical DV and even HDV projects.

You'll see a lot more benefit in the higher-end drives (like the G-Tech G-RAID2 and CalDigit FireWireVR) when you start working with the more professional formats, like DVCPRO and XDCAM. The reason why these drives are more expensive is because they're using two physical disks and dedicated hardware RAID chipsets.

buy a Samsung 750gb drive from newegg and then put it in a case from OWC (i'd get the esata/fw800/fw400/usb2 case).

My Professional opinion....

R.H. said:

Can some one please suggest a popular and suitable ext hd at 500 gigs with fw 800 for video editing use with fce and a new imac? I have heard that the g-raid 2 from g-tech is the one to go for but they seem to expensive as im starting out. I have been looking at either the wd mybook studio edition or the lacie quadra series, any recommendations or experiences with any of these hd's?

Thanks.

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I'm a Video Editor who uses FCP & Avid... I say go with the G-Tech G-Raid2. By far the BEST drives out there imho. I have had one for 2 years now....FLAWLESS. Not one problem. and I use it EVERY DAY... I also have my iPhoto library and iTunes library on the same drive... (Both backed up to DVDs) But that's how much I trust the drive.

If you're starting out, or are a professional... the last thing you need is for a Hard Drive to go bad during a project...

R.H. said:

Can some one please suggest a popular and suitable ext hd at 500 gigs with fw 800 for video editing use with fce and a new imac? I have heard that the g-raid 2 from g-tech is the one to go for but they seem to expensive as im starting out.

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These are very comparable with g-tech Pretty much the same thing.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

They sell them empty too so you can put your own drives inside. Buy the box that has two drives inside. It's about $120 empty. If cost is an issue you are best off buy the bare Seagate SATA drives and putig them inside the RAID box your self.

Then you can configure it for speed (stripping) or safe but slow (mirror)

For video editing people prefer "fast" for video scrtch disks becasue all you data is on tape and is already backed up so you can aford the risk of using a stripped drive. Keep your FCP project files on another drive that gets backed up