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Which external hard drive should I get?

A

astbn4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 1, 2013
10
0
I figured buying an external drive and a quality monitor for my MacBook Pro would be a cheaper alternative to iMac. I need a bigger monitor to be able to use Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Illustrator with ease.

I'm leaning toward OWC Mercury Elite Pro 1TB USB 3.0 FireWire 800 eSATA, but want to see if someone has better suggestion.

My MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

I might will have to upgrade my RAM to 8GB.

Many thanks in advance. :)
 
S

shannonface

macrumors newbie
Feb 10, 2010
4
0
Illinois
I've always been fond of the Western Digital hard drives, and they do make external drives "specifically for Mac," but I haven't had problems with any of them. The "non-Mac" drives just need to be formatted from FAT32 initially which takes about 2 seconds.

Here are the Mac drives from their website:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/desktopformac/

Like I said, it's just brand personal preference but I have never had a problem. And if you are going to be working on projects on the go, you may want to look at a portable drive instead of a desktop drive (doesn't have to be plugged in).

And if you are going to be using creative programs like that, I definitely second your decision to upgrade to 8GB of RAM. I upgraded to 8 and there is definitely a big difference. I mostly use After Effects and FCPX, so all those programs really benefit from it.

Good luck with your search!
 
phoenixsan

phoenixsan

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2012
1,342
2
Me too....

shannonface said:
I've always been fond of the Western Digital hard drives, and they do make external drives "specifically for Mac," but I haven't had problems with any of them. The "non-Mac" drives just need to be formatted from FAT32 initially which takes about 2 seconds.

Here are the Mac drives from their website:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/desktopformac/

Like I said, it's just brand personal preference but I have never had a problem. And if you are going to be working on projects on the go, you may want to look at a portable drive instead of a desktop drive (doesn't have to be plugged in).

And if you are going to be using creative programs like that, I definitely second your decision to upgrade to 8GB of RAM. I upgraded to 8 and there is definitely a big difference. I mostly use After Effects and FCPX, so all those programs really benefit from it.

Good luck with your search!
Click to expand...

like very much the WD drives. Second the option of a truly portable external HDD and the RAM upgrade. LaCie also makes good externals for Mac, albeit a little pricey. Even Seagate makes good portable drives, but last years had been marred by quality issues....


:):apple:
 
B

benwiggy

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2012
2,382
199
I've used G-Drives and found them very good -- quiet, reliable, rugged.
I've also got a WD 3TB MyBook, which is excellent.
 
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