advice for buying external harddrive

[mike789]

Hi, I'm in the film and video major at my school and need an external harddrive for my imac... these are what they suggest/require:

firewire connection is essential (can also have USB2 port in addition to)
firewire 400 preferably (more compatible with the school's systems)
7200 Spindle Rotation
80-250GB capacity

can anyone point me into the right direction as far as a good brand or model? searching for one online is just confusing the heck out of me.

thanks

 

[ChemiosMurphy]

The OWC Mecury Elite always get rave reviews. I'd get a 750 gig drive, you'll fill a 250 gig up in no time. What film school are you going to?

 

[ftaok]

Personally, I like the Macally external cases. You can get them in any flavor you want (USB/1394a/1394b/eSata/etc).

I just buy an external case and pair it with a Seagate drive. That way, I know exactly what HDD is in there. They usually come with 5 year warranties. Newegg has good prices.

ft

 

[foshizzle]

i second the OWC mercury case. I have one of the elite pro (dual hard drives) with FW 800. They can be striped or spanned, and setup with mac software raid if you want. Pickup some nice 750gb drives from newegg for redundancy and you're set.

Also, if you ever need a portable case, OWC has awesome portable FW800 cases. I have a 2.5" case with a new 320gb 7200rpm in there. It is smoking fast.

But like ChemiosMurphy said, you'll definitely fill up anything under 500gb before you'll know it. Definitely go 750 with redundancy if you'll have important projects on there.

 

[CMD is me]

I'll 3rd OWC and also add LaCie.

 

[Richardthe4th]

external hd

Hi,

I am using a Western Digital My Book external HD. It's great.

Low price (in eur), silent (no fan, but no heating also), multiple interfaces: usb, firewire 400/800 and eSATA

We are actually editing a movie (80 minuts drama) on it. Works fine. Fast: firewire 800 and silent (I think those are the most important options, the brand is less important)

Good luck

 

[321estrellas]

I'll 4th the OWC Mercury Elite. You can get it at www.macsales.com since no one mentioned that.

And yes, if you're doing video, don't get less than 750GB. As for inputs, get the quad interface and you're set. If you have FW800 on your iMac, that's the way to go.

The only thing I was disappointed about with the OWC external drive is that it was a bit bigger and heavier than my NexStar casing, and has an aluminum case that feels like it'll scratch my laptop bag or something...

Great drive nonetheless!

 

[2000ContourSVT]

I'll second for the WD drive. I've had my 500 GB WD My Book Studio Edition drive for about a month probably and so far it has been great. I've known people that have My Book's with no problems at all which led me to get one. I got mine from Best Buy for like $110 on sale one week. If your interested check out the site in my Sig and I have some benchmarks on the "Episode 15" video under the "Videos" page. I did a benchmark using Firewire 400 as well as USB 2.0.