Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Am I reading this right? (Inexpensive 500GB drive?)

srobert

srobert

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 7, 2002
2,062
0
Hello.

Just a quick question.

I was looking at LaCie's website (shopping for external Hard Drive) and I thought those prices looked incredibly low. Am I reading something wrong?

LaCie Hard Drive, Design by F.A. Porsche

- 160GB $84.99
- 250GB $99.99
- 320GB $109.99
- 500GB $119.99

Heck! They sell for much more on eBay.

Some specs:
- Capacity: 500 GB
- Interface: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 compatible)
- Rotational Speed (rpm): 7200
- Interface Transfer Rate: 480 Mbits/s
- Max Sustained Transfer Rate: up to 34 MB/s
- Average Seek Time (Write): <11ms
- Cache: 8MB or greater

What's the catch? Piece of junk? What did I miss?

I'll attach a thumbnail in case the prices change.
 

Attachments

  • lacie.jpg
    lacie.jpg
    101.7 KB · Views: 118
Ok. The price drops on 500GB hard drives don't seem to have reached Canada yet, unless I'm not looking at the right places. That same LaCie 500GB drive sells for just under $300.00 (CAD) over here in Canada. (About $280 USD). I guess I should wait a little then.
 
I'd like that LaCie 500GB to be similarily priced in Canada. (About $130 CAD) I like the enclosure. ^_^

Thanks for the Costco tip by the way. Didn't think of looking there.
 
Lacie Drives

With the move to Sata drives in full effect there is going to be price drops in the slow as molasses USB drives. I think this is a perfect example of that.
 
MacinDoc said:
Still, compared to USD $120, that's quite a rip-off!
Click to expand...

Not really. They sell in US Costco's for about $149.00 or something like that. Given exchange rate fluctuations, I would say they are fairly priced compared to other MyBooks. The Lacie is cheaper but that's competition and $30 isn't much of a difference.

foheng said:
With the move to Sata drives in full effect there is going to be price drops in the slow as molasses USB drives. I think this is a perfect example of that.
Click to expand...

And a good reason for Apple to put eSata on all new Macs. :mad:
 
foheng said:
With the move to Sata drives in full effect there is going to be price drops in the slow as molasses USB drives. I think this is a perfect example of that.
Click to expand...

USB/Firewire are still good enough for my needs and those price are enticing. There's still no eSata ports on iMac or Airport Extreme base station anyway.
 
Best Buy had some SimpleTech external drives onsale but it appears they have gone back up in price. 500GB is now $169, I recall last week it being $129 or something.

Anyone know of a good FireWire external drive, that isn't way expensive?

Thanks
 
I recently purchased this drive model because of its price and space. It's worked fine for me so far. The only problem is that the new airport extreme does not see the drive unless a) the hard drive's power is turned on before the airport is turned on or b) you mount the drive on your mac, unmount it and plug it into the already powered-on airport.

I don't know if it's a lacie problem or an apple problem. Lacie tech support seems to think it is an apple problem (as to be expected). No help as of yet on the apple discussion boards about the issue. As long as you don't turn off the drive (which, BTW, does not spin down when attached to the AEBS) I've had no problems. I reformatted it to HFS+ with journaling turned on and off, both with the same results. Still happy with it though, since I need it on most of the time anyway
 
Yeah I saw a 500gb mybook at bestbuy for under $150 not long ago. Might be time for me to invest. :D

I'd much prefer a firewire one over USB2, however. Maybe those will drop soon too.
 
Last week Dell and BestBuy(?) was selling 500GB MyBook USB2 only drives for around $120.
 
LaCie 500GB USB 2.0 FA Porsche Design External Hard Drive $169.00 @ Future Shop

Hello
I am somewhat new to the mac world (and loving it). I too have been looking for an external hard drive & found this one on sale on the future shop website for $169.00 after instant rebate of $150.00. I am no computer buff but need to upgrade my imac g5's storage capacity.

I have the 17" imac g5 1.8ghz 256ram (which I am just upgrading to 2g) My system profile states that I have only 25gb left on HD. I have been researching several sites for best performance external HDs and am a bit confused with all the info.

Here is my silly question...is a high speed usb the same as a usb 2.0 if so it should be compatible with my mac. Is firewire the way to go as I have firewire 400 plus high speed usb port.

Thanks
Robin
 
High speed and 2.0 are the same. FW400 is faster at transferring larger files than USB2.0 and IMHO would be preferable. Ideally you should try to find a drive with both connections. If all your budget can afford is a USB drive, it should still serve your needs well.
 
I think the catch is no FireWire 800/400...

But the price on that drive is incredible, it makes me want to switch to laptop instead of going w/ a desktop.
 
I just ordered a new 1TB LaCie Big Ethernet drive, it has USB2 and also GigaBit Ethernet which is how I'm going to use it.

$285 delivered, not bad for a gigabit 1TB NAS drive.

(it's supposed to start shipping any day.)

$285 at Buy.com
 
I'm tempted to get the "LaCie 500GB USB 2.0 FA Porsche Design External Hard Drive" as well from the local future shop. Is Lacie reliable? Can anyone recommend this hd? Any bad experiences? I don't want it to break on me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back