Editing From External 2.5" Vs. 3.5" HDD

[foo1osophy]

Is it faster to edit from a 3.5" HDD due to the power adapter, or does it make no difference?

Also, I'm trying to decide which drive to get between these two similar ones:

http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm
http://www.lacie.com/ca/products/product.htm?pid=11158

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

A 2.5" S-ATA HDD with 7200RPM will be as fast as a 3.5" S-ATA HDD.
What exactly do you want to edit with what application?
DV footage has a data rate of 3.5MB/s approx., HD footage using the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC - iMovie, Final Cut Express and Pro) has a maximum data rate of 14MB/s, HD footage using ProRes 422 (FCP) double of that.

 

[martinX]

You want speed, get a 7200 rpm drive and connect it via Firewire 800 or eSATA. On the G-Drive site, they have 3.5" and 2.5" externals. In the 7200 rpm variants, both give around the same transfer rate using FW800. eSata (only on the 3.5" model) is considerably faster, but if you don't have eSATA you won't care.

Given their equivalence, can the 2.5", 7200 rpm version be bus-powered?

I've just written to the G-Technology people about their 7200 rpm 2.5" external hard drives.

All of the bus powered drives I have seen until now have been:

• 2.5"
• 5400 rpm
• USB

I can't see why firewire can't power a 7200 rpm drive, but maybe no-one's bothered building that in. Not many PCs have 6-pin FW ports, let alone 9-pin FW800.

The manual is silent on the question. We await.

 

[martinX]

UPDATE:
Dear Martin,

The G-DRIVE mini can be bus-powered with the Firewire or USB connection.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Best,
Tawny Mitchell
************
Tawny Mitchell
Inside Sales
G-Technology by Hitachi
Direct Phone (310) 287-5209
Fax (310) 449-4670
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Although you'd get more GB/$ from a 3.5" drive, if fast and bus-powered are of overriding importance, this one looks good. Investigate further.

 

[Consultant]

A 2.5" S-ATA HDD with 7200RPM will be as fast as a 3.5" S-ATA HDD.
What exactly do you want to edit with what application?
DV footage has a data rate of 3.5MB/s approx., HD footage using the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC - iMovie, Final Cut Express and Pro) has a maximum data rate of 14MB/s, HD footage using ProRes 422 (FCP) double of that.

Not the same speed.

Larger drives at same RPM = faster speed
3.5" drives faster than 2.5" drives
Drive near full = slower than empty drives
However there are SSD drives

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Not the same speed.

Larger drives at same RPM = faster speed
3.5" drives faster than 2.5" drives
Drive near full = slower than empty drives
However there are SSD drives

My bad, as my experience has been that a 2.5" S-ATA HDD with 7200RPM is as fast as a 3.5" S-ATA HDD with 7200RPM, 105 to 110 MB/s. Therefore my conclusion. Though I haven't had a 5400RPM 3.5" S-ATA HDD to compare to a 2.5" S-ATA HDD with 5400RPM.

 

[martinX]

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference on a FW800 link.

3.5" 7200 rpm FW800

2.5" 7200 rpm FW800

Downside of the 2.5" is that you can get capacities up to 500 GB comapred to 3 TB for the 3.5".

 

[puckhead193]

I have the G tech mini 500GB 7200RPM and have no issues with it. Great when I don't want to lug around my g-raid drives
My camera (Sony NX5U) is AVCHD so I have to convert to pro-res for FCP and have no issues with speed when editing. Only thing I wish was larger in GB/TB