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External HD: Western Digital or G-Tech?

P

pjcurtin08

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 6, 2008
27
0
Hello Everyone,
I am looking to use a firewire 800 connection on my new iMac as a scratch disk for Final Cut Studio and for general storage. I am looking for 500-1000gb
I have read reviews about Western Digital My Book Studio Edition and G-Tech 500gb G Quad hard drives. They both seem to get highly rated

Thanks
 
pjcurtin08 said:
Hello Everyone,
I am looking to use a firewire 800 connection on my new iMac as a scratch disk for Final Cut Studio and for general storage. I am looking for 500-1000gb
I have read reviews about Western Digital My Book Studio Edition and G-Tech 500gb G Quad hard drives. They both seem to get highly rated

Thanks
Click to expand...

G-Tech and G-Tech only. imho ;)

In my experience, they have been practically flawless drives. AND, the prices have dropped since my last 500GB G-Tech GRaid2 purchase... I think I'll have to buy a 1TB this time.
 
pjcurtin08 said:
Hello Everyone,
I am looking to use a firewire 800 connection on my new iMac as a scratch disk for Final Cut Studio and for general storage. I am looking for 500-1000gb
I have read reviews about Western Digital My Book Studio Edition and G-Tech 500gb G Quad hard drives. They both seem to get highly rated

Thanks
Click to expand...

Inside the box the actual hard drives are the same no matter who sells it to you. The difference between WD and g-tech is the box the drive lives in. g-tech makes really nice boxes. Solid aluminum with built-in heat sinks.
 
I agree with nep61. The G-Force drives are premium drives. All of it is high quality. Design, materials, and construction. I can't speak on their customer service as I have not had to contact them. I have been using a G-Force mini for Time Machine on my Macbook Pro, and have since switched my WD to a G-Force on my Mac Pro.

ChrisA - We would like to think that they are all the same but that is simply not true. Companies like WD, Seagate, and Maxtor use their own drives and usually use the lower end models. Please do not quote me, but I do believe that G-Force uses "business" or "enterprise" drives that are made with higher quality parts. So it would not just be the design of the casing that make the different brands stand out.

I even remember back a number of years ago I contacted Lacie to ask the make of the drives they used. I was told that the smaller drives (at that time 40 and 80G) used either WD or Maxtor and were quality drives. The "Big" 160 and 200G drives used lower quality Seagate drives. Not saying that Seagate drives are cheap, just at that point the lower quality seagate drives had the higher capacity.
 
ChrisA said:
Inside the box the actual hard drives are the same no matter who sells it to you. The difference between WD and g-tech is the box the drive lives in.
Click to expand...

Don't forget the interface; it's where a large part of the reported issues occur.
 
pjcurtin08 said:
Hello Everyone,
I am looking to use a firewire 800 connection on my new iMac as a scratch disk for Final Cut Studio and for general storage. I am looking for 500-1000gb
I have read reviews about Western Digital My Book Studio Edition and G-Tech 500gb G Quad hard drives. They both seem to get highly rated

Thanks
Click to expand...

If you're using FCS then you want the fastest interface and HD. the WD My Studio uses 5400RPM hard drives. Make sure you get a 7200RPM HD.
 
I have a G-Tech Q 500GB and I love it; it comes with plenty of cables and it never gets very hot. I use it for my scratch disc for FCS2 and Pro Tools with firewire 800 and have never had any problems.

Of course, there is the matter of the bright-ass light on the front of the drive housing...
 
I have 2 Lacie, 1 WD, and 1 Maxtor, all FW800 drives. The only one in that group I'd recommend is Lacie - the others have been less dependable.

I don't mean about the hard drive itself failing - that can happen to any of them. (BTW, I'd need some documentation to believe there is some sort of higher grade hard drive inside the G-Tech drives. Thats a load of crap.)

The chipset is really what makes the difference. The Maxtor and WD drives have both had occasional issues with not mounting when I plug them in or disconnecting for no reason. Sometimes they will not spin down the drive upon eject, so I have to manually cut them off with the power button on the back of the case.

So that's my experience. I imagine G-Tech would give you the same kind of quality performance my Lacie drives have given me. You just have to see if its worth the price difference for you.
 
Is this the Lacie you have ? or they have other 1T firewire 800 drivers ?

I read quite often that the quality of Lacie is not so good.

The price naturally matters and I think I will not pay alost $100 more for the G-Tech.
 
HDDs are on the list of "you get what you pay for." Not that expensive immediately equals better, but I've been very impressed with G-Tech and find them worth the added cost. I don't work in tech or hardware support any longer, but my colleagues who do swear by them.
 
ChrisA said:
Inside the box the actual hard drives are the same no matter who sells it to you. The difference between WD and g-tech is the box the drive lives in. g-tech makes really nice boxes. Solid aluminum with built-in heat sinks.
Click to expand...

G-Techs use Hitachi drives, not WD.
 
JesterJJZ said:
G-Techs use Hitachi drives, not WD.
Click to expand...

Six of one, half a dozen of another. No brand is bette or more likely to fail than another. I know people all have personal preferences, but any of the major brands is going to have very similar failure rates and negligible performance differences.
 
Hmm this has more or less made up my mind.
i have been looking for this kinda of setup:

"Ideally i would like a 2tb firewire drive for external storage with a possible RAID, a 1TB (or required amount) for a scratch disk and another 1tb drive for time machine"

I have been looking at the G-Tech series as well as the WD "my book" series.
Not sure how big the perfect scratch disk would be though?

But after all the love for G-Tech, i think i may fork out the extra cost, i like the idea of the heat sink fan thingy m bob too.
 
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