External HD... worth it?

[captoats85]

Would getting an external HD (a 7200 RPM one) be worth it to speed up performance with my Mini that either has a 4200 or 5400 RPM HD? (lowendmac says its 5400)

LaCie 160 GB HD

Specifications
Capacity: 160GB
Interface: Two FireWire (IEEE 1394; 6-pin) ports
Average seek time: <11ms
Max. data transfer rate: Up to 40 MBps
Rotational speed: 7200 rpm
Cache: 8MB or greater
Dimensions (WxHxD): 6.5 x 6.5 x 1.77 in./165 x 165 x 49 mm
Weight: 2.98 lb./1350 g
Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less than stated capacity).

System Requirements
Mac OS 9.x; Mac OS X v10.2/10.3/10.4 or later
Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP or later
32MB RAM minimum

In the Box
LaCie 160GB mini Companion Hard Drive
FireWire standard-length cable
FireWire short-length cable
Power supply kit
LaCie utilities, quick start guide and user’s manual on CD-ROM
Warranty
One-year limited

 

[captoats85]

I'm guessing, by 0 responses, that it isn't?

 

[chicagdan]

I'm guessing, by 0 responses, that it isn't?

I think it's worth it, especially with Leopard coming and the cool Time Machine feature necessitating a backup storage option. I think the rule of thumb is find a backup storage 2X the size of your internal drive. FW is best (well, FW 800 is best, but not an option with the mini.)

Note -- it's not going to speed up performance of your machine much, if at all. Bandwidth in a FW drive will still be slower than the internal drive, due to FW transfer rates.

 

[emptyCup]

Yes. A faster external HD will speed up the performance of your mini. Also, as was said above, having a second drive will allow you to back up (which is an important habit to develop).

 

[CrackedButter]

I've ran xbench tests with my internal 5400 rpm HD and more tests with my external 7200 rpm drives. I always score higher with using firewire drives.

I have a laptop and attached are 2 160GB HD's. They are worth it, so buy one.

 

[Analog Kid]

Yes, if you can afford it, get a second drive. I've got a 2-drive FW800 RAID attached to my Dual G5 with a pair of 500GB drives in it that I use for backups. For now I'm using SuperDuper while I wait for TimeMachine.

I've become absolutely paranoid about data loss now that my life has gone almost completely digital. One good crash and I'd lose all of the photos of the best part of my life. I don't trust backing them up to CD or DVD because I see such wildly varied numbers on how long optical media lasts. Keeping a live copy doesn't completely protect me from bit-rot, but as long as the drive is spinning I can be relatively sure that most of the data is ok.

I bought the RAID enclosure from here:
http://www.cooldrives.com/firen.html

For $200, or whatever it was at the time, it wasn't much more than a single external enclosure and I got a little more speed out of it which makes full backups less painful.