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Firewire External Hard Drive

P

pjcurtin08

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 6, 2008
27
0
Hello Everyone,
I have a new iMac, and I would like to buy an external hard drive with firewire capability. I will mainly be using it as a scratch disk for movies from Final Cut Pro and for general video and music storage. Right now I have a usb external hd, but it is just too SLOW. I will probably need 160gb+ space. I am only looking to spend under $250.

Thanks
 
The 500GB OWC Drive with Firewire 800 which is the 2nd fastest connection for any external hard drive you can get, and still a reasonable price, looks great for you. Its also 7200 RPM with is the fastest you'll get a 500GB drive.

el_clas_main0808.jpg


$144.99
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/eliteclassic

Good reputation OWC has as well
 
made for what you want to do. comes with 3 Gbit eSATA, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and USB2.0 ports
http://www.g-technology.com/products/G-RAID2.cfm#

$279 for the 1TB but you could probably get a better price from a reseller if you look round .


EDIT**also, a slightly better price wise for you after re reading your post also perfect for what you want and comes with FireWire 400, FireWire800, USB 2.0 and eSATA so if you was unlucky and one port breaks down in a few years you have back up options!
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-driveq.cfm

500Gb for $189 and a 750Gb for $219



Also this is a link for the entire product line , I'm sure there will be something for you http://www.g-technology.com/products/products.cfm?interest=all


^good solid & sexy, nuff said.


kastenbrust said:
The 500GB OWC Drive with Firewire 800 which is the fastest connection for any external hard drive you can get, looks great for you. Its also 7200 RPM with is the fastest you'll get a 500GB drive.

>snip<

Good reputation OWC has as well
Click to expand...

Nope , that would be eSata
* USB 1.1 – 15 Mbps
* FireWire (1394a) – 400 Mbps
* USB 2.0 – 480 Mbps
* FireWire 800 (1394b) – 800 Mpbs
* SATA 1.5 – 1.5 Gbps
* SATA 3.0 – 3.0 Gbps
 
pjcurtin08 said:
I have heard some mixed reviews about Lacie's. How long have you had yours?
Click to expand...

my oldest D2 is 5 years old (120GB i think) and it's running absolutely fine, one of the two firewire ports broke loose but it works absolutely fine, my other ones are all solid and reliable (120GB, 250GB & 500GB) are all ship-shape too, one of them i even dropped from about 3ft onto stone and it still works fine (i know the drive is prob less reliable now, i don't keep irreplaceable data on it, just films).
 
Firewire Ex drive

Went from Lacie to OWC Mercury Elite Pro and have been extremely pleased. OWC is quiet, fast and reliable.
Kyan
 
Another vote for OWC Mercury Elite-Al Pro. Had mine for about a year and it's still reliable and super quiet. My only issue with it is that it's bigger and heavier than my other enclosure (but that's the only external HD I have to compare it with).
 
pjcurtin08 said:
I have heard some mixed reviews about Lacie's. How long have you had yours?
Click to expand...

Never listen to reviewers when it comes to hard drives, it's almost like a Mac vs PC thing.

I've had five LaCiE drives for about four years now and NONE of them have failed. I have had a Maxtor fail, and I have had drives fail in computers that weren't mine, but none of my LaCiE drives have ever failed.

Personally, all that matters is the drives that's inside of the case.

As the poster above said, if money is no object then go for the G-Techs. If it is then the Mercury Elite's. If you want something that's kind of in the middle and is name brand then LaCiE.

Seriously speaking, anything works.
 
Digital Skunk said:
I've had five LaCiE drives for about four years now and NONE of them have failed. I have had a Maxtor fail, and I have had drives fail in computers that weren't mine, but none of my LaCiE drives have ever failed.

Personally, all that matters is the drives that's inside of the case.
Click to expand...

LaCie used Maxtor drives for years. They probably still do, even though Maxtor was acquired by Seagate.
 
I am debating between LaCie D2 and G-Tech, but am still open other suggestions :)
 
Another alternative (if you like something compact and portable) is the OWC Mercury On-The-Go, which is bus powered (no need for a power adapter) and go up to 500GB at 5400rpm and up to 320GB at 7200rpm with a 16MB cache, double the cache of the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Classic, at about one-fourth the size.

OWCMOTGPRO2.jpg
 
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