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Good USB 3.0 External Drive?

M

molson2k

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 13, 2007
43
0
Hello, I just purchased the base 13-inch MacBook Pro with USB 3.0 support. I've already upgraded the HDD to a snappy SSD and now I'd like to upgrade my current 1.5 TB external drive to a 3 TB external drive.

I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations in regards to USB 3.0 external drives or a combination of USB 3.0 hard drive enclosure/hard drive?

Besides a capacity of 3 TB, I simply want a drive that is fast! Something that is a minimum of like 100MB/s read/write. I've tried scouring Google for reviews but I haven't found anything too helpful...

If anyone has any experience with USB 3.0 external drives or an opinion/recommendation, please toss a shout!
 
If money isnt an issue, try the thunderbolt drives.
Look for these, and good usb 3.0s in the official apple store, they list only the best.:apple:
 
I'd like to know this as well- also, something that'll work well with Time Machine.
 
Check out Seagate. They make a very cheap thunderbolt drive (<$400) and a great USB 3.0 drive (<$200). You can get the USB 3.0 drive for cheap and buy the thunderbolt plug in for only $180 if you want more speed.
 
Rmafive said:
Check out Seagate. They make a very cheap thunderbolt drive (<$400) and a great USB 3.0 drive (<$200). You can get the USB 3.0 drive for cheap and buy the thunderbolt plug in for only $180 if you want more speed.
Click to expand...

My budget is approximately $200. Thunderbolt still doesn't offer the the best bang for the buck even though I know it offers tremendously greater transfer speeds, but USB 3.0 is "good enough" for now until Thunderbolt devices become more cost effective in the future.

Any thoughts or opinions on the USB 3.0 Seagate Expansion 3 TB drive? It's right up my alley but I'm unsure of its actual real world performance.

http://www.amazon.ca/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STAY3000102/dp/B0056YNA1Q
 
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Trey M said:
I'd like to know this as well- also, something that'll work well with Time Machine.
Click to expand...

Time Machine doesn't need to be fast if you plan on leaving the drive plugged in (or recovering lots of data on a regular basis).


TC, what do you plan on using the External Drive with? There are plenty of decent USB3 HDDs. Western Digital, Seagate, Adata all make decent drives. You could even purchase an internal drive and an enclosure. Other people on the forums might have a better idea what to go with though.

Good luck!
 
molson2k said:
Hello, I just purchased the base 13-inch MacBook Pro with USB 3.0 support. I've already upgraded the HDD to a snappy SSD and now I'd like to upgrade my current 1.5 TB external drive to a 3 TB external drive.

I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations in regards to USB 3.0 external drives or a combination of USB 3.0 hard drive enclosure/hard drive?

Besides a capacity of 3 TB, I simply want a drive that is fast! Something that is a minimum of like 100MB/s read/write. I've tried scouring Google for reviews but I haven't found anything too helpful...

If anyone has any experience with USB 3.0 external drives or an opinion/recommendation, please toss a shout!
Click to expand...



I too am in the same situation you are in. Currently I am looking at WD usb 3.0

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...Y5UV4A/ref=dp_ob_title_ce/186-6228110-3878121

Trying to find reviews from editors
 
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CFoss said:
Time Machine doesn't need to be fast if you plan on leaving the drive plugged in (or recovering lots of data on a regular basis).


TC, what do you plan on using the External Drive with? There are plenty of decent USB3 HDDs. Western Digital, Seagate, Adata all make decent drives. You could even purchase an internal drive and an enclosure. Other people on the forums might have a better idea what to go with though.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was considering buying an internal drive with an enclosure as well.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_1086_210_212&item_id=042242

Pairing this Seagate internal drive with a USB 3.0 enclosure should be able to get me my minimum 100 MB/s read/write speeds you think?
 
Even with recent 3TB/4TB drives, the most you're going to get is around 175MB/sec on platter drives. The platters are so dense that the speed is increased when data is fit on a bigger platter.

USB3.0 is the way to go. Save your money and get it instead of Thunderbolt.

If you want something portable then you can get a self powered USB3.0 enclosure and pop in your own 2.5" 512GB SSD or 1TB HDD. Such as this one.
 
CFoss said:
Time Machine doesn't need to be fast if you plan on leaving the drive plugged in (or recovering lots of data on a regular basis).

Good luck!
Click to expand...

I was looking for a drive that I'd plug in maybe once every month or so to make a quick backup. Hopefully USB 3.0 would help the speed of this backup. I'm definitely not planning on leaving it plugged in.
 
I just picked one up that a producer paid for on site at a corporate gig.
Lacie FW800 eSata USB 3 and 2. It's called the D2 quadra. 3 year warranty and it was getting write speeds of around 115 and reads around 135 on an empty drive using usb 3.0 loving the usb 3.0 finally!!
 
frozi said:
I too am in the same situation you are in. Currently I am looking at WD usb 3.0

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...Y5UV4A/ref=dp_ob_title_ce/186-6228110-3878121

Trying to find reviews from editors
Click to expand...

I just bought this one from the same place (I got silver colored to match my MBP).

Overall, a really nice external. The cord is about 12 inches long (black). The speed is much faster than the traditional 2.0 drives. I've had a similar 1TB WD 2.0 hard drive for the past 2 years without any issues, so I went with another WD. It fits in my old WD case which is a plus.

Please let me know if you have any other questions about it...I'm very please with it. I partitioned a 250GB section (FAT) and a 750 GB section for TM.
 
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CosmoPilot said:
I just bought this one from the same place (I got silver colored to match my MBP).

Overall, a really nice external. The cord is about 12 inches long (black). The speed is much faster than the traditional 2.0 drives. I've had a similar 1TB WD 2.0 hard drive for the past 2 years without any issues, so I went with another WD. It fits in my old WD case which is a plus.

Please let me know if you have any other questions about it...I'm very please with it. I partitioned a 250GB section (FAT) and a 750 GB section for TM.
Click to expand...

This drive looks great. Can't find what the speed of the internal drive is though... is it 5400rpm or 7200rpm?

Thanks
 
skuid87 said:
This drive looks great. Can't find what the speed of the internal drive is though... is it 5400rpm or 7200rpm?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Great question. To be honest, I don't know and I don't think it was mentioned on the packaging. Here is the owner's manual. It doesn't even reference the platter speed.

Just being so much faster than my past 10 years of USB 2.0 was enough for me. Plus it was only $100 for a 1TB drive.
 
Hey you should get the seagate goflex turbo 500 or 750gb models are available. It comes with USB 3.0 stock adapter but they made the drive in a way you can switch out the adapter with a thunderbolt/FireWire 800 connection. It's blazing fast!
 
CosmoPilot said:
I just bought this one from the same place (I got silver colored to match my MBP).

Overall, a really nice external. The cord is about 12 inches long (black). The speed is much faster than the traditional 2.0 drives. I've had a similar 1TB WD 2.0 hard drive for the past 2 years without any issues, so I went with another WD. It fits in my old WD case which is a plus.

Please let me know if you have any other questions about it...I'm very please with it. I partitioned a 250GB section (FAT) and a 750 GB section for TM.
Click to expand...

thanks COSMO!!
 
Newbie MacUser said:
Hey you should get the seagate goflex turbo 500 or 750gb models are available. It comes with USB 3.0 stock adapter but they made the drive in a way you can switch out the adapter with a thunderbolt/FireWire 800 connection. It's blazing fast!
Click to expand...

They retired the GoFlex drives. There's a new model of them available called Backup Plus.
 
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