I'm ready to purchase a PM G5 2.5 and...

[cr2sh]

What kind of drive would you recommend for that particular enclosure?
I want to build this thing right and use it to its full potential - high end video,
a lot of hi res photoshop work and print layouts (Indesign).

What other goodies would you recommend to add on?

If you insist on using an IDE based external drive go with keysersoze's recomendation of Maxtor Diamondmax 10 (16mb cache). A 7200rpm drive available in large sizes than can sustain a transfer rate above that above that of 1394a. They're pretty cheap (200GB for $100) and represent probably the best speed/dollar value.

If you're willing to scrap the external harddrive idea, go for a WD Raptor 10,000rpm SATA drive. Fast as all hell... the 74GB goes for ~$200 and has a 5 year warranty.

I googled that enclosure and it does look cool... I can understand you want to use it. I'm not sure if they offer a SATA interface version or not... might be worth looking for.

 

[dubbz]

I have 3 Maxtor drives. They are all great... DiamondMax 10's. I'll vouch for them.

Hitachi... well, that's a different story.

What? I have a 200gig Hitachi 7K250 and I love it. Never had any problems with it. As for Seagate... well, that's a different story
But next time I'm buying I'm getting a Western Digital. I have a 120gig IDE drive (the SE one with 8mb cache) that's been running practically 24/7 since I bought it (around the time they were new, and 120gb was big). Even dropped it on the floor a few times. Still running without problems.

As for your PM purchase. I don't see any problems with using someone elses edu discount. I'm sure Apple's still making a nice profit. On the other hand, I'll hate you for it since I whouldn't afford it, even with the edu discount (or the ADC discount for that matter).

 

[jtt]

If you insist on using an IDE based external drive go with keysersoze's recomendation of Maxtor Diamondmax 10 (16mb cache). A 7200rpm drive available in large sizes than can sustain a transfer rate above that above that of 1394a. They're pretty cheap (200GB for $100) and represent probably the best speed/dollar value.

If you're willing to scrap the external harddrive idea, go for a WD Raptor 10,000rpm SATA drive. Fast as all hell... the 74GB goes for ~$200 and has a 5 year warranty.

I googled that enclosure and it does look cool... I can understand you want to use it. I'm not sure if they offer a SATA interface version or not... might be worth looking for.

I see where you going with that now. *duh* Basically, I don't want to transfer
all of that data and want to keep the drive. But I do want to be able to use
the FW800 on another external. But have both in those particular separate enclosures
(two total). I wasn't very clear in my explanation. sorry. Maybe I
overlooked the fact that it isn't SATA and just saw the 1394b and how cool it looked.
Could you recommend another enclosure that is better suited for my needs?
Will any SATA internal drive be the way to go? as long as it is SATA? I need (at least) three drives.

I think i'm going to just keep the drives when they get filled up and shelve them,
then put a new drive in the case, until BRDs hit the market. That's what a lot
of video guys are doing now.

 

[cr2sh]

Could you recommend another enclosure that is better suited for my needs?
Will any SATA internal drive be the way to go? as long as it is SATA? I need (at least) three drives.

To be honest, I don't know. I can't recommend a 1394B SATA enclosure, I've never owned (for longer than a week) one.

I would skip the 133/IDE stuff and go straight to 150/SATA for at least the primary drives. I don't think there's a problem with a 300GB IDE drive stuck in the back somewhere for dead files... but I wouldn't consider it for the primary or scratch.

Again, Western Digital Raptors 74GB (or smaller) at 10k rpm... dreamy. I'm not sure why you HAVE to go to an external enclsoure... I'd stick them all inside the machine (or are there limitations to the g5 case that I'm ignoring?).

EDIT:

You know.. honestly. I'd probably just operate with better file management if I were in your shoes. I'd run Raptors for open projects and system (internal) and then go the cheap IDE route for cold storage 1394A external enclsoure. Run high speed internal drives and when you're done with a project.,.. transfer them over to an IDE drive for backup. I think...

Oh by the way...

Circuit City.com has the Western Digital 250GB hard drive 7200RPM 8MB Cache for $79.99 after $100 rebate. Free shipping.

Here.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Ironically Seagate and Maxtor are the same company.

WTF you talkin' about? Maxtor bought Quantum in 2000. Old, old news.

JTT, while visions of all these prices are dancing in your head, be sure that you are getting a Serial ATA (SATA) for internal. SATA's usually cost more than Parallel ATA (IDE) drives and don't go on sale as often. A second SATA internal is a good idea for your G5.

At this point there's little reason to go with SATA/Firewire or external SATA
for an external drive. Your idea of putting your IDE Maxtor in an external case is good. You aren't planning to use that for primary storage -- if you have another internal SATA, transfer the G3 data to it for faster performance, then use the external Firewire as a backup drive or transportable drive.

When you are pricing hard drives, be careful about the warranty you are getting. Retail Seagate drives should come with a 5 year warranty. OEM (barebones) drives may come with less. And the cheapest drives will be "pulls" from system manufacturers which may have no warranty from the drive manufacturer at all. Get it in writing.
It's worth $20 for the drive with the extra warranty. All drives fail, the only question is "when?"

Hitachi is another story

Is this personal experience, or are you merely dredging up the 4 year old IBM Deskstar 75GXP story?

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

 

[CanadaRAM]

To be honest, I don't know. I can't recommend a 1394B SATA enclosure, I've never owned (for longer than a week) one.

I would skip the 133/IDE stuff and go straight to 150/SATA for at least the primary drives. Again, Western Digital Raptors 74GB (or smaller) at 10k rpm... dreamy. I'm not sure why you HAVE to go to an external enclsoure... I'd stick them all inside

Circuit City.com has the Western Digital 250GB hard drive 7200RPM 8MB Cache for $79.99 after $100 rebate. Free shipping.

Here.

It's a G5 tower, remember? SATA drive only internally, and room for only one additional hard drive. No choice in the matter.

That WD250 at CC is a Parallel ATA drive, it has a limp 1 year warranty, which they offer to extend to 2 years for $15 more.

Honestly: You are going to put all of your computer life on a drive and you really want to go with the cheapest unit??

 

[jtt]

Thanks sooooo much everybody.

Okay. Here's what i'm considering after reading up on all these options:

• 74gb Raptor for the primary
• 250gb SATA internal- probably the stock model
• 250 gb Maxtor Diamondmax 10 for the external
- either put my 120 drive files on that external or have it as a "cold" 4th drive.

Do I have a decent combo with this selection?

This was a lot of fun research today, and the Tiger announcement to boot.
Then this was posted : https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/119912/

I knew that might be a problem down the line, but not TWO YEARS!
Looks like maybe the 2.0 dp machine is the way to go now.

Coming from a g3 to any g5 is going to be mind boggling performance wise.
Hell, I probably wouldn't even notice a difference between the two of them
at this point.

 

[the future]

Before you buy, I would wait for NAB (next week) ThinkSecret claim Apple may introduce new G5 towers there: http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0504g5.html

And AppleInsider reports there will be a "special event" held by Apple at NAB: http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=993

So maybe you could get a quad system (2x dual core) G5 for the same money that would buy you a DP 2.5 today...

 

[jtt]

So maybe you could get a quad system (2x dual core) G5 for the same money that would buy you a DP 2.5 today...

I thought about waiting but don't they usually not ship til the fall or something?
I remember how pissed everyone was that ordered the 2.5 right away and had to wait
months on end while some folks were getting theirs in a week or two that ordered later.

The drama continues!

 

[the future]

For new products shipping times vary, sometimes they are available right away, sometimes a little later. Waiting for months for a PowerMac is very rare and only happened with the 2.5 models because IBM screwed up and couldn't deliver enough of them.

Anyways, if there is a delay between announcement and shipping, it's usually for the high-end model; as a mid-end G5 tower would probably be absolutely fine for you (or most people), I'd still wait and see until NAB – and then order as soon as possible when the Apple Store is back up...

 

[cr2sh]

It's a G5 tower, remember? SATA drive only internally, and room for only one additional hard drive. No choice in the matter.

That WD250 at CC is a Parallel ATA drive, it has a limp 1 year warranty, which they offer to extend to 2 years for $15 more.

Honestly: You are going to put all of your computer life on a drive and you really want to go with the cheapest unit??

Check it out. Insurance.

and when you're done with a project.,.. transfer them over to an IDE drive for backup. I think...

You're right in as far as that burning backup DVD's weekly, or ghosting weekly, or something else.... has to be included...

You seem to imply though that if he spends more on a drive, gets a top of the line waranty.. that maybe he can skip this step... which I think is false. You can't store critical files in one location... and that fact doesn't waiver on whether it's a cheap drive or an expensive one.


On a side note, that big freakin' case and only two drives?! I'd clearly forgotten...

 

[vtprinz]

I thought about waiting but don't they usually not ship til the fall or something?
I remember how pissed everyone was that ordered the 2.5 right away and had to wait
months on end while some folks were getting theirs in a week or two that ordered later.

The drama continues!

Everyone keeps throwing this around and honestly i don't think it will happen. There were extenuating circumstances surrounding the dual 2.5, and I'm sure Apple lost a lot of sales due to the long delay. They're going to do whatever they can to keep the delay to a minimum.

If there DOES happen to be a long shipping delay, you could always get the current dual 2.5 refurbed for a few hundred less than it is now. So you benefit either way by waiting until the new ones come out.

 

[jtt]

" If there DOES happen to be a long shipping delay, you could always get the current dual 2.5 refurbed for a few hundred less than it is now. So you benefit either way by waiting until the new ones come out"

What is Refurbed exactly? I thought it meant: returned, fixed and then resold.

 

[vtprinz]

" If there DOES happen to be a long shipping delay, you could always get the current dual 2.5 refurbed for a few hundred less than it is now. So you benefit either way by waiting until the new ones come out"

What is Refurbed exactly? I thought it meant: returned, fixed and then resold.

That's essentially what it is. That or there was a factory default, was patched up and then put up for sale. Most of the time you won't be able to tell the difference between a brand new machine or a refurb. I've heard countless amounts of praise for the apple refurbs, and I wouldn't hesitate to go that route.

I've also heard mention that sometimes Apple will put normal stock into the refurb page to get rid of them, but I don't know if it's true.

 

[jtt]

That's essentially what it is. That or there was a factory default, was patched up and then put up for sale. Most of the time you won't be able to tell the difference between a brand new machine or a refurb. I've heard countless amounts of praise for the apple refurbs, and I wouldn't hesitate to go that route.

I've also heard mention that sometimes Apple will put normal stock into the refurb page to get rid of them, but I don't know if it's true.

That's what I thought. A friend of mine that does audio bought one last year and it was JUNK.
He ended up returning it thinking all the 2.5's were that way
and went back to his g4 finding out later that wasn't the case.

I'll wait til next week then!