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nick2421

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2011
28
0
Hi,

I'm looking to purchase an external 3TB USB 3.0 drive when the new iMac's are available for purchase. (Looking to retire my old PC)

This new drive will be used to hold my iTunes library.

Does anyone have either the 3TB LaCie Porsche 9233 (5400 rpm) or the 3TB d2 Quadra (7200 rpm)?

The 2 Quadra is about $50 more, and has additonal interfaces (fireware, ESata) that I won't use.

Wondering If I would be ok with a 5400 rpm drive for the iTunes library, or the extra $50 for the 7200 rpm speed would be worth it / needed?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick
 
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For speed, I would recommend a nice Thunderbolt drive. I have used Lacie and Seagate, and recommend both.
 
Is the Seagate STCA3000101 3TB any good?

Not sure of the speed though? 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm?

http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/backup-plus-desk/

I had bad experiences with desktop seagate drives, the 3TB FW800 mac version specifically. The mobile 1.5tb is a bit loud but is fine (so far). For max space/dollar I'd look at the 4TB usb3.0. Short of external SSDs, there is no performance reason to go for TB versions, unless for neatness sake.
 
UPDATE: LaCie graciously replaced my d2 Quadra v3 with a refurb unit that worked out of the box with USB 3.0 on my new Mac. Previous issue probably caused by "older" stock sold from Amazon or just a bad unit.

I would also like to add that I would still recommend any LaCie drive, even the d2 Quadra v3, but would suggest purchasing directly from LaCie.com or Apple.com.
 
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The d2 Quadra is not compatible with USB 3.0 ports on the new Macs. Even worse, USB 2.0 only works if the drive is plugged into a USB hub.

Sadly, LaCie's technical support have all but said that they do not plan to offer future Mac USB 3.0 support for this particular Quadra model. And if you closely read the product page for the drive on LaCie's site, they claim that it's Mac compatible only if you're using their USB 3.0 expansion card.

Here is a link of the three current drives LaCie offers that are Mac compatible with onboard USB 3.0, the Porsche P'9223 is one of them:

www.lacie.com/usb3mac/

Hi,

Our older drives are definitely compatible with newer Apple products. The "incompatibility" that seems to be in question here is a misunderstanding regarding the functionality of USB 2.0 verses 3.0. Our drives will mount on any Apple but unless USB 3.0 is supported (either via native drivers or our drivers and PCI card) the device will mount as a USB 2.0 device. The models listed on that site are merely the drives that ship with UAS compatible boards, making them "optimized" for use with Apples but that shouldn't imply their our only compatible models.

Older Macs did not support USB 3.0 and that's what the requirement to use our card was for. It does not mean that you can only use the drives with our cards, only that you need our cards if you want it to transfer at USB 3.0 speeds. Newer Mac's with UAS USB 3.0 will mount any of the disks.

So in short: our older USB 3.0 drives will work on new Macs that have built in USB 3.0 without a problem and older macs without it with our PCI card and drivers. I hope this clears up the confusion.

~mn, LaCie
 
UPDATE: LaCie graciously replaced my d2 Quadra v3 with a refurb unit that worked out of the box with USB 3.0 on my new Mac. Previous issue probably caused by "older" stock sold from Amazon or just a bad unit.
 
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I have the Seagate 3TB drive. Using it as network drive with my Airport Extreme.

Crappy network speed due to Airport USB 2.0 limitation, but I can always connect it directly to my USB 3.0 mac for maximum speed when I need to transfer a lot of data fast.

Only have it for few weeks, but as far I can tell it's an OK drive with a good price point. I would recommend it without questions for your iTunes library.

One more thing: no matter what you hear, there is no significant performance boost between 5400 and 7200 rpm external drives, unless you transfer hundreds of gigabytes and you don't want to wait an extra 5 minutes every hour. But in real-life usage... don't bother making the choice based on that.

Regards!
 
I have two additional LaCie USB 3.0 drives, the "older" Rugged Mini and the newer Rugged Key, both are recognized fine with USB 3.0 on new Macs. So while what you've said is true for the the majority of LaCie's USB 3.0 drives, this unfortunately is not even close to the case of the D2 Quadra v3.

Like the OP I was interested in the D2 Quadra v3 to use with USB 3.0, but to my disappointment after purchasing it I found out that the drive will not mount at all when plugged into any of the Mac's onboard USB 3.0 ports.

I had spoken with several of LaCie's Technical Support reps over the phone and through online support tickets, and they all came to the same conclusion: the d2 Quadra v3 will unfortunately not work with onboard USB 3.0 on the new Macs. I was also informed that LaCie has no updates currently being developed for this issue, and even flat out told (albeit apologetically) by one of the reps that this particular model would likely "continue to be less than compatible with Mac USB 3.0."

The only way I managed to get the drive to mount via USB on a new Mac was by plugging it into a USB 2.0 hub (I even tried a USB 3.0 hub, but had no luck). That, however, still defeats the main reason I purchased it and why the OP is even considering it: to use with USB 3.0 on a new Mac.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but what you refer to as a "misunderstanding" is actually analysis and troubleshooting directly from LaCie's Technical Support in regards to this specific drive when used with a new 2012 Mac. I just wanted to make sure that the OP doesn't make the same mistake I did and is able to get a USB 3.0 drive that will actually mount as USB 3.0 on his new Mac.

I think the problem is unique to your particular V3 Quadra drive.

I just picked up a 3TB LaCie Quadra drive and set it up to work with both Windows 8 on an Acer laptop, and on my Macbook Pro with Retina display. Both connecting using USB 3.0

Seems to be working fine with several hundred gigabytes being copied without issue. Partitioned drive into 2 partitions; formatting one as NTFS when using Windows 8 and the other as Mac OS Extended using OS X.

Getting about 180MB/sec read/write on both platforms.

Something is likely wrong with your drive, or something is wrong with your cables, or perhaps something even wrong with your Mac, though you did say the other USB 3.0 devices seem to be working OK.

Make sure your Mac has all the latest updates. I tested using OS X 10.7.5

I also have some Seagate and WDC USB 3.0 drives that seem to work, but provide less performance; the LaCie is 7200 RPM, while the Segate and WDC are 5400/5900 RPM drives.
 
UPDATE: LaCie graciously replaced my d2 Quadra v3 with a refurb unit that worked out of the box with USB 3.0 on my new Mac. Previous issue probably caused by "older" stock sold from Amazon or just a bad unit.
 
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I just tried to PM you. You have PM blocked on your account.

Yes, of course you can PM me.
 
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