Recent Birthday Cash - Ideas?

[MacOG728893]

I just bought a new 2013 iMac a week ago. My 23rd birthday was yesterday. I got close to $300.00 in Amazon gift cards thanks to friends, family and the girlfriend.

I got external hard drives, speakers, head phones, mice/trackpad and much more. As you can see, I have a little dilemma. Here's what I am considering and am seeing if the community can help me with some suggestions.

This is all I can think of now.

- New speakers even though I have some decent ones now. (A2's or Companion 5's)
- External storage even though I have some too (CalDigit VR2 for RAID1)

This is where I'm stuck. Please help Also I would ask you don't tell me to donate to kids in Africa... This is my birthday present.. please.

 

[IA64]

EyeTv hybrid ?

 

[MacOG728893]

EyeTv hybrid ?

Cool device, but I have Dish satellite and a 47" TV, plus I own an Apple TV too.

 

[yjchua95]

I just bought a new 2013 iMac a week ago. My 23rd birthday was yesterday. I got close to $300.00 in Amazon gift cards thanks to friends, family and the girlfriend.

I got external hard drives, speakers, head phones, mice/trackpad and much more. As you can see, I have a little dilemma. Here's what I am considering and am seeing if the community can help me with some suggestions.

This is all I can think of now.

- New speakers even though I have some decent ones now. (A2's or Companion 5's)
- External storage even though I have some too (CalDigit VR2 for RAID1)

This is where I'm stuck. Please help Also I would ask you don't tell me to donate to kids in Africa... This is my birthday present.. please.

What about a CalDigit Thunderbolt Dock? I used to have the Belkin dock, but it was godawful. It blew within 2 months after purchasing it.

Besides, the USB 3.0 ports on the CalDigit supports the full 5Gb/s bandwidth per port, compared to the Belkin's pathetic 2.5Gb/s per port.

 

[macs4nw]

I just bought a new 2013 iMac a week ago. My 23rd birthday was yesterday. I got close to $300.00 in Amazon gift cards thanks to friends, family and the girlfriend.

I got external hard drives, speakers, head phones, mice/trackpad and much more. As you can see, I have a little dilemma. Here's what I am considering and am seeing if the community can help me with some suggestions.

This is all I can think of now.

- New speakers even though I have some decent ones now. (A2's or Companion 5's)
- External storage even though I have some too (CalDigit VR2 for RAID1)

This is where I'm stuck. Please help Also I would ask you don't tell me to donate to kids in Africa... This is my birthday present.. please.

If you value your data, a UPS, or 'uninterruptible power supply' should be near the top of your 'must-have' list. Basic units can be had for as little as $49 - $79, and these basic units allow you enough time for an orderly shutdown, if the power were to go off during an important task you were doing.

If you want longer run times, or add more peripherals to your back-up unit, such as external HDDs or printers, modems, etc., the UPS units become more expensive, as well as heavy! They're made by companies such as APC, Tripplite, etc., to name a few. The better units employ true sine-wave power inversion.

http://www.apc.com/site/products/index.cfm
http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/index.cfm

 

[MacOG728893]

What about a CalDigit Thunderbolt Dock? I used to have the Belkin dock, but it was godawful. It blew within 2 months after purchasing it.

Besides, the USB 3.0 ports on the CalDigit supports the full 5Gb/s bandwidth per port, compared to the Belkin's pathetic 2.5Gb/s per port.

Hmm I'm leaning toward this right now. It's much cheaper than the CalDigit RAID enclosure.

I don't have any RAID setup right now and think it might be a good idea.

 

[Phildo]

SSD?

RAM for the new iMac?

Time Capsule for backups?

 

[macs4nw]

Hmm I'm leaning toward this right now. It's much cheaper than the CalDigit RAID enclosure.

I don't have any RAID setup right now and think it might be a good idea.

A good choice. Do keep in mind, drives such as that, which employ hardware Raid (read: proprietary) as opposed to software Raid thru OSX, have one minor caveat. When striping (Raid 0), an enclosure failure a couple of years down the road would mean you have to purchase the exact same enclosure, and then swap the two drives from the failed enclosure for the drives in the new unit, in order to retrieve your data. If at that time those units have been discontinued, upgraded or are otherwise unavailable, you could be sol as far as your data is concerned.

Unless you’re a hell-bent speed demon and need that 210 MB/s transfer rate --admittedly very nice-- you could save yourself some money by considering LaCie’s d2 Quadra quadruple interface, single drive, fan-less enclosure, http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10554, which has a very respectable 130 MB/s average transfer rate. The 4TB version lists for $319 on LaCie’s website, but Amazon and Newegg both have them up on their site for $299 If you check around, you might be able to do even a bit better.

Perhaps you can tell I'm not a big fan of hardware Raid.

Since you have a brand-new iMac with both TB and USB3, you have the option of drives such as LaCie's d2 USB3/TB single drive unit, with speeds up to 170MB/s, http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10600, with a list price of $399 for the 4TB version. FYI, Hope this helps.

 

[tuxon86]

Booze and hookers?

 

[IA64]

Hmm I'm leaning toward this right now. It's much cheaper than the CalDigit RAID enclosure.

I don't have any RAID setup right now and think it might be a good idea.

I ordered this http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Little-Thunderbolt-External-9000358/dp/B00AXUB97A/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1384823025&sr=1-1&keywords=little+2+big+lacie since new iMacs won't accept FW or eSata after reading dozens of reviews about every Lacie external drive.

 

[richard13]

I just bought a new 2013 iMac a week ago. My 23rd birthday was yesterday. I got close to $300.00 in Amazon gift cards thanks to friends, family and the girlfriend.

I got external hard drives, speakers, head phones, mice/trackpad and much more. As you can see, I have a little dilemma. Here's what I am considering and am seeing if the community can help me with some suggestions.

This is all I can think of now.

- New speakers even though I have some decent ones now. (A2's or Companion 5's)
- External storage even though I have some too (CalDigit VR2 for RAID1)

This is where I'm stuck. Please help Also I would ask you don't tell me to donate to kids in Africa... This is my birthday present.. please.

Hey! Happy Birthday man! My birthday was last week.

I can't really think of anything off hand but I think someone mentioned a UPS which reminds me I need a new one. But that won't kill $300. You'll need to find some other goodies.

Don't think too hard on this though. If you can't figure anything out just sit on the cash until you do.

 

[MacOG728893]

SSD?

RAM for the new iMac?

Time Capsule for backups?

Already have new memory on the way! Thanks though I purchased the LaCie

A good choice. Do keep in mind, drives such as that, which employ hardware Raid (read: proprietary) as opposed to software Raid thru OSX, have one minor caveat. When striping (Raid 0), an enclosure failure a couple of years down the road would mean you have to purchase the exact same enclosure, and then swap the two drives from the failed enclosure for the drives in the new unit, in order to retrieve your data. If at that time those units have been discontinued, upgraded or are otherwise unavailable, you could be sol as far as your data is concerned.

Unless you’re a hell-bent speed demon and need that 210 MB/s transfer rate --admittedly very nice-- you could save yourself some money by considering LaCie’s d2 Quadra quadruple interface, single drive, fan-less enclosure, http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10554, which has a very respectable 130 MB/s average transfer rate. The 4TB version lists for $319 on LaCie’s website, but Amazon and Newegg both have them up on their site for $299 If you check around, you might be able to do even a bit better.

Perhaps you can tell I'm not a big fan of hardware Raid.


Since you have a brand-new iMac with both TB and USB3, you have the option of drives such as LaCie's d2 USB3/TB single drive unit, with speeds up to 170MB/s, http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10600, with a list price of $399 for the 4TB version. FYI, Hope this helps.

I am solely using it for RAID1. What's your take on that? Thank you for the
detail response, I do appreciate it! By the way, I already purchased it. I couldn't wait

Booze and hookers?

I quit drinking.. It's a long story

Hey! Happy Birthday man! My birthday was last week.

I can't really think of anything off hand but I think someone mentioned a UPS which reminds me I need a new one. But that won't kill $300. You'll need to find some other goodies.

Don't think too hard on this though. If you can't figure anything out just sit on the cash until you do.

Thanks dude! Happy late birthday to you! I ended up purchasing the LaCie in my above post. I'm really excited to have a nice RAID1 external for safety purposes.

 

[macs4nw]

…..I am solely using it for RAID1. What's your take on that? Thank you for the
detail response, I do appreciate it! By the way, I already purchased it. I couldn't wait

Using mirroring (Raid 1), you won't run into the potential problems I described earlier, plus you'll be able to rebuild one drive failure, from the remaining drive, by simply inserting a new drive in the bay holding the defective one. However you will only attain those 210MB/s speeds when striping (Raid 0); your transfer speeds with Raid 1 will be considerably lower. That's the Raid 0/1 trade-off --Speed or security. There are many other Raid configs of course, and Raid 10 is my personal favorite: speed and security, but it's downside is that you need twice as much storage capacity, ie two 4TB drives, to end up with a 4TB volume. At the cost of today's HDDs, that may be a small price to pay for the best of both worlds.

If you hadn't purchased it already, I might have suggested two similarly sized, and perhaps budget priced USB3 drives, and use them with 'Multiple Time Machine back-ups', whereby one drive is updated hourly, and your second drive which ideally would be stored off-site, could be getting all the missed changes the moment you plug it in, on a fairly regular basis of course! This is obviously a bit more cumbersome, but it is virtual data security in case of theft or fire, and unless you have fairly small files to protect, also a lot cheaper than most of those cloud services.

Don't let me rain on your parade, and enjoy your new LaCie HDD. It comes with a three year warranty, and should serve you well, especially in Raid 1.

 

[MacOG728893]

Using mirroring (Raid 1), you won't run into the potential problems I described earlier, plus you'll be able to rebuild one drive failure, from the remaining drive, by simply inserting a new drive in the bay holding the defective one. However you will only attain those 210MB/s speeds when striping (Raid 0); your transfer speeds with Raid 1 will be considerably lower. That's the Raid 0/1 trade-off --Speed or security. There are many other Raid configs of course, and Raid 10 is my personal favorite: speed and security, but it's downside is that you need twice as much storage capacity, ie two 4TB drives, to end up with a 4TB volume. At the cost of today's HDDs, that may be a small price to pay for the best of both worlds.

If you hadn't purchased it already, I might have suggested two similarly sized, and perhaps budget priced USB3 drives, and use them with 'Multiple Time Machine back-ups', whereby one drive is updated hourly, and your second drive which ideally would be stored off-site, could be getting all the missed changes the moment you plug it in, on a fairly regular basis of course! This is obviously a bit more cumbersome, but it is virtual data security in case of theft or fire, and unless you have fairly small files to protect, also a lot cheaper than most of those cloud services.

Don't let me rain on your parade, and enjoy your new LaCie HDD. It comes with a three year warranty, and should serve you well, especially in Raid 1.

Thanks for the info! You're not raining on my parade, just providing practical information that might be useful at some point. The reason I am doing this is because I only have a 512GB SSD in my iMac. On top of that, my Windows partition eats into that total with 180GB's.

Since I have PCIe flash storage, it is ideal for editing with it's amazing read and write speeds. The only trade-off is capacity. For that reason, I will use the LaCie for archiving purposes. I will do all my editing on a current project off the internal SSD and once I am finished, transfer it over to the LaCie for archiving purposes.

What do you think about that?

 

[macs4nw]

Thanks for the info! You're not raining on my parade, just providing practical information that might be useful at some point. The reason I am doing this is because I only have a 512GB SSD in my iMac. On top of that, my Windows partition eats into that total with 180GB's.

Since I have PCIe flash storage, it is ideal for editing with it's amazing read and write speeds. The only trade-off is capacity. For that reason, I will use the LaCie for archiving purposes. I will do all my editing on a current project off the internal SSD and once I am finished, transfer it over to the LaCie for archiving purposes.

What do you think about that?

Sounds like the best of both worlds to me. Blazingly fast editing speeds, with relatively low-priced permanent storage.

It's hard to go back to HDDs in your computer, once you've tasted the incredible speed and responsiveness of SSDs; I have it in my lowly MBA, and am now determined to also get all-flash in my next desktop trade-up.

Many people balk at the price of SSDs, and it would be nice if it came down a bit, but it's such a joy to use that to me, it's worth the cost.

 

[MacOG728893]

Sounds like the best of both worlds to me. Blazingly fast editing speeds, with relatively low-priced permanent storage.

It's hard to go back to HDDs in your computer, once you've tasted the incredible speed and responsiveness of SSDs; I have it in my lowly MBA, and am now determined to also get all-flash in my next desktop trade-up.

Many people balk at the price of SSDs, and it would be nice if it came down a bit, but it's such a joy to use that to me, it's worth the cost.

Thank you. I also think it's a great choice. It's crazy that all RAID 0 external HDD's and even some SSD's do match the 700MB/s my internal PCIe SSD achieves. I have yet to edit something big, but will be doing so shortly.

I think it's absurd not to go all SSD at this point, regardless of price. However, due to the cost of current PCIe SSD's, I had to go with the 512GB vs 1TB. Luckily, I now have a beautiful LaCie Quadra on the way and will use it as a redundant back up once each project is finished on the internal.

I could never go back to an HDD as my boot drive again either. I love my new machine!