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Recommend External HD?

R

Rocketmunkee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 13, 2004
23
0
Greetings all!

I am looking to buy an external 120GB, 8MB Buffer 7200rpm drive. What brand name would you recommend? Maxtor, Seagate, IBM/Hitachi, Western Dig?

Thanks!
 
I have heard good things about the Western Digital brands...

Also I have a question for you/others (trying not to steal the topic)... Are you planning on buying a standard HD and running it from a Firewire enclosure, or are you planning on a totally external configuration?

I was looking for advice on buying one myself.. I guess this really doesn't help much.. but now it's back at the top! ;)
 
if money is an issue you don't need the 8mb buffer or 7200 rpm, as in a firewire enclosure there's no way the drive can go as fast as the connection speed (except FW800 where the drive will then be the limiting factor and not the interface used)
i put my own together, with a 120 GB 2 MB 7200 rpm seagate HD in a firewire/usb 2 external case with it's own power supply and cooling fan for the HD it had the oxford 911 chipset though i think there's a 922 or something newer out now
i would not recommend IBM for the HD, i had two of them that broke this summer
 
A while back I bought a Western Digital 100gb with 8 mb cache. When I switched to a PowerBook, I bought an external enclosure and now it's a Firewire 100gb drive!

I've had no problems with it whatsoever.

it's the WD1000JB, WD1200JB for the 120gb.

-tyler
 
The best way to do this is to buy the hard drive itself separately and put it in an external enclosure.

I have had great success with the IBM/Hitachi drives (same brand) and I actually bought one of the dual bay 3.5" firewire cases where it holds 2 120GB hard drives (1 IBM and 1 Maxtor b/c it was $60). The case was only $50. You can get individual cases that are about the same price, but will look much better. This is just a beige metal case. Boring, but I don't see it under my desk anyways.

Good luck.
 
I jsut got a 120 gb fw Western Digital..

amazingly easy, and fast.
I use it for Pro Tools, all my recording goes to it. No problems.
 
Originally posted by thehuncamunca
if money is an issue you don't need the 8mb buffer or 7200 rpm, as in a firewire enclosure there's no way the drive can go as fast as the connection speed (except FW800 where the drive will then be the limiting factor and not the interface used)
Click to expand...


So I shouldn't worry about getting an 8MB buffer? I am planning on hooking the device up to my iBook G4 with the standard FW400. Using it as storage for media (DV footage).

Thanks for the advice.
 
think about the on/off switch

I have two Lacie's. The older one has a rocker on/off switch so it will not turn on unless you want it to. The newer one (FW400 d2 - nice pale aluminium case) has a 'soft' switch and will turn on and mount whenever the computer wakes up or turns on. This can be a bore if I'm not using it, although the new one is quite quiet. The old one is very noisy though.
 
i would recommend the ezquest cobra 120gb drive. i've had one for over a year, taken it all over the place and it's always worked flawlessly. now that the prices are dropping again, i'm thinking of picking up a second one. they're going for around $165 right now, but i think because fantom just dropped their similar 120 drive to $149, it won't be long before ezquest does the same thing.
 
I have a 80 GB 7200 RPM FW Western Digital hard drive. I got this hard drive for my video projects about a year and a half ago and its still going strong without any checkups from my utilities. It is a reliable drive (had two of them doing lot of video editing). It is a quiet drive, which is a plus, but I wish it had an on/off switch. The switch isn't that important though if you are using OS X (when comp is sleeping/off the HD spins down "goes to sleep")and if you are the only user on your comp (for security of my projects I unplug the drive when family/ friends use comp). A word of caution in your decision: check and see the ruggedness of the FW ports on the back(this is a big deal if you are going to carry it around a lot). I had to exchange my first western digital because one of the ports became loose and didn't work(it has/had two), the new one is stronger probably newer model. I would recommend either Western digital or LaCie.
 
I would highly recommend Synchrotech drives. I have a 120GB 7200rpm drive by them and it is rock solid. It also is really good looking.
 
Originally posted by krimson
if you pick up the WD special edition 120gb drives they have the 8mb buffer and they usually have a great rebate.. i saw one on sale at Fry's (w/ rebate) for like $63.49 or something like that.
Click to expand...

Krimson,

Thanks for the recommendation. Found that on outpost.com. Gonna order it, I believe. With an external box, that would be a deal.

Cheers!
 
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