Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Recommend me an enclosure and HD!

NickD

NickD

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2007
725
1
Colorado
I'm looking to replace my Maxtor OneTouch 300GB HD with my own DIY external made with an internal HD and an enclosure.

Problem is, I don't know where to start. I'm going to be using this HD as a scratch disk for video and photography work, and don't need FW 800, only FW 400.

Can you guys recommend me a good inexpensive enclosure and HD? I'm trying to save money for other things as well, so the cheaper, the better, but I won't skimp on quality and go for something crappy.

NickD
 
NickD said:
I'm looking to replace my Maxtor OneTouch 300GB HD with my own DIY external made with an internal HD and an enclosure.

Problem is, I don't know where to start. I'm going to be using this HD as a scratch disk for video and photography work, and don't need FW 800, only FW 400.

Can you guys recommend me a good inexpensive enclosure and HD? I'm trying to save money for other things as well, so the cheaper, the better, but I won't skimp on quality and go for something crappy.

NickD
Click to expand...

i had a question about this... do you guys know what a better/faster internal HD + enclosure combination is:

internal IDE + firewire

or

internal SATA + usb2.0?

i thought that SATA was faster than IDE... but isn't firewire faster than usb2.0?
 
aye5882 said:
i had a question about this... do you guys know what a better/faster internal HD + enclosure combination is:

internal IDE + firewire

or

internal SATA + usb2.0?

i thought that SATA was faster than IDE... but isn't firewire faster than usb2.0?
Click to expand...

SATA is faster that IDE, but since you're connecting via USB or firewire, I don't think you'll see the difference (correct me if I'm wrong). You're limited by the transfer rate of USB/firewire on the enclosure, not by the interface of the hard drive. So firewire will be faster in any case.
 
wallaby said:
SATA is faster that IDE, but since you're connecting via USB or firewire, I don't think you'll see the difference (correct me if I'm wrong). You're limited by the transfer rate of USB/firewire on the enclosure, not by the interface of the hard drive. So firewire will be faster in any case.
Click to expand...

yea, that's what i thought. but the only enclosures i found (on newegg) dedicated for SATA hard drives are usb 2.0... which would cause a bottleneck on transfer speeds.

but the IDE enclosures have both usb 2 and firewire... so even if IDE is slower than SATA, it will have firewire...

so again, which would be faster... :confused:

IDE + firewire

or

SATA + usb 2
 
aye5882 said:
yea, that's what i thought. but the only enclosures i found (on newegg) dedicated for SATA hard drives are usb 2.0... which would cause a bottleneck on transfer speeds.

but the IDE enclosures have both usb 2 and firewire... so even if IDE is slower than SATA, it will have firewire...

so again, which would be faster... :confused:

IDE + firewire

or

SATA + usb 2
Click to expand...


I believe OWC has THIS one with Firewire. This should work.

~e
 
After trying many enclosures (USB 2.0, and FW with IDE and SATA drives) I would still stand by my above endorsement. The design is great, drives are kept cool (very important), they are fast, and all of the extra FW and USB ports are FANTASTIC.

my 0.02.
 
Having tried the LaCie equivlent of Colorspace's recommendation and the cheap fanless alternative without doubt the latter does it for me.

If one is using a laptop or a macMini the last thing one wants is all that awful cheap fan noise. I removed the drive from the LaCie binned the enclosure and bought this: http://www.microanvika.co.uk/computing/product.asp?PNO=NAN19305

IRL it looks OK and at last there is no more fan noise AND believe it or not it is even slightly faster according to XBench, why who knows?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back