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

WD MyBook vs Seagate FreeAgent - which is better? which to get?

charlestrippy

charlestrippy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 29, 2006
386
0
Tampa, Florida
So i'm in the market for a new external hd to backup my files (obviously) and two specific drives came to my attention.

The Western Digital MyBook 500gb Triple Interface (usb,fw400,fw800)
202712831.jpg




vs.




Seagate FreeAgent 500gb, esata, fw400
204110107.jpg


Which should I get? I have a MBP that has FW800 it'd be nice to utilize it, but i'm not sure...what's your call?

I don't need it to boot off of - just need it for backing up every once-in-awhile and taking a file off here and there...nothing to make it run constantly..

I've read many reviews but I wanted the opinions of MR regulars because, hell - you guys have never steered me wrong :)
 
In many cases you won't be able to realize the complete speed benefits of FW800, so I wouldn't worry too much about that regardless. As for the models, I have heard good things about the WD and it has a competitive price point. The Seagate is a solid drive though as well - I recommend Seagate drives in general most times. Also, I'm not sure about this specific model, but most Seagate drives have a 5-year warranty, which is very good.

I guess that probably doesn't help you much, but it's at least another opinion and some things to consider.... ;)
 
~Shard~ said:
In many cases you won't be able to realize the complete speed benefits of FW800, so I wouldn't worry too much about that regardless. As for the models, I have heard good things about the WD and it has a competitive price point. The Seagate is a solid drive though as well - I recommend Seagate drives in general most times. Also, I'm not sure about this specific model, but most Seagate drives have a 5-year warranty, which is very good.

I guess that probably doesn't help you much, but it's at least another opinion and some things to consider.... ;)
Click to expand...

shard,
so i really wouldn't be able to tell much of a different between fw400 and fw800? like with drag-dropping huge unedited video files (15gb-20gb)? i thought there would be like a "twice as fast" type deal between the two firewires....damn

yeah that seagate does have a 5 year warranty vs 3 yrs on the mybook...
 
I went with the seagate, but built my own. I looked at the WD, but I wanted something a little smaller. So from OWC got the mini stack.
 
charlestrippy said:
shard,
so i really wouldn't be able to tell much of a different between fw400 and fw800? like with drag-dropping huge unedited video files (15gb-20gb)? i thought there would be like a "twice as fast" type deal between the two firewires....damn

yeah that seagate does have a 5 year warranty vs 3 yrs on the mybook...
Click to expand...

I'm not an expert on the matter so you may want to do some Googling or other searches here on MacRumors yourself, but my understanding is that FW800's max speeds are never usually attained (or at least sustained) due to limitations with bus speeds, logic boards, interfaces, etc. I could be incorrect though...

Regardless, yes, FW800 would still be significantly faster than FW400, especially for the larger files you are using.
 
I've been shopping for an external drive and ordered the My Book Pro that you listed above... it's the least expensive option I've seen for a 500GB drive that includes FW800.

If you order from Buy.com, there's a coupon you can use right now to get $10 off of a $150 or more order. ( listed on this page: http://dealnews.com/coupons/ )

I chose the free shipping option, which is the slowest... so I won't be getting the drive until next week. If you haven't purchased anything by then, I'll let you know how I like mine.

EDIT: also, I forgot to mention that I think those Seagate FreeAgent drives are just about the ugliest design I've ever seen ;)
 
I'm new here, but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in... if cost is an issue you'll buy what you can afford, no doubt... but for my money and my profession (FCP & Avid Editor) the G-Raid2 500GB triple interface drive can't be beat...

Granted it's 2x the price but, I worked on a Project where the Client bought nearly 40 of those drives, yes 40... for a 6 month project with 6 FCP Edit rooms running 18 hrs a day, the drives were shuffled from room to room every day...NOT 1 G-Raid2 drive failed in 6 months of HEAVY use...

Those drives totally out preformed the Three 500GB LaCie triple interface drives the client had (brand new too) 2 of which, failed. We lost footage & time re-digitizing with the LaCie drives...

I can't speak for the WD or Seagate Drives... but I thought I'd toss another option your way...
 
nep - yeah if i did have the money that would be the thing to get since i'm using fcp.

but college sucks the money dry - so far i've heard bad about wd....but not much about the freeagent....haven't heard many bad things either guys?
 
i have a 500gb mybook with firewire400 and usb 2.0. i didnt get the version with firewire 800, since i was hooking it up to my airport extreme, and didnt feel like it was a worth the extra investment. pcworld recently did a review on external hard drives, so you might want to check that out. from personal experience, id have to say that writing to the mybook is pretty slow (reading is fine). i cant say ive personally compared it to the seagate, but i cant imagine itd be any slower. ill look for that article and link it here if i find it.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123728;page,1/article.html
 
while these big drives keep getting cheaper and cheaper, firewire technology never does. i saw a 400GB mybook USB2 only drive for only a hundred bucks yesterday. The 160GB version with firewire and usb cost ten dollars MORE.
 
atari1356 said:
EDIT: also, I forgot to mention that I think those Seagate FreeAgent drives are just about the ugliest design I've ever seen ;)
Click to expand...

And I think the black and gold is awesome- I went to University of Missouri for college though- so unless you like the Steelers, Tigers, or Bruins the color may turn you off a bit.
 

Attachments

  • images.jpg
    images.jpg
    1.7 KB · Views: 7,994
atari1356 said:
also, I forgot to mention that I think those Seagate FreeAgent drives are just about the ugliest design I've ever seen ;)
Click to expand...

To each their own, but for me, I could care less what its appearance might be as long as it does what I want it to do and it is reliable, cost effective, etc. etc. Give me a great external drive and I don't care if you make it a neon pink & brown colored brick! ;) :D
 
haha
yeah - i think i may go for the freeagent because i haven't heard many bad things about it compared to mybook - plus it has the 5 year warranty...
it may be the best choice....

i guess i should say byebye to the fw800 :(
 
~Shard~ said:
To each their own, but for me, I could care less what its appearance might be as long as it does what I want it to do and it is reliable, cost effective, etc. etc. Give me a great external drive and I don't care if you make it a neon pink & brown colored brick! ;) :D
Click to expand...

couldn't care less, sorry Shard, pet peeve of mine.


the Free Agents are rather new, which is why there is rather little information out there on them, good or bad. but in general i like seagate drives and trust 'em. but yeah the color and design leaves a bit to be desired.
 
I have the WD MyBook 350 GB with fw800. I don't use it every day - only had it for ~2 months, but so far I like it. I have it split into two partitions: 100GB which is a direct backup of my MBP via SuperDuper, and the remainder is just additional storage space.
 
PlaceofDis said:
couldn't care less, sorry Shard, pet peeve of mine.
Click to expand...

That IS my pet peeve as well...

Sorry, with my earlier comment about the G-Raid2... I wasn't considering the "College / Limited Funds" aspect of the original question... Been out of College a LOT of years now, and I simply forgot how money can be pretty tight during that part of one's life...:eek:
 
I'd also suggest against the MyBook, it has this odd feature that puts it to sleep/standby mode that you can't turn off. Kind of an inconvenience for me, granted it only takes a couple of seconds for it to wake up, but it would have been nice to be able to turn this feature off.
 
cyclingplatypus said:
I'd also suggest against the MyBook, it has this odd feature that puts it to sleep/standby mode that you can't turn off. Kind of an inconvenience for me, granted it only takes a couple of seconds for it to wake up, but it would have been nice to be able to turn this feature off.
Click to expand...

Weird, I wonder why they would do that? :confused:
 
I just ordered the MyBook Pro 500 gb a few nights ago from Newegg because it's $194 shipped, which is a great deal IMO. If it doesn't work well, I'll probably take it to the Bay.

Although, all the reviews I've read, like PC Mag and MacWorld rate it as an Editor's Choice with 4-4.5/5 stars...nearly every review I've seen has it at least 4 stars out of 5 (hence why I took the gamble on it).
 
i have the WD drive and other than my ipod and my mac pro, it is one of the best pieces of technology i have ever bought-fast, stylish, efficient and most of all-not expensive at all
 
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