WD vs OWC Mercury HD for Time Machine

[eawmp1]

For a Time Machine backup, I am contemplating either (via FW 800):

1) a 2 TB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 'Quad Interface' FireWire 800/400 + USB2 2.0 + eSATA, or
2) a 2 TB Western Digital WDH2Q20000N 2TB My Book Studio Edition II Hard Drive with Quad Interface (FW400/FW800, USB 2.0 & eSATA

Other than a huge difference in price - I was wondering about your experiences with regard to reliability, speed, other storage solutions. Or, as I have a bay open, should I just pop in a 2 TB WD Caviar Green? Thanks for the input!

OBTW - for my really sensitive stuff - photos/files/music - I DO have a 500 GB portable drive that periodically gets updated and stored in the bank lockbox offsite.

 

[dr. shdw]

I like OWC's stuff better, better FW controller and doesn't limit what kind of drives you can use.

 

[eawmp1]

So, do you recommend using their cases and putting any third party drives, or their single drive solutions are reliable?

 

[dr. shdw]

So, do you recommend using their cases and putting any third party drives, or their single drive solutions are reliable?

I think the drive will go out before the controller does.

Probably do RAID 1 with additional media backup?

 

[brop52]

It's usually cheaper to just buy OWCs premade enclosure unless you can find a drive and enclosure for cheaper these days. I haven't checked recently.

Not interested in the RAID for $294? Same price as the WD on Amazon. What were you looking at?

 

[eawmp1]

But at that price at RAID 1 (for which in the small print they recommend the NewerTech enclosure) you only get 1 TB of actual space.

 

[dr. shdw]

But at that price at RAID 1 (for which in the small print they recommend the NewerTech enclosure) you only get 1 TB of actual space.

Well then it depends how much your data is worth..

 

[eawmp1]

My data is, to me, invaluable. However, I've always questioned the necessity of an ON SITE backup which is itself again RAID 1 mirrored. The chances of my internal hard drives failing at the same time my external time machine hard drive failing are astronomically low. However, the chance of a fire or act of god wiping out both at my house ... not so low. Therefore, as with copies of irreplaceable paper documents, I have a 500 GB portable hard drive I periodically back up the really important stuff OFF SITE in a bank lock box.