Which external drive for iTunes?

[les24preludes]

I keep all my music on an external hard drive, and play it with iTunes and Audirvana+. All my music is lossless AIFF and I'm a musician. I need a backup drive, so in the market for about 1Tb.

What's the best kind of drive for playing back music? What parameters do I need? What models do you suggest? Economical does-the-job rather than uber-sophisticated.

 

[maflynn]

Do you want a drive connected directly to your computer, or through the network and accessible to other computers in your household, i.e., NAS vs. DAS.

I prefer products from OWC, but I also have a western digital external drive for backups and a drobo mini which provides a level of protection, i..e,. Raided.

 

[les24preludes]

Hello - I was thinking of something simple. Just an efficient external drive. My Mac Mini is late 2011. So wondering which interface to use. I have Firewire 800, USB2 and Thunderbolt.

 

[ColdCase]

For music storage and playback, you don't need performance, just capacity and reliability (think about USB CD drives playing back CD quality music without issue). You don't need to worry about performance until you start talking 4000k HD video or editing.

2 TB drives are less than $80 now days, 3 and 4 TB drives are less than $200. Look for sales on a USB drive. WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Hitachi are all decent name brands. Best Buy, Staples, others keep many on hand. Reviews at newegg may lead you to the more reliable products.

 

[les24preludes]

I was told that it's better for music playback to use a different bus - my output is USB2, so maybe FIrewire is better for input? Would I hear any difference?

How about this one? Seems to have happy users. I'm in the UK - it's £109

WD My Passport Studio 1TB Portable Hard Drive with Firewire and Metal Casing

 

[bobr1952]

I like simple and run this off of my Time Capsule for iTunes--music library has around 16000 tracks.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Y5UV4A/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[vincowork]

good amazon,WD My Passport Studio 1TB Portable Hard Drive with Firewire and Metal Casing .

 

[ColdCase]

I was told that it's better for music playback to use a different bus - my output is USB2, so maybe FIrewire is better for input? Would I hear any difference?

That may have been true years ago, but not currently. If you are worried, there are FW/USB combos for a little more money. For example:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ministack

A TB drive is a lot more $$

Oh wait.. UK... never mind