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Which External drive? Help!

Thanks again for help but do I need a thunderbolt ssd for my needs?!
What I'd
Really like is dual bay bus powered usb 3 enclosure and I could put any drives I want in
 
InquisitiveAmI said:
Thanks again for help but do I need a thunderbolt ssd for my needs?!
What I'd
Really like is dual bay bus powered usb 3 enclosure and I could put any drives I want in
Click to expand...

It's a pretty simple question... if you need speed, then you get an SSD, if not then you get a portable hard drive.

There are NO dual bay bus powered USB3 enclosures, PERIOD. There's enough bus power to drive an SSD or at most a 2TB portable drive.
 
matreya said:
It's a pretty simple question... if you need speed, then you get an SSD, if not then you get a portable hard drive.

There are NO dual bay bus powered USB3 enclosures, PERIOD. There's enough bus power to drive an SSD or at most a 2TB portable drive.
Click to expand...

Yes but I'm still stuck!??!!?

Do I need speed whilst transferring audio samples plugins xcode projects or would a 7200 2tb drive suffice?
I've
Gave up on bus power but what are the best dual bay usb 3 enclosures out there ?!!

----------

Also what about this?
http://www.cineraid.com/products/home_h212.htm
 
[[ Gave up on bus power but what are the best dual bay usb 3 enclosures out there ?!! ]]

Have you considered a dual-bay USB3/SATA dock?

There's quite a few of them out there...
 
Commy1 said:
I'm running a 13" rMBP with a Western Digital Ultra 2TB.
It's pretty good and not overly expensive. Doesn't require a power source, very small and portable. It's only 5400rpm but running my Aperture library off of it isn't hindered by any waiting times even with RAW and HDR files.

Might consider something more rugged but that's your call.
Click to expand...
Inquisitive, I honestly believe something like this is your best option.

Without knowing more about your workflow I'm pretty certain that even the cheapest 2.5" USB3 external will be plenty fast enough for you.

If it doesn't work out then you've still left with a device that's portable (do make sure it's bus-powered!) and cheap enough to be slung in a backpack without worrying about it. A multiple disk RAID enclosure is neither of these things.

Furthermore, whatever you go for ultimately, you'll still need a back-up of your MacBook and external storage solution, and unless you go mad on the movie downloads etc then a 2TB USB3 will still fit the bill.
 
InquisitiveAmI said:
Yes but I'm still stuck!??!!?

Do I need speed whilst transferring audio samples plugins xcode projects or would a 7200 2tb drive suffice?
I've
Gave up on bus power but what are the best dual bay usb 3 enclosures out there ?!!

It depends on how big the files are as to whether you need an SSD or HDD..

As for dual drive enclosures.... I don't see the point of the cineraid one because you can get regular 2TB portable drives that are USB3 bus powered...

If you want 7200 RPM drives in RAID, go look at OWC (http://macsales.com)

Here's a relatively well-priced dual-drive enclosure ( not bus powered ) but it's not portable either...

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/GM3QKIT0GB/

As others have said, I still think you'll be served well by a simple portable hard drive... if you really want speed over capacity, then a bus-powered SSD is your option.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Files We'll be maximum 5gb so.....
I reckon use the inateck enclosure
and a 2.5 2tb 7200 rpm drive
And Im set??
 
Right so Im still trying to suss out what I should do...
The raw facts are that the files I'll be transfering will be no bigger than 2gb at a time. I need this drive for: Logic Pro work, storing my music on, photos ,films.Thats it. I also need it to be bus powered as I work on the go...
I'd like things to be relatively speedy but it comes down to either 1tb and 7200 RPM. Or 2tb 5400 rpm

Other things for certain is Im going to use the Inateck enclosure as correct me if im wrong but thats the best one out there?

So what to do !!!

----------
Marty62 said:
I have not found anything in 2.5in size bigger than 1TB that is also 7200rpm !!

Why not just get 2 x Inateck USB3.0 enclosures and 2 x HGST 1tb 7200rpm
bare drives ?
Totally fast enough and not expensive.

M
Click to expand...

Also this is the best 2.5 1tb drive I could find


http://www.amazon.co.uk/HGST-Travel...=UTF8&qid=1397832712&sr=1-1&keywords=1+tb+2.5



What did you find??
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Marty62 said:
I have not found anything in 2.5in size bigger than 1TB that is also 7200rpm !!

Why not just get 2 x Inateck USB3.0 enclosures and 2 x HGST 1tb 7200rpm
bare drives ?
Click to expand...
I'm 99.9% certain the reason why there's nothing on the market that's 2.5", 7200rpm, larger than 1TB, and bus-powered is because it can't be done. Therefore building your own 2.5" 2TB 7200prm enclosure is NOT going to result in a bus-powered solution.

InquisitiveAmI said:
it comes down to either 1tb and 7200 RPM. Or 2tb 5400 rpm

Other things for certain is Im going to use the Inateck enclosure as correct me if im wrong but thats the best one out there?
Click to expand...
First sentence appears to be correct.

Second sentence I'm not sure about. Why not buy off the shelf?

Following article is current...
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-portable-hard-drive/
 
mojolicious said:
I'm 99.9% certain the reason why there's nothing on the market that's 2.5", 7200rpm, larger than 1TB, and bus-powered is because it can't be done. Therefore building your own 2.5" 2TB 7200prm enclosure is NOT going to result in a bus-powered solution.


First sentence appears to be correct.

Second sentence I'm not sure about. Why not buy off the shelf?

Following article is current...
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-portable-hard-drive/
Click to expand...

Yes that drives looks good but its 5400 rpm -
But! Would that be good enough for my needs?
 
InquisitiveAmI said:
Yes that drives looks good but its 5400 rpm -
But! Would that be good enough for my needs?
Click to expand...
vCprBon.png


Above is for a 7200rpm HDD.

Is a 7200rpm HDD actually 33% faster than a 5400rpm HDD? Not in the real world, no. And it uses more power, runs hotter, will by its very nature wear out quicker, and is generally more likely to fail.

Buy an off-the-shelf 2TB external USB3 drive.

As I said earlier, if it isn't fast enough for your requirements (but it will be) then you'll still have a cheap, large capacity drive for performing backups.
 
mojolicious said:
Is a 7200rpm HDD actually 33% faster than a 5400rpm HDD? Not in the real world, no. And it uses more power, runs hotter, will by its very nature wear out quicker, and is generally more likely to fail.
Click to expand...

I've found in my experience that I get about 25% faster speeds transferring files with a 7200 RPM drive vs a 5400 one. 100 vs 80 MB/sec approx.
 
mojolicious said:
Image

Above is for a 7200rpm HDD.

Is a 7200rpm HDD actually 33% faster than a 5400rpm HDD? Not in the real world, no. And it uses more power, runs hotter, will by its very nature wear out quicker, and is generally more likely to fail.

Buy an off-the-shelf 2TB external USB3 drive.

As I said earlier, if it isn't fast enough for your requirements (but it will be) then you'll still have a cheap, large capacity drive for performing backups.
Click to expand...

Its still quicker than 5400 rpm(top two = 7200 rpm)

Still if you believe that 5400 is suitable for my needs than Ill go ahead and get it.Just need a few more + 1's from others so I know that ive got a good chance !
http://www.everythingusb.com/media/portable-drive-large-file-copy-benchmark.png
 
mojolicious said:
Top two what?

If 5400rpm isn't fast enough for you then 7200rpm is unlikely to be fast enough for you, and you're then getting into the realms 1TB SSDs if you want to retain the convenience of bus power.
Click to expand...
Yeah its just too expensive though...
Ive decided to buy the seagate 4tb backup plus fast as per an early suggestion
220 speeds for 4tb sounds to good to be true but im going with it anyway!
 
InquisitiveAmI said:
Ive decided to buy the seagate 4tb backup plus fast as per an early suggestion
220 speeds for 4tb sounds to good to be true but im going with it anyway!
Click to expand...
Striped drives are great. Until they fail. I hope you're also budgeting for a back-up drive...

...which, if I'm interpreting things correctly, you won't be able to connect to your rMBP at the same time as the Seagate, because the Seagate will be occupying both your USB3 ports.
 
Last edited:
InquisitiveAmI said:
if you were me with my needs what storage device(s) would you buy once you had bought youre lovely new shiny rmbp 512gb???
Click to expand...
As I've said, I think that any USB3 external will be fast enough. Therefore I'd go for the largest capacity device that's portable, by which I mean (single) bus-powered. At present this seems to be a 2TB, 5400rpm, 2.5" HHD. If this proves to be fast enough, you win.

If this doesn't, then you're going to have to look at faster options (and the only significantly faster options I can think of are SSD, meaning loss of capacity, or proper 7200rpm/RAID0 gear, meaning loss of bus-powered portability). But your 'rejected' HHD will still be very necessary because you've got no backup/archival in place. Again, you win.

Win... win... you can't lose.

But please don't rush out and buy something right now, wait to see if anyone comes up with a counter-suggestion.

As an aside, I'm assuming that you and the rMBP are moving around. If it spends all its (working) hours in one location then obviously 'portability' moves down the list of needs.
 
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