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Yes, another: LaCie vs. Western Digital

T

torpy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 28, 2007
122
0
Sydney + Los Angeles
I've done the search, read through countless threads but still can't decide!

I'm looking at the 500GB LaCie d2 Quadra or the WD MyBook Pro which are pretty much identical in price on Amazon (~$180). I haven't owned any WDs hds over the past, (Seagate fan - but they're too pricey + no FW800) so I can't really base my decision on experience..

In all the threads I've read there's always people complaining about WD or praising WD and the same goes for LaCie.

Right now the only plus point the WD has over the LaCie is design (the storage meter on the outside looks pretty, plus the enclosure matches my MBP :) ), however, LaCie seems to be more Mac-centric..

..help? :eek:
(i looked into an external enclosure+internal drive, most notably the OWC ones but they're a bit too pricey for me right now)
 
I'd say don't sweat it, everyone will tell you something different based on personal bad experiences. They're both reputable companies.
 
Well I have a LaCie 'Porsche' firewire 400 drive, a 500GB WD My Book and a 500GB WD My Book Pro. They all perform well, the firewire 800 on the My Book Pro is very fast compared to USB and firewire 400 - I am going to use that drive for my Time Machine backups.

I'm with you, torpy, I like the look and the functionality of the WD design - the two My Books I have look great standing together on a shelf. I love the way the front control buttons work too - one press and the drive unmounts, another press and it mounts. Very neat.

Contrary to what I have read, the My Books are not noisy - the Mac handles them very well, powering down when they are not being used. There is a short delay while they are powered up when you click on the drive icon on the desktop - I just leave them switched on all the time. The same happens with the LaCie drive too. The My Books are not noticeably noisier than the LaCie - all you hear is the hard drive chuntering away.

For those of you in the UK, Amazon are doing a great deal on the MyBook Pro - 99 GBP (76 GBP for the USB 2 version).
 
I have both LaCie and WD Book series. I have to admit I personally favour the WD Book series- having owned the Pro versions. I find LaCie to be noisy compared to the latter.

Also the sizes of the books tend to be the same and I like to stack them like books on my shelf. :) Vs. the LaCie which is a little bulkier I find.
 
So none of you guys have experienced the whole 'MyBook not mounting via FW but working via USB' fiasco that seems to plague the series?
 
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