Which FW ext. HD is the best?

cameranerd74 · 03-07-2003, 01:48 PM

I just want to get a few people's opinions, which Firewire External HD should I buy? I've looked at LaCie, EZ quest, Maxtor, Western Digital, and a few others. They all seem pretty good and comparable in price. I'll probably need between 40 and 80 gigs.

silicondiode · 03-07-2003, 02:33 PM

if you're looking for something tiny...

http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_...625d420cac9276

it's just an enclosure - you need to get a 2.5" / 9.5mm laptop HD. but those are at 60GB now and i think the 80-100GB drives are coming. highly portable and it also comes in a USB2/FW combo if you need interoperability between a Mac and a PC.

cameranerd74 · 03-08-2003, 12:26 PM

Very cool! Thanks. Size is not so much of an issue for me though. Laptop drives tend to be a little priceier than their full-size counterparts, and I'd rather save a few bucks. Does anyone out there use any of these external FW HD's? If so, I'd like to hear feedback, good or bad.

silicondiode · 03-08-2003, 01:09 PM

http://www.cooldrives.com/firox911atla.html

i have one of those too. it kinda matches my TiBook and there's also a full size (5.25") version for optical drives. my only complaint is that it requires a power brick.

then there's this:
http://www.wiebetech.com/products.html#ultragb

which solves the brick problem...

jkp23 · 03-10-2003, 10:16 AM

blatantly you should just buy an enclosure. it works out a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a packaged firewire drive and is just the same thing. i saved £50 doing it that way on a 80GB drive, and the savings on bigger drives are better. + you can pick the internals yourself and go with your favorite drive brand.

just my two peneth.

cameranerd74 · 03-10-2003, 03:01 PM

If I buy the above suggestion by silicondidoe (which is very cool by the way), I'm looking at $99.91 for the enclosure. If I pick-up a 60GB Maxtor 7200rpm IDE from my local shop I'm looking at $99.99. A total of $199.90 before tax and/or shipping. They had a cheaper FW enclosure for $59.99 at my local shop. If I buy that with the same HD I'm looking at $159.90, not bad in either case, however I can buy a new LaCie HD off www.apple.com for about the same price.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...ts/AppleStore/

of course, I don't know how good the HD is inside that case, but there is no assembly required and it's all warranteed through one vendor instead of 2, if there's any problems. Hmmmmmmmm. 6 of one, half-dozen of another.

djn1 · 03-10-2003, 05:18 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by cameranerd74 If I pick-up a 60GB Maxtor from my local shop I'm looking at $99.99

I've been running a 60GB Maxtor for almost a year and have had no problems with it so far. It isn't the quietest drive on earth but it does the job and keeps on doing it.

cameranerd74 · 03-10-2003, 06:50 PM

Does anybody know anything about the GVP XV series external FW hard drives? The price is right, and it matches the eMac. Here's a link:

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/...sp?dpno=505572

saltydog4791 · 03-10-2003, 06:58 PM

but does anyone know how to prevent the evil "spindown and no wake up" problem that seems to happen to a lot of these cases. I have an ADS Pyro case and when the drive spins down, sometimes it doesn't want to come back up. Unfortunately you can't control the drive via system prefs or pmset from the command line. I have lost lots of time and data due to this problem.

saltydog4791

cameranerd74 · 03-10-2003, 07:06 PM

That's a good point, however, I don't have a whole lot of choices, considering the eMac doesn't have room for any more drives internally. Is there another solution I'm not aware of?

djn1 · 03-10-2003, 08:19 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by saltydog4791 but does anyone know how to prevent the evil "spindown and no wake up" problem that seems to happen to a lot of these cases. I have an ADS Pyro case and when the drive spins down, sometimes it doesn't want to come back up. Unfortunately you can't control the drive via system prefs or pmset from the command line. I have lost lots of time and data due to this problem.

Try this hint from the MFI forums.

cameranerd74 · 03-14-2003, 05:48 PM

Thanks for all the input, but I never did get an answer to my original question.

sdunn10 · 03-14-2003, 06:12 PM

I got the Lacie d2 120GB a while back. Attached to my laptop via firewire hub and it's served me pretty well thus far.
I don't quite understand the logic behind buying a separate enclosure and drive when the price difference isn't so much and you have the additional headache of trying to get support if the drive fails.
I suppose if you need lots of backup storage space you can swap out drives rather than chaining multiple firewire drives, but I don't need that flexibility.
Each to their own I guess.

Phil St. Romain · 03-14-2003, 08:02 PM

I'm very partial to the drives made by WiebeTech (http://www.wiebetech.com) and have a couple that work marvelously. They've gotten great reviews in various computer magazines.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that James Wiebe lives about four houses down, runs the business out of his home, and that my 16 year old son helps out with the operation.

cameranerd74 · 03-17-2003, 04:41 PM

After some deliberating I think I'm going to purchase a WiebeTech Desktop GB (80gig). It seems to be the best option for me. It's less expensive than most pre-configured 80GB drives, $190, and it's really high rated. Plus, it's bootable on the Mac, has USB as well as FW ports, and it's white so it matches the eMac.

I'm going to buy it pre-configured because the empty case is $110, and I doubt I can find an 80gb IDE drive for less than $80. Thanks to silicondiode and Phil St. Romain for suggesting WiebeTech.

jasenko · 03-25-2003, 12:50 AM

I am also thinking of buying an external enclosure+HD but my main concern is speed of the HD. I know exactly what is maximum FW speed and that is why I'm even more confused what to buy. Is it worth buying faster ATA-100/133 7200rpm HD when the top for FW is some 35-40 MBps? That is still slower than any ATA-66 5200rpm HD. Does increased buffer (e.g. 8MB) means anything for a external FW drive?
I hope guys with these toys could give us more info about this.

Cheers!

eravau · 03-25-2003, 01:06 PM

When looking for the best price on hard drives, RAM and other individual components, one of the best places to look is Price Watch. According to the listings (today, March 25, 2003) you can get a Maxor 7200 RPM 80 Gig drive for $78. I paid $70 for a firewire case over a year ago (can't imagine paying $110). Not having used them, I can't vouch for them, but on Yahoo Shopping there are firewire enclosures listed for as low as $45. That makes a grand total of $123. Quite a bit less than your $190. Just something to think about.

cameranerd74 · 03-26-2003, 12:16 PM

Jasenko. Yes. I have used 5400rpm FW drives and 7200 FW drives at work. The 7200rpm drives are definitely faster.

sjoshi · 03-26-2003, 12:30 PM

I recently needed an external drive urgently. I bought ACOM Data 80 GB external drive (7200 RPM) that supports both Firewire and USB 2.0 interfaces. I paid around $175.

A little later I saw an ad for an external Firewire Western Digital 200 GB (7200 RPM) for about $250 (with mail-in rebate), and bought that also. I have partitioned this into three equal partitions of 60+ GB each.

I am happy with both these drives. They are both very quiet.

I ended up buying them at Fry's locally, but I am sure these models are available from mail order places also.

03-07-2003, 01:48 PM	#1
cameranerd74 All Star Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 794	Which FW ext. HD is the best? I just want to get a few people's opinions, which Firewire External HD should I buy? I've looked at LaCie, EZ quest, Maxtor, Western Digital, and a few others. They all seem pretty good and comparable in price. I'll probably need between 40 and 80 gigs.

03-07-2003, 02:33 PM	#2
silicondiode Major Leaguer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York Posts: 252	Cutie drive - dumb name, not so dumb solution. if you're looking for something tiny... http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_...625d420cac9276 it's just an enclosure - you need to get a 2.5" / 9.5mm laptop HD. but those are at 60GB now and i think the 80-100GB drives are coming. highly portable and it also comes in a USB2/FW combo if you need interoperability between a Mac and a PC. __________________ -silicondiode BeOS Refugee

03-08-2003, 01:09 PM	#4
silicondiode Major Leaguer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York Posts: 252	http://www.cooldrives.com/firox911atla.html i have one of those too. it kinda matches my TiBook and there's also a full size (5.25") version for optical drives. my only complaint is that it requires a power brick. then there's this: http://www.wiebetech.com/products.html#ultragb which solves the brick problem... __________________ -silicondiode BeOS Refugee

03-10-2003, 10:16 AM	#5
jkp23 Triple-A Player Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: back in t'ol' smoke :( Posts: 225	blatantly you should just buy an enclosure. it works out a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a packaged firewire drive and is just the same thing. i saved £50 doing it that way on a 80GB drive, and the savings on bigger drives are better. + you can pick the internals yourself and go with your favorite drive brand. just my two peneth. __________________ JKP.

03-10-2003, 03:01 PM	#6
cameranerd74 All Star Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 794	If I buy the above suggestion by silicondidoe (which is very cool by the way), I'm looking at $99.91 for the enclosure. If I pick-up a 60GB Maxtor 7200rpm IDE from my local shop I'm looking at $99.99. A total of $199.90 before tax and/or shipping. They had a cheaper FW enclosure for $59.99 at my local shop. If I buy that with the same HD I'm looking at $159.90, not bad in either case, however I can buy a new LaCie HD off www.apple.com for about the same price. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...ts/AppleStore/ of course, I don't know how good the HD is inside that case, but there is no assembly required and it's all warranteed through one vendor instead of 2, if there's any problems. Hmmmmmmmm. 6 of one, half-dozen of another. Last edited by cameranerd74; 03-10-2003 at 06:40 PM.

03-08-2003, 12:26 PM	#3
cameranerd74 All Star Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 794	Very cool! Thanks. Size is not so much of an issue for me though. Laptop drives tend to be a little priceier than their full-size counterparts, and I'd rather save a few bucks. Does anyone out there use any of these external FW HD's? If so, I'd like to hear feedback, good or bad.

03-10-2003, 06:50 PM	#8
cameranerd74 All Star Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 794	Does anybody know anything about the GVP XV series external FW hard drives? The price is right, and it matches the eMac. Here's a link: http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/...sp?dpno=505572

03-10-2003, 06:58 PM	#9
saltydog4791 Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 43	but does anyone know how to prevent the evil "spindown and no wake up" problem that seems to happen to a lot of these cases. I have an ADS Pyro case and when the drive spins down, sometimes it doesn't want to come back up. Unfortunately you can't control the drive via system prefs or pmset from the command line. I have lost lots of time and data due to this problem. saltydog4791

03-10-2003, 07:06 PM	#10
cameranerd74 All Star Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 794	That's a good point, however, I don't have a whole lot of choices, considering the eMac doesn't have room for any more drives internally. Is there another solution I'm not aware of?

03-14-2003, 05:48 PM	#12
cameranerd74 All Star Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 794	Thanks for all the input, but I never did get an answer to my original question.

03-14-2003, 06:12 PM	#13
sdunn10 Prospect Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: USA Posts: 36	I got the Lacie d2 120GB a while back. Attached to my laptop via firewire hub and it's served me pretty well thus far. I don't quite understand the logic behind buying a separate enclosure and drive when the price difference isn't so much and you have the additional headache of trying to get support if the drive fails. I suppose if you need lots of backup storage space you can swap out drives rather than chaining multiple firewire drives, but I don't need that flexibility. Each to their own I guess.

03-14-2003, 08:02 PM	#14
Phil St. Romain Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 2,350	I'm very partial to the drives made by WiebeTech (http://www.wiebetech.com) and have a couple that work marvelously. They've gotten great reviews in various computer magazines. Of course, it doesn't hurt that James Wiebe lives about four houses down, runs the business out of his home, and that my 16 year old son helps out with the operation.

03-17-2003, 04:41 PM	#15
cameranerd74 All Star Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 794	After some deliberating I think I'm going to purchase a WiebeTech Desktop GB (80gig). It seems to be the best option for me. It's less expensive than most pre-configured 80GB drives, $190, and it's really high rated. Plus, it's bootable on the Mac, has USB as well as FW ports, and it's white so it matches the eMac. I'm going to buy it pre-configured because the empty case is $110, and I doubt I can find an 80gb IDE drive for less than $80. Thanks to silicondiode and Phil St. Romain for suggesting WiebeTech.

03-25-2003, 12:50 AM	#16
jasenko Prospect Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 3	Drive Speeds I am also thinking of buying an external enclosure+HD but my main concern is speed of the HD. I know exactly what is maximum FW speed and that is why I'm even more confused what to buy. Is it worth buying faster ATA-100/133 7200rpm HD when the top for FW is some 35-40 MBps? That is still slower than any ATA-66 5200rpm HD. Does increased buffer (e.g. 8MB) means anything for a external FW drive? I hope guys with these toys could give us more info about this. Cheers!

03-25-2003, 01:06 PM	#17
eravau Triple-A Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Labadie, MO Posts: 136	When looking for the best price on hard drives, RAM and other individual components, one of the best places to look is Price Watch. According to the listings (today, March 25, 2003) you can get a Maxor 7200 RPM 80 Gig drive for $78. I paid $70 for a firewire case over a year ago (can't imagine paying $110). Not having used them, I can't vouch for them, but on Yahoo Shopping there are firewire enclosures listed for as low as $45. That makes a grand total of $123. Quite a bit less than your $190. Just something to think about. Last edited by eravau; 03-25-2003 at 01:10 PM.

03-26-2003, 12:16 PM	#18
cameranerd74 All Star Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 794	Jasenko. Yes. I have used 5400rpm FW drives and 7200 FW drives at work. The 7200rpm drives are definitely faster. __________________ I'm Microsoft Certified and I use a Mac... what does that tell you?

03-26-2003, 12:30 PM	#19
sjoshi Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: California Posts: 113	External Firewire drive I recently needed an external drive urgently. I bought ACOM Data 80 GB external drive (7200 RPM) that supports both Firewire and USB 2.0 interfaces. I paid around $175. A little later I saw an ad for an external Firewire Western Digital 200 GB (7200 RPM) for about $250 (with mail-in rebate), and bought that also. I have partitioned this into three equal partitions of 60+ GB each. I am happy with both these drives. They are both very quiet. I ended up buying them at Fry's locally, but I am sure these models are available from mail order places also.