Is this a decent choice for an external hard drive?

[appar111]

Been looking at external hard drives that I can use with my Powerbook. It's a couple years old, so it doesn't have USB2.0, but does have firewire, so I thought this seemed like a good choice for the money-- simple, understated, and 4 times (160GB) the hard drive space that I have on my 40GB Powerbook.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0164969

Best part, it's only $149... is there a better option out there for around this much money?

 

[grandenigma1]

these are great drives and for a very good price... I use two of the 200gig ones and have never had any problems

its the drive you are looking at but at a cheaper price and from the actual manufacturer

 

[C38368]

Personally, I'd never buy a drive like that. Not that I don't like LaCie; I think they're a great brand.
However, I find it to be a much preferable course of action to buy an external enclosure of your choice (decent ones range from US$30-$50 or so, and can often be had with USB2.0 and Firewire ports), matched with a drive of your choice. The benefits here are rather obvious, I'd think--especially if you're like me and have a habit of collecting excess drives.

That said, I suppose that's an 'OK' deal: You're paying $150 for a 160GB drive (which can be had for around $100 depending on where you go) and an enclosure (see above). You only get Firewire (I'd rather have both: in some instances USB will transfer faster), and the drive has only got a 2MB buffer. While the mere fact that it's external will tend to cramp transfer speeds, I don't see any reason to try to exacerbate the problem with what amounts to an antiquated drive.
On the upside, the case is quite nice looking.

 

[appar111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by C38368 Personally, I'd never buy a drive like that. Not that I don't like LaCie; I think they're a great brand. However, I find it to be a much preferable course of action to buy an external enclosure of your choice (decent ones range from US$30-$50 or so, and can often be had with USB2.0 and Firewire ports), matched with a drive of your choice. The benefits here are rather obvious, I'd think--especially if you're like me and have a habit of collecting excess drives. That said, I suppose that's an 'OK' deal: You're paying $150 for a 160GB drive (which can be had for around $100 depending on where you go) and an enclosure (see above). You only get Firewire (I'd rather have both: in some instances USB will transfer faster), and the drive has only got a 2MB buffer. While the mere fact that it's external will tend to cramp transfer speeds, I don't see any reason to try to exacerbate the problem with what amounts to an antiquated drive. On the upside, the case is quite nice looking.

Why is it an antiquated drive? Also, I only have Firewire and USB1.1 on my powerbook, so the USB transfer will never be faster than the firewire transfer. But you're right that I should at least get something with both input options so that it's more useful if/when I upgrade my laptop. How much of a buffer should I be looking for? 2MB sounds sufficient.

So if I got an external case, how much would a hard drive (160GB-250GB) cost? I guess I don't see the "obvious" benefits of buying your own case and hard drive and putting it together, as opposed to buying one that's already put together for you, unless the former is alot cheaper (?)

grandenigma1- that's a great price on the 200 GB version (and only $10 more than the 160GB version!)

 

[C38368]

Quote:

Originally Posted by appar111 Why is it an antiquated drive? Also, I only have Firewire and USB1.1 on my powerbook, so the USB transfer will never be faster than the firewire transfer. But you're right that I should at least get something with both input options so that it's more useful if/when I upgrade my laptop. How much of a buffer should I be looking for? 2MB sounds sufficient. So if I got an external case, how much would a hard drive (160GB-250GB) cost? I guess I don't see the "obvious" benefits of buying your own case and hard drive and putting it together, as opposed to buying one that's already put together for you, unless the former is alot cheaper (?) grandenigma1- that's a great price on the 200 GB version (and only $10 more than the 160GB version!)

8MB is the industry standard for IDE and SATA hard drives at the moment. 2MB was supplanted several years ago. Some Maxtors are equipped with 16MB buffers. The advantage of a larger buffer (not so?) obviously is that you can burst more data as the buffer size increases, and bursting is three or four times faster than sustained read/writes. It won't make much difference if you're working with 2GB files, but there is a noticeable difference between 2MB and 8MB.

As for buying drives seperately, I can buy a WD1600JB (160GB, 8MB buffer, 7200RPM IDE) for $88.50 locally. It's 200GB brother (WD2000JB) is $103.50.
The biggest advantage here (at least to my eyes) is that I can swap drives in and out without having to buy multiple enclosures. Useful if you ever discover that 160GB isn't actually enough space, a situation I've found myself in before. The other advantage is that you can pick the manufacturer of the drive that goes into it. That might appeal to you, or it might not. Of course, I suppose you could always open up a prebuilt unit, but that is probably rather rough on any warranty.

In all reality, an enclosure + drive combo will probably cost about as much as an integrated unit, perhaps slightly less. But as I said, you gain the ability to trade out drives (perhaps I'm just unusual in seeing this as a benefit?), and have your pick of manufacturer. Contrasted with the LaCie you originally linked, I wouldn't go near a 2MB buffer today; most companies don't even make them anymore.

Quick Edit~ In looking this post over, I think I can encapsulate my take on this thusly: buying an enclosure and drive seperately will cost about the same, possibly see marginal performance improvements (at least in this case), and offer a greater amount of flexibility than a prebuilt unit would.

 

[dknightd]

I've read about reliability problems with the FA Porsche LaCie drives.
No first hand experience, and I can't point you to a reference, but I wouldn't buy one.
The LaCie d2 triple interface (usb 1&2, firewire 400 and 800) drives might be a better choice. I think the price is similar. Or build your own.

 

[appar111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by C38368 In all reality, an enclosure + drive combo will probably cost about as much as an integrated unit, perhaps slightly less. But as I said, you gain the ability to trade out drives (perhaps I'm just unusual in seeing this as a benefit?), and have your pick of manufacturer. Contrasted with the LaCie you originally linked, I wouldn't go near a 2MB buffer today; most companies don't even make them anymore.

That's funny because I went to cdw.com and alot of the hard drives I was pulling up had a 2MB buffer, so they're obviously still making them.

I'll have to look at the prices on enclosures and see if I can perhaps mix and match and have something that will be a little more flexible and less likely to become a paperweight in 2 years.

 

[Nospam]

Don't worry about the buffer size. I've read from various sources that it doesn't seem to matter when the drive is used in an external enclosure.

You can find 160GB drives for $40-50 after rebate. Good quality enclosures (aluminum with no fan is my preference) go for as low as $40.

Don't worry about USB. All Macs have Firewire, as do many quality PCs. Once you add additional drives to the chain, Firewire will ALWAYS be faster than USB 2.0 (unless there's something wrong with your computer).

Having said all that, the LaCie drive is an ok buy. They've got a reputation for good customer service.

 

[EasyRaider]

Keep in mind that these large 3.5" drives need to be plugged into a wall socket. I just ordered a 2.5" 80 GB disk and an enclosure, much more convenient for portable use. 2.5" drives are also quieter. The downside is lower storage capacity.

 

[canloader]

Oh, I would love an external 1Terabyte HD...

I do own a Seagate 400Gb with Dual USB/Firewire and I have tested both types. I will have to say the Firewire is much quicker than USB. I got it off ebay brand new for $250shipped. I have had no problems. I take to and from work, travel. I also had it at the SoCal meet. Much better than bringing a huge CD file! get some lossless encoding going and your cruizin' !

 

[D-EJ915]

You could get one of those cheap drives at the store and a firewire housing for like 100 bucks and it would be 200GB or something like that u know.

 

[Oink1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandenigma1 these are great drives and for a very good price... I use two of the 200gig ones and have never had any problems

And the prize for the longest ever linky is awarded to grandenigma1

 

[NiceCans]

One thing not mentioned above . . . warranty
I was able to buy a Seagate with a 5 year warranty, for under 50 cents per gigabyte
I then slipped it into my USB drive enclosure (displacing a smaller drive which is now installed elsewhere).

 

[JiiEf]

A lot of laptops will have 4 pin firewire, while all the external HD enclosures I know require 6 pin firewire for powering. I'd check compatibility before I buy.

/JF

 

[viator122]

Does anyone know if the Seagate externals also have the 5 year warranty?