|
|
02-08-2007, 07:42 PM
|
|
Regular
Join Date: Sep 2006
Group: Regulars
Location: Canberra, ACT
Posts: 308
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by gallet
I've also heard that FW is better at handling audio, something to do with the way USB handles the info in packets.
|
Do you have any more info about that?
It's the first I've heard of it, and surprising too because there's alot of DAC/headphone amplifiers out there (at prices up to $1500), that feature USB input, like the Meier Audio Corda Opera.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
02-08-2007, 07:48 PM
|
|
Regular
Join Date: Aug 2005
Group: Regulars
Location: Video Professional, Mostly Melbourne, but work all over Australia
Posts: 1,040
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by yinyang
i have two Lacie d2 triple interface externals and have no complaints. i did have a maxtor III but that went back because after six months it developed an I/O error that didn't really impress me, so I exchanged it for the second Lacie. the 300Gb/320Gb models seems to very well priced at the moment since i think they're trying to phase one of those models out as the lowest capacity for the triple interface.
i've also heard that the porsche design ones aren't as reliable as the d2, but that's anecdotal!!
|
Dito, I have the 500 GB ones at home and at work.. never let me down yet.. and having Firewire 400/800 and USB is a real Bonus....and they are very solid construction! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
03-08-2007, 06:49 AM
|
|
Regular
Join Date: May 2005
Group: Regulars
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 341
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirium
Do you have any more info about that?
It's the first I've heard of it, and surprising too because there's alot of DAC/headphone amplifiers out there (at prices up to $1500), that feature USB input, like the Meier Audio Corda Opera.
|
I was told when I got my protools setup that the external firewire drive was important to record to because your internal drive can get very busy with software instruments etc. I suspect this is less of an issue than it used to be but if you start using lots of tracks it still can be.
On the firewire v usb issue; firewire is better at consistent high speed transfers which is what you have the drive doing when recording audio. The digital interface itself apparently isn't limited by usb as much as writing files is. If you are recording then is stands to reason that it's good to separate the digital audio traffic (usb) and the file writing traffic (firewire).
There is bound to be more informed folk on this issue but this is what I've been told. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
03-08-2007, 04:49 PM
|
|
Regular
Join Date: Sep 2006
Group: Regulars
Location: Canberra, ACT
Posts: 308
|
That makes sense... 
It sounds like it's not that much of an issue when just listening to music, as opposed to recording and editing.. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12-08-2007, 10:36 AM
|
|
Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Group: Regulars
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 59
|
Hey Everyone,
Following on from all the discussion on External Hard Drives, it's time for myself to find an external solution for my Powerbook...
Am wanting to build my own Enclosure using a Seagate HD... My question is in regards to which case to use, I am considering 3 options, two at similar price points, one substantially more expensive... Options are:
1. Coolermaster X-Craft, Combo USB/Firewire, $50-$60?
2. Vantec Nexstar, Combo USB/Firewire, ~$50,$60?
3. IceCube, Combo USB/Firewire, ~$100
My question is, I'm currently leaning more towards the Coolermaster Enclosure, however, does anybody have any recommendations against or in regard to spending almost double on an IceCube enclosure or other?
Lastly, can anybody confirm if the Coolermaster Cases utilise the Oxford Chipset?
Any feedback/advice/experiences or comments appreciated...
Cheers...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12-08-2007, 11:43 AM
|
|
Regular
Join Date: Oct 2006
Group: Regulars
Location: Hobart
Posts: 123
|
Hey I have a new lacie safe 320 porche drive.
Have to say the speeds are very good on usb.
The drive has been purchased in europe cause it was so cheap there don't know about prices here. The drive has a fingerprint reader as well so everything is safe on your drive.
hope it helps
Rik
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12-08-2007, 01:00 PM
|
|
Happy is an Apple
Join Date: Aug 2005
Group: Regulars
Location: Sydney
Posts: 334
|
External Hard Drives & Time Machine
I know I and others have brought this subject up before ( External Hard Drives & Time Machine) but wouldn't it be nice if with the release of Leopard and its embedded Time Machine backup program, that Apple bring out an Apple (with their magic touch designed) External Hard Drive/s 500Gb - 1Tb etc [USB, F400/F800] that can be connected and automatically recognised and therefore very portable, either by direct connection to any Mac or via Airport Express/Extreme and also be able to have connection to iTV (for those with large libraries) and have the ability of multiple partitions in Mac format e.g. Time Machine partition, iTV partition, iMovie, iPhoto, FCE/FCP etc partition. Just a thought.
__________________
********************************************
iMac 24" 2.4Gb with 4Gb RAM
Lacie Extreme BigDisk 1Tb (triple interface) ext drive
iPod 5.5 30g
http://web.mac.com/chasandstephen |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12-08-2007, 02:20 PM
|
|
Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Group: Registered Users
Location: Still deciding
Posts: 33
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by stewiesno1
As in one of the posts above , buy the USB2/Firewire enclosure and install the hard drive yourself. I would buy a Seagate drive with the 16mb cache and get the five year warranty as opposed to the other brands which mostly come with three years or less. They are much the same price too. Also look to get an enclosure that has a decent fan in to vent as much hot air out as possible.As also mentioned above , if you really need to backup huge data files as fast as you can then the triple interface with USB2/Firewire 400/ Firewire 800 is the way to go although they are not as common as USB2/Firewire 400 and that much more expensive as well.
Stewie
|
+1 stewiesno1
He mentions all the important considerations and suggestions including the fan and the five year warranties. The reason for this is the fans help to keep the drives cooler especially in harsher environments, and the drives are built tougher to begin with and are more of what is commercially acceptable and used by companies and corporations who can not be bothered with drives failures that tend to cost them money and loss of revenue due to down time.
I have had much success with many different Mfg. drives over the years that only had one year warranties, but find the ones with the five year warranties are much more to my needs and my client's needs. the dual USB/Firewire interfaces at least have been a savior in a pinch. Most of the USB/eSata interfaces seem to be ok, I have not seen a failure in these yet.
The other important thing is the interface, there are several out there that are not really up to the task of consistent power and use. I have had more interface failures over the years for the firewire ports failing, but this is getting better with the newer technology and chipsets
The chipset is also a concern as I have tested several and some will work ok as long as one does not use the same Mfg. for another drive set. i.e. two interfaces with same drives attached would not recognize the other was also there and conflicted with the mounting of both drives simultaneously.
One point I will mention as I see many her thinking or doing this is to NOT use raid 0 or 1.
Although the operating systems support it now it is still unsafe as if raid fails the operating systems tools do not give enough advanced warning/notifications of eminent failure. If you use Raid 0 (Stripped) and a drive failure you are pretty assured you will loss most your data without the proper advanced warnings in place. If you use Raid 1 (Mirrored) you will have a backup of data from the drive(s) it is mirroring, but you also run the risk of the corruption of the main drives actually transferring to the mirrored drives without the proper advanced warnings in place. (A mirrored volume is a complete logical representation of separate volume copies).
I would not recommend any raid unless one is willing to spend the extra money to do at least Raid 5. The extra cost is in redundancy of the drive quantity and often an extra raid card that supports it. One also needs to have the drives matched of course and an extra drive that also keeps the Distributed Parity. Distributed parity requires all but one drive to be present to operate; drive failure requires replacement, but the array is not destroyed by a single drive failure. Another main difference here is Raid 5 and above is a true hardware solution while usually Raid 0 and 1 are mostly software solutions with less than adequate warning systems of failures.
Raid 7 or better is the best of both worlds. Striping and mirroring with adequate warning systems of failures.
Last edited by Nuts4Ever; 13-08-2007 at 04:20 AM.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12-08-2007, 02:58 PM
|
|
Regular
Join Date: Dec 2004
Group: Regulars
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 217
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by [schmick]
Hey Everyone,
Following on from all the discussion on External Hard Drives, it's time for myself to find an external solution for my Powerbook...
Am wanting to build my own Enclosure using a Seagate HD... My question is in regards to which case to use, I am considering 3 options, two at similar price points, one substantially more expensive... Options are:
1. Coolermaster X-Craft, Combo USB/Firewire, $50-$60?
2. Vantec Nexstar, Combo USB/Firewire, ~$50,$60?
3. IceCube, Combo USB/Firewire, ~$100
My question is, I'm currently leaning more towards the Coolermaster Enclosure, however, does anybody have any recommendations against or in regard to spending almost double on an IceCube enclosure or other?
Lastly, can anybody confirm if the Coolermaster Cases utilise the Oxford Chipset?
Any feedback/advice/experiences or comments appreciated...
Cheers...
|
The Vantec enclosure works fine for me. It is relatively slow, but I just need it for SuperDuper backups, so it doesn't need to be fast (about 10 mins for a 80 gig drive, which is probably limited by the read/write times of the drives rather than transfer rates?) - I just needed it to be cheap! If you are gonna be using it for video editing, steer clear. They are slow. Not Oxford chipset. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12-08-2007, 04:44 PM
|
|
Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Group: Regulars
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 86
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by [schmick]
1. Coolermaster X-Craft, Combo USB/Firewire, $50-$60?
2. Vantec Nexstar, Combo USB/Firewire, ~$50,$60?
3. IceCube, Combo USB/Firewire, ~$100
My question is, I'm currently leaning more towards the Coolermaster Enclosure, however, does anybody have any recommendations against or in regard to spending almost double on an IceCube enclosure or other?
Lastly, can anybody confirm if the Coolermaster Cases utilise the Oxford Chipset?
Any feedback/advice/experiences or comments appreciated...
|
I have a Coolermaster X-Craft combo enclosure (mine is USB/eSata tho) and I've had no problems with it (connected directly to my MBP or my Airport Extreme).
__________________
MBP 17" 2.33Ghz 3GB RAM 160GB HD | EyeTV Diversity | Airport Extreme+750GB HD
XboxZone |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
23-08-2007, 02:22 PM
|
|
Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Group: Regulars
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 59
|
Anybody know if the X-Craft Enclosure uses the Oxford Chipset for Firewire?
I also saw these Sarotech Hardbox Enclosures... USB/Combo and also have an internal power supply... Do these use the Oxford Chipset to play nice with Mac and has anybody had any experiences with these cases... They look the goods and the internal power supply is definately a plus...
Feedback appreciated...
Cheers..
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24-08-2007, 12:48 AM
|
|
Would you like a jelly baby?
Join Date: Mar 2004
Group: Regulars
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 2,361
|
Back again...
Last semester in the end one of my production team purchased a "Cooler Master" 320Gb hard drive off eBay for $179 (plus about $30 postage). It had both USB 2.0 and Firewire connections (thought was FW800, but might have only been FW400).
Looking on eBay now, there's a 400Gb drive of the same kind for $199, plus $29 postage...
It is a Samsung SATA drive... no mention of what chipset it uses...
Thoughts?
__________________
A writer? Yeah, sure, that'll pay the bills. Why don't you get a real fucking job like everyone else?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24-08-2007, 08:21 AM
|
|
Seriously
Join Date: Feb 2004
Group: Administrators
Location: Fukuoka, Japan (originally Canberra)
Posts: 8,189
|
It's a Prolific from memory, junk. Pull open the case and have a look.
By the way, merged this with the main external HD sticky.
Last edited by Currawong; 24-08-2007 at 08:23 AM.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24-08-2007, 08:42 AM
|
|
Would you like a jelly baby?
Join Date: Mar 2004
Group: Regulars
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 2,361
|
Mmm, ok... Cooler Master / X Craft = same thing... and no, can't find anything to say what the chipset is...
This one is ok though I gather... and actually not too expensive...
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Apple-Mac-Min...QQcmdZViewItem
Ah - well, if it were "Buy it now" it would be good price... $200 is the starting price... that might be a problem.
__________________
A writer? Yeah, sure, that'll pay the bills. Why don't you get a real fucking job like everyone else?
Last edited by cosmichobo; 24-08-2007 at 08:53 AM.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24-08-2007, 08:55 AM
|
|
Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Group: Regulars
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 59
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Currawong
It's a Prolific from memory, junk. Pull open the case and have a look.
|
Hmm, perhaps this is why I'm having trouble booting from this X-Craft Enclosure... I had a look on the Chipboard, there is a chip that has PMC on it? I can't see the undercarriage of the board unless I pull the whole thing apart...
GRR... So much for the X-Craft playing nice with the Mac...
Anybody tried those Sarotech Cases? Or know if they are Oxford Chipset based... I like the idea of the internal power supply... |
|
|
|
|
|
