External Drives - Whats your Rating?

[newmewzikboy]

Ok, I went ahead an burned cash on EWQLO Gold and Silver for my laptop, and now I am evaluating external hard drives for my sample libraries using DFD and Kontakt for both GPO and my new exciting butt burning libraries. I might even throw on my Giga Libraries as well.

Heres a question for the great hardware minds out there, and perhaps for the record of other likewise minions like me who want to get into the external hd laptop game.

Given the following blissful choices, how would order the following configurations, from FASTEST to SLOWEST.

1) LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme with Triple Interface - running Firewire 800 and using a LaCie Firewire 800 PC Card.
2) TWO LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme with Triple Interface - running Firewire 800 and using a LaCie Firewire 800 PC Card in a RAID 0 configuration.
3) LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme with Triple Interface - running under Firewire 400
4) LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme with Triple Interface - running under USB2
5) Maxtor OneTouch II Firewire 800 (not sure I can raid this)
6) Maxtor OneTouch II Firewire and USB - running Firewire 400
7) Maxtor OneTouch II Firewire and USB - running USB2

Any other suggestions encouraged for large orchestral processing...

[robgb]

My advice is that you forego spending the money on pre-made external drives and simply build your own. It's about half the price (or less, if you can find a drive on sale) and works the same.

All you have to do is buy a hard drive (I have a 200 gig and a 160 gig), buy a hard drive USB enclosure ($20-$30) and stick the hard drive into the enclosure. Then you're good to go.

[Alan Lastufka]

7) Maxtor OneTouch II Firewire and USB - running USB2

I have one of those, 250GB and I keep all my commercial and personal libs on it - never had a problem streaming.

[rikp]

Does anyone know anything about the Glyph hot swapable drives that Sweetwater recommends? I am considering moving in that direction.

Peace

Rik

[robin123]

Maxtor 250 gig firewire/usb. It's been working great.

[newmewzikboy]

Thats all great but Im wondering how many instruments you can stream at the same time. Reading other threads online here seem to indicate USB2 OR Firewire 400 has problems when more than 2 instance of Kontakt are running. I am almost thinking 2 Firewire 800 drives in a RAID0 configuration may be the only answer for laptop.

The mega trip would be to use PC Card for the 2 800's as sample drives, and an onboard 400 for a recording.

[SteveHanlon]

I've got the LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme with Triple Interface - running Firewire 800 and using a LaCie Firewire 800 PC Card. Running into a PCMCIA card on an APPLE 1GHZ powerbook.

I don't know about the Kompakt libs. But I'm able to get about 12-15 audio instr. (exs 24) streaming in Logic 7.

I also tested my AV Ammo FW 400 drive with streaming and got about 10-12 exs 24 streaming.

I expected so much more out of the FW 800 but I've been told again and again that it has a lot to do with just how much throughput is available. I'm never sure what that means but I assumed it had to do with how big the 'Highway' is. Which I guess collectively means info heading to CPU.

I should also add that 12-15 instr. is just fine for my needs. I wouldn't expect to load a whole orch. with just this FW 800.

But then again if you're on a PC notebook with a fast ATHLON chip you could probably get much better performance than I'm getting.

[newmewzikboy]

Steve: Thanks for the information. Very impressive. One thing you might try is daisy chaning another 800 drive off your first in a RAID configuration. I read via LaCie that this would double your speed. I thought that one of the benefits of using Firewire was taking advantage of direct memory addressing...e.g. your drives bypass the processor. So your speed problems may be related to playback, not necessarily getting info off of disk?


Lee: As for the Seagate options. Impressive stuff, but a lot of work, and I am trying to stay a bit portable. I'll look over the materials a bit more and how I can do this. Thanksfor the tips

[rikp]

You're vastly better off buying a top line drive, like the Seagate 7200.8 series from a reliable retailer like newegg.com, and putting it in your own quality case (for removables, StorCase and Granite Digital are two very good brands). Companies like Seagate and Western Digital also sell drives prepackaged with combo USB and Firewire interfaces.

Personally, I would avoid both LaCie and Maxtor. There are better options for your money.

Thanks Lee! Food for thought.

Peace

Rik

Lee Blaske[/QUOTE]

[newmewzikboy]

I just came back from a FRY's and COMPUSA Run.

How about a SATA PMCIA card running and external SATA drive in an case? Looks like it can get 1,160Mbs throughput?

[SteveHanlon]

Yeah, man! Go for it! I was wondering about those drives.

Having a LaCie I'd actually also recommend against getting it- just a feeling more than anything. Something...NOT special about it. It works but...I do have problems with the drive disappearing or it doesn't unmount.

Perhaps these are Apple issues and not LaCie. But overall it will probably be my last LaCie drive.

I'm really curious about the SATA idea.

[Scott Speed]

Just to add another voice to the "build your own" chorus...if you buy something like a Seagate 300gb external, it only comes with a one year warranty. That's shorter than a hobbit in quicksand. The internal, however, comes with a 5 year warranty which leaves you with a much bigger comfort zone down the road. I've had tons of drives konk out around the 1-2 year mark, so I'm a strong advocate for longer warranties. I'd definitely recommend picking up an internal drive and just getting your own external case for it.
Best Wishes,
Scott Speed - Music Supervisor
"Unique Whips"

[newmewzikboy]

Thanks SCott!

Confusing confusing...looking at comparisons on the internet. It looks like getting a PCMCIA for either SATA or Firewire 800 drives and then running them under RAID0 is the ONLY way to go to get 114+Mps. It then becomes a question of stability and such, and the hassle of entering into unchartered territory for me. I haven't heard anyone here actually using SATA external drives with their laptop configurations.

Firewire 800 PCMCIA card
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10482

SATA external case + PCMCIA card
http://www.granitedigital.com/catalog/pg48_portabledrivesystems.htm
http://www.granitedigital.com/catalog/pg49_fasthostadapters.htm

[rikp]

I'm in the same boat here. This sounds really interesting and I want to purchase a Seagate internal drive, put it into a case to run via firewire into a Mac and a PC. Has anyone one done this? And if so, how? I do love those 5 year warranties!

Peace

Rik Pfenninger

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Does anyone know anything about the Glyph hot swapable drives that Sweetwater recommends? I am considering moving in that direction.

Peace

Rik

A good way to throw your money away on something you could buy for half the price, or less. Glyph is a total ripoff.

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Haha...I didn't read down and see that Lee had already jumped on that Glyph thing. They're shameless. And their basic pitch is that if you use anything but their products your precious music is in danger.

"Sweetwater recommends" should be a red flag in anyone's book. I have yet to find any music store that consistently has any clue when it comes to computer musicmaking. I would stay far away from that channel when seeking information or purchasing.

[rikp]

Thanks for the "heads up" on the Glyph drives! One thing that I have learned is to post here before I buy!

Peace

Rik Pfenninger

[newmewzikboy]

Here are some articles worth reading. I believe the newer SATA II drives beat duel 800s in the same configuration.


http://www.barefeats.com/hard30.html
http://www.barefeats.com/hard35.html

http://www.barefeats.com/fire45.html
http://www.barefeats.com/hard48.html
http://www.barefeats.com/hard43.html
http://www.barefeats.com/fire45.html

Im probably going to go this route in a RAID0 configuration:

http://firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-1en2/
http://maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.6adb6b8313633595062e6be791346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Products/ATA%20Hard%20Drives/Midline%20Applications

[rikp]

Here are some articles worth reading. I believe the newer SATA II drives beat duel 800s in the same configuration.



http://www.barefeats.com/hard30.html
http://www.barefeats.com/hard35.html

http://www.barefeats.com/fire45.html
http://www.barefeats.com/hard48.html
http://www.barefeats.com/hard43.html
http://www.barefeats.com/fire45.html

Im probably going to go this route in a RAID0 configuration:

http://firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-1en2/
http://maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.6adb6b8313633595062e6be791346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Products/ATA%20Hard%20Drives/Midline%20Applications

Thanks for the info! I am trying to do this for Mac running DP and for my Dell running Giga (just bought Vienna Strings and need the space!)

Peace

Rik