Glyph or LaCie

[dmecionis]

Hello all,

I'm hoping to get some quick opinions from audio/music people because I want to make a purchase today. Here in NYC a store is starting their "Black Friday" deals early. Yeah I might hunt around on the internet and find other prices (Glyph $299 for instance), but I want to walk into a store today and buy.

There are two external drives there that look good to me, both with FW800/400 / USB 2.0 ports, both 7200 rpm, both 16MB cache.

1) Glyph GT050q 500GB Quad Interface External Hard Drive. Normally $319, selling for $229 (I got this price by phone).
2) LaCie 1TB d2 Quadra External Hard Drive. Normally $249, selling for $199.

With the Glyph at $229 and the LaCie at $199, I could consider the $30 negligible if the Glyph were the better.

The Glyph is $90 off its usual price, $70 off if you go by online prices. That's huge percentage-wise. The LaCie drops $50 bucks, which is less but not shabby. Shabbier though if you consider some onliners selling for $225.

But the Glyph has half the capacity of the LaCie. It may be a natural impulse to be space-greedy in these situations, but might the Glyph be a more preferable drive for sound apps, having Seagate SATA drive mechanism and all?

Even at the 1TB capacity, isn't it stinky that the LaCie is saddled with a 16MB cache, or is this mitigated by some other factor?

Neither is bus-powered, but I should mention that the LaCie has a wall wart adaptor. Glyph has a fan. I have a prev-gen Glyph, GT050 without the "q", and it always worked fine, quiet enough. Never owned or worked a LaCie.

Thoughts? Thank you all,
dm

[schneb]

I have always bought LaCie and have not had any problems. With a few minor tools, I have also been able to update the hard drive in the enclosure. I have one of the 1TB drives, and yes, it has a fan, but it is pretty quiet, and it has a three position switch to turn it on, off, or on Auto. The Auto setting confuses me because all it does is just stay on anyway. :/

What is nice about the 1TB over a 500GB is that for a year now I have not been worried at all about working space.

For another opinion, check out this thread (http://logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=91422&sid=3e2f6f2d7acb02b9f12802a0a4c863e5).

[dmecionis]

Thanks. And by the way I think I was in error about the cache. the store site listed 16MB but other sites, including LaCie's own, list a 32MB buffer for this device.

As for that link you provided, it gives pause except that it's a year old. Might they have addressed the issue / anyone having the disappearance act now?:confused:

-D

[schneb]

As for that link you provided, it gives pause except that it's a year old. Might they have addressed the issue / anyone having the disappearance act now?

Most likely, seeing that I have not had an issue yet, and I have used them for video production (which constantly taxes the drive). I think there were heat issues because of the aluminum enclosure, hence the adding of a small fan in the 1TB version. I chose LaCie because their enclosures are built well and behave very nicely with my Macs.

[dmecionis]

Thanks again! By the way, I've joined and posted to that thread (http://logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=91422&sid=3e2f6f2d7acb02b9f12802a0a4c863e5) you pointed out. You may want to check in.

Take care,
DM

[linwood]

I'm not really sure if this helps, but....I've got two GT050's and they've always worked perfectly. I've been happy with them.

[rwayland]

Well, I have been using a La Cie external usb hard drive as backup drive for at least three years. Not a hint of a problem.

Richard

[BenNichols]

Lacie Quaddras work very well for me. Plus you can get a cool rack for more than one :)

[stevegoers]

I've got a WD MyBook 1 TB. Bought it mostly for its eSATA hookup, and it's been working perfectly. Bout $225 if I remember correctly. If you're planning on doing any streaming audio from your external drive abd you have a SATA motherboard, it's worth a look. Data transfer rate of eSATA smokes firewire.

[LFO]

If I'm not too late...buy Glyph!
You don't just get the drive, you get 2 years of free data recovery should anything go wrong. They are quiet, fast and since they have every port available you can daisy chain anything off of them. For $229 I would have bought at least one with no hesitation. Is the sale still good?!

You can also rack Glyphs, either side by side or 1 per 1U whichever you prefer.

-Kevin