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  3. Most favoured external hard-drive Mac-compatible

  • Most favoured external hard-drive Mac-compatible

    E
    E

    As the post's title says, I am after your learned opinion regarding the overall fastest, most reliable and efficient (as well as capacious for the hundreds of Gb worth of VSL - and other - libraries), perhaps portable(?) external hard drive with Mac compatibility. If you are verbose in your answers I would doubly appreciate it, that is why you prefer one over the others (speed of drive, transfer rates. reliability, etc.). And until the new towers are out and we get a good glimpse at them, internal drives are not an option for me. I do big orchestral scores on Snow Leopard and Logic 8.0.2.

    Thanks.
  • Cyril BlancC
    Cyril BlancC

    the best thing is to test the drive with Xbench (free)

    here are my figures :

    Xbench 1.3
    Macpro 8 core 13gb

    57 with Lacie 200 GB FW800
    71 With Hitachi 1 TB 
    75 with WD 250 System disk
    76 With WD 72 GB
    105 with the Rocket raid card and 2 Raptor 10 000 with Softraid driver optimize for digital audio 
    147 with the Rocket raid card and 4 Raptor 10 000 with Softraid driver optimize for digital audio 
    175 with the Rocket raid card and 6 Raptor 10 000 with Softraid driver optimize for digital audio 
    Best
    Cyril
  • E
    E

    Thanks for replying. I take it to test the drives you have to own them first. Also, I was talking about external drives; do the last 3 on your list fit that requirement? If so, I take it that RAID card is specifically designed for linking external memory devices. I also take it that with your bench tests, the higher numbers are the fastest numbers.

    Thanks again.
  • Cyril BlancC
    Cyril BlancC

    you take Xbench on a CD and go to your favorite MAC shop !

    rule 1

    faster -->  sata and esata

    slower is USB1

    rule 2 

    10 000 rpm or faster is the best

    rule 3

    bigger is the buffer better it is

    rule 4

    do not put a FW disk with a FW audio on the same FW buss

    My raid is external but in a Macpro you can have an internal raid

    yes higher numbers are the fastest numbers
  • B
    B

    I have had best experience with Glyph drives from a pure performance perspective. They are very reliable as well. Lacie has been very reliable too but comparing the FW800 versions I do not think they are as fast as the Glyphs I've used. A lot of people consider Glyph to be pricey but in my opinion they are well worth it, especially if you are limited to FW800 as an external option. 

    GT050q and GT062 are both great in the 250GB version but for what you are describing you will probably be fine with the 1TB GT050q. The GT062 is a raid so it's faster depending on what type of raid you choose. 

    Here's the performance details from glyph http://www.glyphtech.com/support/trackcount.php 

    I hope that helps!