External Hard Drive Thoughts

[TheFantasticG]

I suggest just buying the Drobo enclosure off those sites and then getting the HDDs new local... I suggest that because thats what I'm going to do.

[RKEnnis]

IMO the best internal hard drives on the market right now are the Western Digital Caviar Black series. Nice fast drives, good build quality, and reasonably priced. They work great in external enclosures.

[Rson]

Originally Posted by tukaniray

^^ Yeah ... I am looking at the Hitachis as well ... because the MacPros come with Hitachis in their from factory state. If Apple uses them well, it makes sense to stick with em. I know the SS Drives are Samsung ... but not all software support SS yet ...

I am quite weary of buying used HDs off those sites because, you never know what the user would have done to them. Plus you don't know what the life time will be once you start doing some major work on em. I think I will just stick with new here.

-Ray-

Last time I opened a Mac Pro the drives were Western Digitals.

[tukaniray]

Hmm ...

Randy, how do think the Hitachi Deckstar compares to the WD Cavier Black series?

I was at MicroCenter today and they have the Hitachi 1TB for like 70 bucks right now. A Pretty good deal ... just need to find an enclosure. If the Cavier are quite better, I would definitely go for those.

Rich ... interesting. I just opened the one at our office and our MacPro 8-Core has Hitachi and the PowerMac has Samsung. LOL. My MacBook Pro 17" 2.33 that I am on right now has a Hitachi as well.

Thanks guys. I am really doing some major research and you guys are helping me out alot. Not jumping at hard drives like I did in the past.

-Ray-

[Sonny]

Without a doubt WD Black series is totally superior to Hitachi. Plus the WD Black series comes with a 5 Year Limited Warranty.

WD Drives Overview

[texxter]

Another vote for Drobo. I use one with four Hitachi drives and it works really well and I feel protected. Now, I haven't lost a drive yet, and I haven't pulled one out to test the auto data redistribution, so let's hope it works if I ever need it! I created an 8 Tb volume even though I currenly have less than 4 Tb of storage on it. I will simply swap one of the smaller disks with a 2Tb disk whenever I want more capacity, and all the data should still be there. Love it.

[Rson]

Originally Posted by tukaniray

Hmm ...

Randy, how do think the Hitachi Deckstar compares to the WD Cavier Black series?

I was at MicroCenter today and they have the Hitachi 1TB for like 70 bucks right now. A Pretty good deal ... just need to find an enclosure. If the Cavier are quite better, I would definitely go for those.

Rich ... interesting. I just opened the one at our office and our MacPro 8-Core has Hitachi and the PowerMac has Samsung. LOL. My MacBook Pro 17" 2.33 that I am on right now has a Hitachi as well.

Thanks guys. I am really doing some major research and you guys are helping me out alot. Not jumping at hard drives like I did in the past.

-Ray-

When I was at the apple store, the rep opened the box and the drives were western digitals....I think 640gb drives.

[RKEnnis]

I think the WD Black series is probably a better built, and perhaps slightly faster drive than the Hitachi. With that said, I've used plenty of Hitachi hard drive over the years, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy one if the price was right.

One way to get feedback on computer hardware is the check the reviews on newegg.com. Every product there will have bad reviews, but the really bad products will have a whole series of bad reviews. It's just another sanity check... Just make sure the drive your reading reviews for is the exact model of the one your thinking of buying. Both Hitachi and WD make quite a variety of 1TB drives...

BTW, I'm not sure how relevant it is, but my Mac Pro did ship with a WD drive.

[tukaniray]

Maybe the one we have at the studio is an anomaly ... We did buy it back when the 8-core first came out.

Anyways, thanks for the info again guys. I will check with NewEgg as well and get an idea.

I think I will look into the WD Cavier Black series now. As for the enclosure. IF I can find a good drobo for a good price. I might just jump at it.

If not a drobo enclosure. The Thermaltake Enclosure was recommended. Are there any other suggestions?

I like the suggestions, they are helping me narrow down to the right combo for my next Hard drive.

Thanks again everyone.

-Ray-

[Rson]

I recommend this brand and NAS solutions:

Newegg.com - BUFFALO LS-WX2.0TL/R1 2TB LinkStation Duo Network Storage

[g-force]

I agree with Rson, you should definitely look at using a NAS so your drives are always mirrored in the event you have a failure. I have been using the Buffalo LinkStation drives for several years without any issues. You can access you data wired or wirelessly so you won't be tied to your desk.

If you don't want a network drive, then look for newer drives with either an eSATA or USB 3.0 port to enable faster transfer speeeds. Notebooks and desktops with USB 3.0 should be hitting the market this holiday season and the drive mfgs have already started their rollout as well.