External Hard Drive Recommendation

[cdechiara]

I recently had to retire my old Mac Pro 2008 and my trusty 2408. So while waiting out a better understanding of where the Mac Pro is going I bought a MacBook Pro Retina 15inch Mid 2015 laptop. I also bought 2 external drives: G-Drive 4TB and a Lacie 2TB. The G-Drive is in a big metal casing and the Lacie is small and has that rubber life boat look. I also bought a 828ES to replace the 2408.

I bought the G-Drive to be primary disc space for recording and to augment the puny drive in the laptop and the Lacie for backups. While the drives work great, the G-Drive makes a lot of noise and since its sitting on the desktop behind the laptop it is too loud for recording and mixing. Its really annoying. The little Lacie is silent. But before I go and reverse their roles I thought I would reach out to the forum to see what people have found to be quiet reliable external drives that work for recording and that are quiet.

My recording needs are for a personal project studio that every now and then may release something. I don't think I need a RAID array I'd really prefer to be somewhat portable but the most import thing is quiet and reliable.

Appreciate any and all suggestions.

Chris

[mikehalloran]

Not enough information.

Is portability an issue (do you need it?)

Is this 4G fast enough for your needs?

How are you connecting it? USB 3, USB C, Thunderbolt?

[cdechiara]

Hi Mike,
I believe the G-Drive is fast enough I haven't had any issues (yet)with recording with DP8 (yes I'm behind) and its connected via USB3 as is the Lacie. But I have only spent about 20 hours recording with this setup. The laptop has 2 Thunderbolt 2 ports , one of which is used by the 828ES and 2 USB3 ports one of which is used by the G-Drive and the other by an Anker USB hub. My main issue with the G-Drive is the noise.

Portability is a nice to have - I'm not mobile recording or field recording or anything like that. I'd like something quiet and reliable and if possible without breaking the bank.

Chris

[mikehalloran]

La Cie doesn't make the drive, just the housing. Probably what you hear is the constant fan noise.

These housings can usually be opened with a Phillips screwdriver and the drive removed. Once removed, you can set it into something like this. Because the drive is exposed to the air, no fans are needed. Pop it out of the La Cie housing, set it in this and you're good to go.

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Do ... USB+3+dock

If the actual drive noise is still a bother, a perfectly adequate 2T SSD will set you back $299 and will drop into that same housing.
https://www.amazon.com/Micron-MTFDDAK2T ... n+1100+2tb

4T SSDs are available @ $1,100 if you need that much capacity.
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-Int ... rds=4T+SSD