best harddrive for intense virtual instrument steaming???

bell222 · Post by **bell222** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:24 pm

Anyone know what the best external harddrive for streaming intense virtual instruments like Ivory, Kontakt, Reaktor? I'm running DP 7.11u. I'm using a Macbook Pro I7 and will be doing allot of live stuff so I can't have a slow drive. It's going to be running FW800. I was thinking of the 1TB Gdrive. Here's the link. I've heard these are extremely dependable. http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:31 pm

I went with this enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Loaded up with this drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Grand total: About $150. Couldn't be happier. It's quiet and been working like a champ!

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:32 pm

If you have time, you can check out this thread:

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... 26&t=40701" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I pretty much agonized over this like you're doing now. Saw your other post though about wanting to go USB with MIDI/Audio interface and not sure about that one, though. Might be some other suggestions forthcoming.

bell222 · Post by **bell222** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:35 pm

Is it FW800? I couldnt' tell from the link.

bell222 · Post by **bell222** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:40 pm

would you say it's as dependable as the Gdrive?

bell222 · Post by **bell222** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:45 pm

Also found something around your same price range. http://www.ramjet.com/itemdescr.asp?Item=F8W15T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; What do you think?

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:58 am

bell222 wrote:Is it FW800? I couldnt' tell from the link.

Yes. It's FW400, FW800, and eSATA as well.

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:01 am

bell222 wrote:would you say it's as dependable as the Gdrive?

I don't know. I never owned a G-drive. It really boils down to the enclosure components since the drives are not made by G-drives. So far I'm very happy with mine.

newrigel · Post by **newrigel** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:09 am

You have one bottleneck... IEEE 1394b. You could get the best drive made and it still only perform @ FW speeds so the mechanism isn't going to be a real issue here. On the iMac your only option is FW so that's all you'll get. When Apple puts Light peak into all their boxes, you won't have these issues anymore... well, for a few years anyway until they scale the protocol to 100 Gb/s.

bell222 · Post by **bell222** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:55 pm

newrigel wrote:You have one bottleneck... IEEE 1394b. You could get the best drive made and it still only perform @ FW speeds so the mechanism isn't going to be a real issue here. On the iMac your only option is FW so that's all you'll get. When Apple puts Light peak into all their boxes, you won't have these issues anymore... well, for a few years anyway until they scale the protocol to 100 Gb/s.

No, it's a Macbook Pro with a ESata card option which is what I would stream my drive to.

screws · Post by **screws** » Tue May 18, 2010 10:13 am

James Steele wrote:I went with this enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Loaded up with this drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Grand total: About $150. Couldn't be happier. It's quiet and been working like a champ!

Hey James, would this drive work internally in my Mac Pro 1,1?

screws · Post by **screws** » Tue May 18, 2010 10:15 am

Take a look here:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western% ... /WD15EARS/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

OWC has a 1.5 TB Western Digital drive for $110.00. Any comments on WD drives?

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Tue May 18, 2010 11:16 am

screws wrote:
James Steele wrote:I went with this enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Loaded up with this drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Grand total: About $150. Couldn't be happier. It's quiet and been working like a champ!
Hey James, would this drive work internally in my Mac Pro 1,1?

Sure does. I bought a used Mac Pro 1,1 and simply took the drive out and installed in the Mac Pro without missing a beat!

newrigel · Post by **newrigel** » Tue May 18, 2010 11:28 am

bell222 wrote:
newrigel wrote:You have one bottleneck... IEEE 1394b. You could get the best drive made and it still only perform @ FW speeds so the mechanism isn't going to be a real issue here. On the iMac your only option is FW so that's all you'll get. When Apple puts Light peak into all their boxes, you won't have these issues anymore... well, for a few years anyway until they scale the protocol to 100 Gb/s.

No, it's a Macbook Pro with a ESata card option which is what I would stream my drive to.

I could have sworn you said this: I'm using a Macbook Pro I7 and will be doing allot of live stuff so I can't have a slow drive. It's going to be running FW800.
This is why I stated that... sorry. In that case, anything would do. You could spend the $$ on a Velociraptor and be done with it. If performance is paramount, then a 600 GB (if high capacity is what your after) velociraptor or any type of 10k rpm drive will win out. I should have figured it out by the 17 inch moniker but you did state FW 800.

mikebeckmotu · Post by **mikebeckmotu** » Tue May 18, 2010 1:15 pm

screws wrote:Take a look here:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western% ... /WD15EARS/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

OWC has a 1.5 TB Western Digital drive for $110.00. Any comments on WD drives?

I've had, generally, slow performance from WD drives. I'll use them for backups, clones, but not streaming audio or recording. Granted, it's possible there may have been quirks about my systems that didn't get along with WD, but it seems unlikely.
For each time I've replaced a WD drive with another brand, performance has gone up.
I should be clear that I'm talking about 7200rpm off-the-shelf external drives, and not custom-enclosure builds or bare-kit internals.

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