External Hard Drive/enclosure Choice Options

[keybie]

I've decided to get a 15" Powerbook and am awaiting to see if Apple will be releasing an updated version next week in case I'll probably get a better machine for the same price as now

The machine will be used for everyday stuff like email, web etc. but also for video editing (iMovie, Final cut express or whatever I find to be usable for editing home videos in a respectable manner). And since I'm a serious hobby musician I'd like to use it for audio/MIDI as well, with internal soft-samplers (possibly also some soft-synths even though I suffice with my external MIDI gear), effects etc. Haven't decided what kind of software to settle for as I'm very new to all of this, but have been suggested to try out the various demo versions when I finally get my Mac.

But getting to the point of this posting: I most likely need a large and fast external hard drive for this, so I need to figure out:

1) Which hard drive should I buy?
and
2) Which external enclosure should I buy?

I don't know anything about which specs I should be looking for, but I do definitely want a silent running drive, that's for sure! I've had computers in the past which sould like vacuum cleaners, and I assure you: it's not much fun trying to be creative with that sort of environment!

As for the enclosure. Apart from ventilating the drive well enough (I've read that some enclosures have no fan, even though they claim that their design is uniquely made and do give sufficent cooling I'm a little sceptical, though still open to the idea if it proves to be correct) it should look good.

Having searched around the web almost in vain (most enclosures look pretty cheesy, tacky and geeky in my opinion. I'm looking for something that looks a little more stylish and "pro") I believe I've found something that is usable:

Macpower 'Pleiades' drive enclosure

Anyone know of other "pro looking" drive enclosures?


Although I'll probably buy the "Superdrive" version of the Powerbook I might actually get an external DVD-writer later on, to save on tear and wear, and possibly higher specs as well, so getting an enclosure for the hard drive that'll match one for the DVD writer would be great!
Perhaps there's an enclosure style that is delivered for both devices?
If possible, I'd like to stack them on top of each other.

As for interfacing, what should I go for? Firewire 400? 800? USB?
What about for the external DVD-writer?

A practial issue: it would be nice not to have an external power supply ("wall wart"), but a built-in power supply in the enclosure itself, but this seems not to be the trend, so I might have to give in here.

Suggestions, comments?

[Narayan]

Hi,
I recently bought a 17"powerbook G4 1.6Gig. I am also a very new customer to this Mac business and have been a serious music composer for the past 13 years only with PCs using softwares like Cakewalk and Sonar.
Now to your questions. I would rather buy a mac with a built in DVD writer than go for an external one, as it already takes hell of a time to write a movie file to a DVD (even when inbuilt). What ever External HDD or enclosue you buy, go only for fire wire devices (6 pin or 9pin), as, USB drives may be painfully slow.

The bundled software comes with a decent composer software called Garrageband, but not for serious or professional composers. For more flexibility and creativity, you may use Logic express (the toned down version) or Logic pro (the full version) depending on your budget. But really speaking, Mac does not have much software for creating MIDI music.
The bundled video capture/editing software (i-movie) is also a fairly decent editing software and would be more than sufficient for home movies. BUt again, it all depends on what you really want to do with your computer. Hope this information has been useful. Narayanan

[lancet]

first , no hard drive is silent. you just can't spin something at 7200 rpm without some noise.

the best you'll do is fairly quite.

having said that, you should look for an enclosure without a fan. preferably FW800

most of the current crop of 7200 rpm HD's should work out just fine.

hitachi has no sound specification the generic fact sheet, just "Low acoustic levels"

seagate lists acoustic performance as 2.5 bel

maxtor states acoustic performance as 2.5 bel/3.0 bel seek

Western digital lists acoustics this way...
Idle Mode 7 34 dBA
Seek Mode 0 7 36 dBA
Seek Mode 3 7 35 dBA

i got these numbers from www.otherworldcomputing.com, who links to the manufacturers fact sheets .

good luck

This post has been edited by lancet: Sun 16 Oct 2005, 17:18

[lancet]

Macpower 'Pleiades' drive enclosure

this has an eSATA port on it, the powerbook does not. the best specification that applies here is for FW800. (Firewire 800 (1394b) up to 800Mbps (100MB/s)

I don't know how much it costs but if you're paying a premium for the eSATA feature that you can't use with your powerbook you may want look elsewhere

It also requires a SATA drive. the price differences are not great between SATA and ATA so that may not be an issue.

again, with your powerbook, you would not get any benefit from a SATA drive vs. an ATA drive.

it sure is pretty though!!!

[keybie]

this has an eSATA port on it, the powerbook does not. the best specification that applies here is for FW800. (Firewire 800 (1394b) up to 800Mbps (100MB/s)

I really don't know much about these things, so I must have picked the wrong enclosure. The good news is that they have several versions of this enclosure. Here's all of them.

Does anyone know any more about these drive enclosures?
By the way, can they be placed flat so that another drive can be stacked on top of it, or does it only go sideways with the stand that we see in the photo?

As for the drives: Should I look for any "IDE ATA" drive and use a FireWire 800 interfaced enclosure?

This post has been edited by keybie: Mon 17 Oct 2005, 08:47

[lepetitmartien]

Keybie, i've got 3x800+ and 2x400 of these for more than a year now.

Great stuff, but choose really silent drives they make great amplifiers of noise these
Also the blue led is rather harsh for the eyes so don't put them in front of you.

The stand is part of the enclosure but can be removed, it helps leave some air around (they need it as there's no fan), it can be possible to stack them using a bit of DIY but I'm don't think it's a good idea temperature wise. this way they never go hotter than about 40-50°C here, which is good.

Right now, FW800 has no real advantage over FW400, a bit faster only. If you want the real mojo, go for eSATA with SATA drives and an eSATA card. On the drive itself, keep on seagate if you can.

[syncr]

Heya...

I also have 3 of these. 2 of the 800 models, and 1 of the 400...
I previously had one of the MacPowr Ice cases, which were sealed in closed plastic.

I'm ok with the drives, but as mentioned above, they are not quiet. The 3 drives turned on are louder than my G5, but to their defence, I opted to go with less expensive WD drives since I use these mainly for archival purposes . Compared to the Rocstor drives (which have an internal PSU), the MacPowr are much louder. The Rocstors are sooper quiet, but they don't sell just the enclosure. =(

If I had my choice, I would not buy these again. Only because with each purchase in a studio environment, I aim to buy quieter when possible.

[lepetitmartien]

The enclosure themselves are not noisy, there's no fan, the drives in them are. And the metal case tend to amplify. So the quieter the drive the better. It may be possible to limit the amplification with some rubber, but I didn't try it.

The enclosure I had before were pure crap, noisy, with a fan, and couldn't even cool a drive correctly. So these ones just rock!

[syncr]

Right...good point.
I should clarify that it is the materials of the case as it ships that seem to be more resonant and less quiet than the plastic sealed FW enclosure I had before. The metal sleeve contacts the housing all over the place, so it would be difficult to modify these to make them quieter. I've never owned a FW case with a fan, so my comparision is simply with MacPowr's earlier enclosure style. Still, I'm inclined to purchase enclosures that transfer less noise in the future.

FWIW, I have these three drives on a rack shelf, sitting on a rubber mat, behind a custom clear plastic front panel. A pretty nifty setup, but having them in an isolation rack would be more effective. Fun project though...

All that being said, these are among the best of what is out there.

This post has been edited by syncr: Tue 18 Oct 2005, 21:00

[keybie]

Well they did it again, and it was worth waiting for: Apple released new Powerbooks with better specs at a lower price! I noticed among many features that the 15" model now has optical audio ports as well, which will come in handy for use with my Minidisc recorder.
So this is the one I'm going for -the 15" Powerbook that is
But like with any brand new electronic item I'm going to wait a few weeks to see if there are any production faults or shortcomings that need to be adressed.

Back to hard-drive enclosure: does the enclosure vibrate, thus causing the additional noise? Could the drive be fastened with special screws instead of the normal ones? I've heard of screws (or some sort of fastening solution) made of vibration-damping rubber etc.

The blue LED sounds irritating. Like I said earlier, I'm looking for an enclosure that gives a professional look, and a "Christmas tree" decoration isn't it. I'm sure I can easily exchange it to another LED with less intensity (and another colour if needed), or remove it altogether.

The Roctor drives seem good. I like that they have internal power supplies (are they the only ones that do?), but I don't quite their looks, and I'd like to pick my own drive (once I figure out which one to go for).

This post has been edited by keybie: Wed 19 Oct 2005, 21:08