Need Hardware Advice On Powerbook & External Hd Options

[kevin808]

Hi everyone,

Could you please help me make an informed decision? I am about to throw my PC out a frickin' window in favor of a nice new Mac. Ultimately I would like to get a Powerbook and run Logic Audio, but I am apprehensive about this setup thinking that maybe the Powerbook would be under-powered due to its slower Hard Drive RPM speeds (4,500, or 5,500), or mabey even the g4 processor. (I would like to get at least a 1.25Ghz or above)

I did a little research here and found that people are using external hard drives with their Powerbooks. This coupled with the fact that I have my wife’s 1Ghz iMac, and the new Logic Audio 7 Package uses other networked computers to help process effects plug-ins and other jobs within logic - is making me think a Powerbook is not a bad choice.

My main question is: Are Firewire 800 drives faster at delivering information than the Powerbooks own internal Hard Drive? I'm looking at a 200 GB LaCie FW 800 drive.

And what are some of your experiences with how your Powerbooks perform playing your tracks? Lag issues? No probelms - runs great?

I also just got a Roland MV-8000 Sampler/Workstation which will be synced up to the Powerbook via midi, and will be doing some of the sound rendering and effects.

Any advise or thoughts would be helpful and appreciated. Like everyone I'm just trying to have my cake and eat it too...

Thanks,
Kevin808

[scoutdavis]

Hi all, I can't seem to do a decent internet search for a fw800 harddrive that has the oxford bridge chip. Can anyone give me a suggestion? I'm hoping to get a decent deal it possible.

[macyu]

This is what I use : Wiebetech FW800

at $119 for the case, I don't think it's too unreasonable and it's been working fine for me.

If you want to search for cheaper ones, just search for "Oxford 922" which is the chip used for FW800 drives.

[scoutdavis]

Ok, well, I appreciate the guidance to get the Wiebetech and I've read enough to see that if I want a FW800 enclosure it's a good way to go. But here's where I'm stuck. I can get a LaCie 250 gig 7200 rpm fw800 external hard drive with triple interface for the same price as getting an internal 250 hard drive (maxtor) and the wiebetech tought tech enclosure. Aren't I better off getting the La Cie for the same price? Also, I wound up getting a good deal on a 16 mb cache 250 Maxtor internal drive - if I go with the LaCie, I'm back down to 8mb cache - is the 16mg of cache worth it to go with the internal with enclosure combo versus getting the LaCie for the same price?

[CanadaRAM]

i heared, that the controllers inside the hd can´t transfer more than 250mbit/s, so it´s kind of useless buying fw800 drives by now, because they´re no faster than old 400s.

Well, that simply isn't correct.

www.barefeats.com has done extensive testing and Firewire 800 in real world use is signuificantly faster then Firewire 400 with the same 7200 RPM drive mechanism.

Under ideal conditions, Firewire 800 at a theoretical 100 MB/sec actually approaches the bandwidth of an internal IDE ATA/133 connection -- which is theoretically 133 MB/sec. SATA is 150 MB/sec.

http://www.barefeats.com/fire35.html
Finder duplicate: Hitachi 7200 RPM 3.5" 180GXP
ATA/133 46 MB per second
FireWire 800 built in 46 MB per second
FireWire 400 built in 32 MB per second

The limitations of a drive system are a combination of the drive's rotational and access capabilities, the drive interface, the bridge board (if Firewire) and the host computer's circuitry (Firewire, IDE or SATA)

[macyu]

Ok, well, I appreciate the guidance to get the Wiebetech and I've read enough to see that if I want a FW800 enclosure it's a good way to go. But here's where I'm stuck. I can get a LaCie 250 gig 7200 rpm fw800 external hard drive with triple interface for the same price as getting an internal 250 hard drive (maxtor) and the wiebetech tought tech enclosure. Aren't I better off getting the La Cie for the same price? Also, I wound up getting a good deal on a 16 mb cache 250 Maxtor internal drive - if I go with the LaCie, I'm back down to 8mb cache - is the 16mg of cache worth it to go with the internal with enclosure combo versus getting the LaCie for the same price?

As for the triple interface, FW800 can be converted to FW400 with just a cable (800 is backwards compatible like USB2.0 and USB1.1), so I wouldn't really get the Lacie for that, but if they provide you with better warranty conditions, definitely go for it. Also, for some people, the style of case and power supply matters so you might want to look at that. Now, for the drive cache, I never used a 16mb cache drive so I can't say, but theoretically I think that it will be useful if you'll be doing a lot of random access.. like having your sample collection for synths or loops. If it's more or less used for laying down big chunks of tracks, it shouldn't affect it as much. That being said, some research on the exact drives for benchmarks might be helpful.