Best HDD Portable Solution
I'm currently shopping around for the best solution I can come up with for HDD portability. I need speed and plenty of space for Final Cut files, OS X, and FCP. I'd like the drive to be 2.5" with 16mb cache, spinning at 7200. Obviously the enclosure would have to be firewire to boot from.
I've always been convinced that Seagate has the best to offer since I've never had one of their drives quit on me (but that's just me) while other makers have like Maxtor and WD. They also come with a 5 year warranty, just in case, when others offer a much shorter one.
I've come up with a Seagate Momentus (ST9200420AS, not ST9200420ASG that's only an 8mb cache). This drive appears to be the best I can find to meet my specs. I was originally hoping for at-least 250gb, but it seems the higher you go the slower the drive spins.
As far as enclosures I've decided on an OWC Mercury On-The-Go FW/USB, because of size and cooling reliability. Price is a bit steep, but it seems to meet all my needs. I've owned too many crappy enclosures and can only hope that this one would last especially after the price.
Can I do better than what I've listed above? It will all run me about $250.
The reason for all this is that I need a small drive that can connect to my home machines and then when I go to work continue a current project. They don't allow laptops or loading personal wares on their machines, so this is my solution. Does it sound feasible?
Thanks for any feedback.
I've always been convinced that Seagate has the best to offer since I've never had one of their drives quit on me (but that's just me) while other makers have like Maxtor and WD. They also come with a 5 year warranty, just in case, when others offer a much shorter one.
I've come up with a Seagate Momentus (ST9200420AS, not ST9200420ASG that's only an 8mb cache). This drive appears to be the best I can find to meet my specs. I was originally hoping for at-least 250gb, but it seems the higher you go the slower the drive spins.
As far as enclosures I've decided on an OWC Mercury On-The-Go FW/USB, because of size and cooling reliability. Price is a bit steep, but it seems to meet all my needs. I've owned too many crappy enclosures and can only hope that this one would last especially after the price.
Can I do better than what I've listed above? It will all run me about $250.
The reason for all this is that I need a small drive that can connect to my home machines and then when I go to work continue a current project. They don't allow laptops or loading personal wares on their machines, so this is my solution. Does it sound feasible?
Thanks for any feedback.
Comments
I couldn't find anything better either. Hope it works out!
Cheers
datamodel, glad yours worked out. I'm just hoping between the OS and FCP (with it's additional wares) 200gb is large enough to leave space for my FCP project files also. Have you run FCP on your MBP? How's it do?
Megawatt, I'd really like it to be a 2.5" and not feel like I'm lugging a boulder back and forth each day. Although my shopping and all I'm asking for would be much easier if I'd just give in to a 3.5". Still haven't made my mind up for sure. Nice enclosures, thanks for the link.
Tony
Thanks both of you.
datamodel, glad yours worked out. I'm just hoping between the OS and FCP (with it's additional wares) 200gb is large enough to leave space for my FCP project files also. Have you run FCP on your MBP? How's it do?
Megawatt, I'd really like it to be a 2.5" and not feel like I'm lugging a boulder back and forth each day. Although my shopping and all I'm asking for would be much easier if I'd just give in to a 3.5". Still haven't made my mind up for sure. Nice enclosures, thanks for the link.
Tony
I don't run FCP on it - iMovie HD occasionally on holidays, which runs fine (this is the first MBP, the 2.0 CD one with 2 GB of RAM).
I'm an IT Professional Services guy, so I use MS Office and the whole OMNI suite (OmniGraffle, OmniPlan, OmniFocus) and variety of other tools (Pixelmator, Papers, RapidWeaver, VPN Tracker). I do use a lot of space on Virtual Machines though - I run VMWare fusion and have Windows, Linux and a couple of Solaris VMs.
After nearly two years, my Applications folder has grown to just over 7 GB. I've got just over 80 GB free space available now.
How big are your projects? My iMovie ones used to run to about 20-40 GB (13 GB for an hour of .dv imported from the camera, plus edits and final renders). If you're similar and don't have 80 GB in iTunes (I have about 10-15 GB in it usually), I'd expect to be able to hold two to four hours of project on the laptop - does that sound about right?
Cheers,
Martin.
Tony
Sounds like it'll suit me. I'm still learning FCP and 2-4 hours sounds like quite a bit, I'd be happy with that. This drive won't be used for anything except what I've mentioned here. No iTunes files to worry about either. It'll be a drive just for the OS (Leo), FCP and immediately related wares, other than that just the FCP files.
Tony
Sounds like it'll be perfect. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Martin.