G-Technology announces new high-performance portable Mac drives

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
External storage for Macintosh-based content creators just got a bit bigger with the release of new 1- and 2-terabyte storage devices from G-Technology.

G-Raid


The company announced Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show its G-Drive mini and G-RAID mini storage devices, which are built around HGST's 2.5-inch, 1TB 7,200RPM hard disk drives. The G-Drive mini offers up to 136MB per second transfer speeds in an aluminum enclosure.

The device's 1TB drive is preformatted for Macintosh systems, has both USB 3.0 and FireWire 800 connections, and is Time Machine ready, the company said. It is shipping now for approximately $244.

G-Drive


The G-RAID mini is targeted at video editors, ships in a RAID 0 configuration, and supports compressed high definition video formats, including HDV, Panasonic's DVCPRO HD, Sony's XDCAM HD, and Apple's ProRes 422 HQ. It features a pair of 1TB 7,200 RPM hard drives and is powered by FireWire.

The G-RAID mini also features a thermo-regulated cooling fan to ensure the device is operating at optimal temperatures as well as an on/off switch. The G-RAID mini can also be configured in RAID 1 protected mode with the included software utility. It is expected to ship in Q1 2013 for approximately $552.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18


    High-performance… no Thunderbolt.


     


    We're holding things to that standard now, right?

  • Reply 2 of 18

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    High-performance… no Thunderbolt.


     


    We're holding things to that standard now, right?



    High-performance doesn't necessarily mean speed. It could mean durability, or reliability... it's a pretty subjective phrase, really.


     


    Didn't I hear somewhere that USB2.0 (which according to the picture is what this drive really has) is good enough for these drives, anyway? The bottle-neck in speed isn't the USB, it's the platter hard-drive itself.

  • Reply 3 of 18
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    High-performance… no Thunderbolt.
    A worthless piece of crap if you ask me. No wonder this is on AI's Backpage. It is the excessively high asking price that pretty much makes this drive a joke.
    We're holding things to that standard now, right?
    At the price they are asking yes TB should be included. Beyond that the storage capacity sucks for the money. I can't see any reasonable person paying that much money for these drives, especially the "RAID" version. $552 for the RAID model, just whom are they trying to fool.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    High-performance doesn't necessarily mean speed. It could mean durability, or reliability... it's a pretty subjective phrase, really.
    I don't consider it subjective at all, it implies extra value for the money you are paying and these drives have nothing like that at all. Honestly who in their right mind would be offering FireWire on new drive tech?
    Didn't I hear somewhere that USB2.0 (which according to the picture is what this drive really has) is good enough for these drives, anyway? The bottle-neck in speed isn't the USB, it's the platter hard-drive itself.
    USB 2.0 can be a bottleneck USB 3 maybe not. This unit though is using laptop drives so performance probably wasn't a goal anyways. All in all though the unit strikes me as a rip off.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    High-performance… no Thunderbolt.

    We're holding things to that standard now, right?

    TB is not as universal across Macs as the older interconnects are. Few iMacs have TB, and none of the Mac Pros.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    stourquestourque Posts: 364member
    Time Machine ready? What exactly does that mean? I hooked up a external drive to my AirPort Extreme and was told that even though it appears to be working, it actually might not be. Hopefully I won't have to find out the hard way that it isn't backing up my computer.
  • Reply 7 of 18
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by LighteningKid View Post


    High-performance doesn't necessarily mean speed. It could mean durability, or reliability... it's a pretty subjective phrase, really.


     


    Didn't I hear somewhere that USB2.0 (which according to the picture is what this drive really has) is good enough for these drives, anyway? The bottle-neck in speed isn't the USB, it's the platter hard-drive itself.



     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post





    TB is not as universal across Macs as the older interconnects are. Few iMacs have TB, and none of the Mac Pros.


     


     


    The description above lists 2-1TB 7200rpm drives. Running striped, these drives can easily outpace USB2 and maybe FW800. USB3 should handle them fine but USB as an interface isn't always that great especially when daisy-chaining devices. TB would be the best, even thoughMac Pros don't have this interface. There are tons of MBPs running video and audio systems, this activity isn't just for Mac Pros.


     


    Just noticed photo shows USB2 but article states USB3 so article needs a new photo.

  • Reply 8 of 18

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    High-performance… no Thunderbolt.


     


    We're holding things to that standard now, right?



    If it were Thunderbolt, it would probably cost $2,500 instead of $250.


     


    USB3 is fine.

  • Reply 9 of 18
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by Durandal1707 View Post

    If it were Thunderbolt, it would probably cost $2,500 instead of $250.


     


    Not in the slightest, but whatever.

  • Reply 10 of 18
    welshdogwelshdog Posts: 1,897member
    The USB 3 is new for this model. G-tech drives have long been favorites of people in video production and post production. Mostly because (originally) they were built a little better than the competition and they used the best chipsets. They also once displayed detailed performance specs on the website so you could see what you were getting.

    Now that Hitachi owns them I'm not so sure they are the same. And there are competitors these days like Avastor and Maxx digital.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    If it were Thunderbolt, it would probably cost $2,500 instead of $250.

    O RLY?

    Pictured item in this story, a G-Tech 1TB pocket drive for $250.

    I present to you: 1TB Thunderbolt pocket drive for $225.

    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Buffalo/HDPA1.0TU3/

    USB3 is fine.

    For this, I would agree. Be that as it may, I'd take TB at the same price.

    Thunderbolt generally seems to have a $100 premium over USB 3, not a 10x premium like your absurd comment suggests. I don't know of any $2500 Thunderbolt products, you can get a pretty nice four drive RAID for Thunderbolt for under $1000, and it would certainly benefit from Thunderbolt instead of USB 3.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    I checked G-Technology's website and they already sell a Thunderbolt equipped RAID, http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid-thunderbolt.cfm. 4TB $600, 8TB $800, not the $2500 people were worried about. As a comparison, look at MacSales RAID, http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/PerformanceRAID. Their 8TB is $700 and doesn't include Thunderbolt so the Thunderbolt "tax" is only $100.

    These drives aren't necessarily portable, which is what this article is about, but discussing a non-Thunderbolt portable RAID is old news. These have been out for a long time.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    Not sure why you'd even do this with other drives that are out there; LaCie for Thunderbolt; QNAP and Synology for the flexibility of choosing between direct connections and very fast duplexed network connections; just about everyone else for USB3.

    Looks like Thunderbolt is going the way of FireWire, unfortunately. It is so much better than USB3, but Apple have put up even bigger barriers to Thunderbolt in licensing and exclusivity than they did with FireWire.

    Let's just hope that those with 2011 Macs will get cheap adapters that can enable their Thunderbolt ports to be used with USB 3 peripherals.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    hmmhmm Posts: 3,405member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by photoeditor View Post





    Looks like Thunderbolt is going the way of FireWire, unfortunately. It is so much better than USB3, but Apple have put up even bigger barriers to Thunderbolt in licensing and exclusivity than they did with FireWire.

     


    In what way? The last I recall, Apple still licenses the mini displayport connector directly, yet they don't charge royalties on it. Intel has specific requirements for certification. It has to be hot pluggable for one, and there are a few other things. The barriers I see are more like cost and the way it must be placed on the logic board. I don't think they're going after low cost markets or the people who believe they'll have 100Gb/s on their macbook air in a year or two as I'm doubtful they'll even have the PCI lanes available to provide that on notebooks in addition to other ports

  • Reply 15 of 18


    A couple of months ago I bought a nearly identical drive enclosure on Amazon from a company called Oyen Digital for $69.95. Mine came with two FW800 ports, a USB 3.0 port, and a 5V external power supply rather than 12V as pictured above. Of course the power supply isn't needed with FW. Solidly built, all metal. Aluminum I think. 

  • Reply 16 of 18


    BTW regarding that TB drive at http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Buffalo/HDPA1.0TU3/, is looking kinda flaky.


     


    Two reviews on OWC: one 5-star rating and recommended; one 3-star and not recommended. It's even cheaper on Amazon but of 59 reviews 13 (20%) are 1 & 2 stars.

  • Reply 17 of 18
    yvvvyvvv Posts: 18member
    If you check LaCie d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series, you can get 3TB 7200 rpm for 300$. There is also the LaCie Little Big Disk with 2 Thunderbolt ports and 1TB 7200 rpm for 349$ So this G-Tech drive sucks.

    http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10600
    http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10549
  • Reply 18 of 18
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    yvvv wrote: »
    If you check LaCie d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series, you can get 3TB 7200 rpm for 300$. There is also the LaCie Little Big Disk with 2 Thunderbolt ports and 1TB 7200 rpm for 349$ So this G-Tech drive sucks.

    http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10600
    http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10549

    Keep in mind the first one is a desktop drive vs. a mobile drive you're comparing it against. LBD is more comparable, it uses two 500GB laptop drives to make 1TB.

    I would agree the value proposition with the G-Tech isn't clear, but I think you'll find members here relate stories about how LaCie drives aren't very reliable and they offer poor support.
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