External HDD...buy or DIY?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mo-Kay
  • Start date Start date
M

Mo-Kay

Dragon Soul Productions
Hey everybody... I'm looking into buying an external Firewire HDD for my protools m-powered setup (as an audio+session drive).... and I've stumbled upon something called harddrive enclosures :S

Seems like a good way to save some €'s (or $'s, if you insist)... does anyone here have any experience with these kind of enclosures...would it be a could idea to buy and use one?

Thanks for the help

Mo-Kay
 
Mo-Kay said:
Hey everybody... I'm looking into buying an external Firewire HDD for my protools m-powered setup (as an audio+session drive).... and I've stumbled upon something called harddrive enclosures :S

Seems like a good way to save some €'s (or $'s, if you insist)... does anyone here have any experience with these kind of enclosures...would it be a could idea to buy and use one?
Click to expand...

For audio, I'd lean towards a case that uses an Oxford bridge. Oh, yeah, and make SURE you get a case with a fan if you're going to use the drive for extended periods of time. Hard drives don't like heat.

Beyond that, just buy a decent drive to put in it. Toshiba is solid, as is Hitachi. IMHO, Maxtor is decent as long as it's not really a Quantum (e.g. the Fireball series). I'm not much on WD. They tend to be noisy.
 
DIY. A decent enclosure will cost <$30. HDD's are also selling for around $.30/Gb these days.

Should be much cheaper than an all in one external HDD.

Best Buy was blowing Seagate 120GB drives for $40 last week. I'm now sure now.

Quiet Drives:
- Hitachi
- Samsung
- Seagate (though the newer one are said to be noisier)
 
I've made a few of them to store data. I just got the cheapest enclosures I found on newegg.
 
I forget who advertises them, but the "liquid-filled bearings" or "Quiet Drive" or something along those lines will GREATLY reduce the noise produced by a HDD. I've always stuck with internal HDDs, but if you run out of slots, your choices are limited.
 
jaykeMURD said:
I forget who advertises them, but the "liquid-filled bearings" or "Quiet Drive" or something along those lines will GREATLY reduce the noise produced by a HDD. I've always stuck with internal HDDs, but if you run out of slots, your choices are limited.
Click to expand...

Most of the manufacturers have gone to fluid bearings. Even Western Digital, though I wouldn't buy their drives unless you're just using the drive for backing up stuff when you're not recording, as even their fluid bearing drives tend to be louder than the competition.... :eek:

Beyond that, Toshiba, Maxtor (DiamondMax series), Seagate (one of my favorites, though they cost a little more), Hitachi, and Fujitsu all have fluid bearings in some or all of their current drives. They're all decent manufacturers.
 
oh BY THE WAY

can I use them with my Imac :o forgot to mention my computer type...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top