Which external hard drive is better?

[jay²]

Which are better to use for video editing? Ready made external hard drives or an internal hard drive with an external enclosure kit? I currently have an enclosure kit with a 160 GB West Digital 7200 RPM IDE Hard drive in it and looking into buying another one. I haven't had any problems with it, in fact just edited a whole wedding video with that thing. But I just want to see what you guys think. Cost wise i know the enclosure kit with the internal hard drive is cheaper than buying those ready made external ones.

[RatVega]

IMHO, all the "ready made" solutions buy you is convenience. In a few cases paying more may also get you higher quality parts, but that's not how to bet... Mostly you get pretty packaging and ease of installation.

The trick is in knowing what you're buying. You can score an FW box starting at like $20, and way up from there. Knowing what bridge chips are used is very handy here...

An overlooked option is in dedicated externals. The big advantage of FW is in its easy hook-up and portability. A dedicated eSATA drive is a lot faster and perhaps less costly. If you just need more local storeage and have relatively small drives, an external IDE box (and another controller) might make sense.

If you can install RAM and chew bubble gum at the same time, build your own,

[jay²]

IMHO, all the "ready made" solutions buy you is convenience. In a few cases paying more may also get you higher quality parts, but that's not how to bet... Mostly you get pretty packaging and ease of installation.

The trick is in knowing what you're buying. You can score an FW box starting at like $20, and way up from there. Knowing what bridge chips are used is very handy here...

An overlooked option is in dedicated externals. The big advantage of FW is in its easy hook-up and portability. A dedicated eSATA drive is a lot faster and perhaps less costly. If you just need more local storeage and have relatively small drives, an external IDE box (and another controller) might make sense.

If you can install RAM and chew bubble gum at the same time, build your own,

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like there's really no advantage in getting the ready made externals. Now what about performance? Before I bought my first one I asked a circuit city employee what would be the disadvantage and he said the performance. Specifically the RPMs of the hard drive, I had bought a 7200 Rpm internal hard drive and he said putting it into an external enclosure kit would probably reduce it the RPM speed of the hard drive. Is there any truth to that?

[Billy]

I had bought a 7200 Rpm internal hard drive and he said putting it into an external enclosure kit would probably reduce it the RPM speed of the hard drive. Is there any truth to that?Sounds like BS to me. The computer doesn't control the speed of the HD, the HD's motor does that and it's strictly an on/off type of thing. In other words, it's at full speed all the time as long as it's getting the proper voltage.

A good computer case with controller is a very good option, or get one of those Big Assâ„¢ server cases to house your computer and a butt-load of drives. :grinning-smiley-021

[sonydude]

Ratvega what Fw box do you recommend for $20? I bought a $30 macally case from Amazon and had to return it - total garbage. Nothing like the build quality LaCie d2 cases or even the cheaper porsche ones

[jay²]

Sounds like BS to me. The computer doesn't control the speed of the HD, the HD's motor does that and it's strictly an on/off type of thing. In other words, it's at full speed all the time as long as it's getting the proper voltage.

A good computer case with controller is a very good option, or get one of those Big Assâ„¢ server cases to house your computer and a butt-load of drives. :grinning-smiley-021

Billy I think you got the wrong case. We are talking about those External Hard drive enclosure kits that converts internal hard drives into external ones..

[bruceo]

Which are better to use for video editing? Ready made external hard drives or an internal hard drive with an external enclosure kit? I currently have an enclosure kit with a 160 GB West Digital 7200 RPM IDE Hard drive in it and looking into buying another one. I haven't had any problems with it, in fact just edited a whole wedding video with that thing. But I just want to see what you guys think. Cost wise i know the enclosure kit with the internal hard drive is cheaper than buying those ready made external ones.

I have about 25 external drives that I constantly work on with 300-500GB drives. I have used several brands of enclosured from xpcgear.com. So far the best seem to be the western digital mybook because I haven't had any issues. The enclosures I have bought to house internals just dont cool the drives enough for video work. The constant access from editing and rendering has given me at least a 20-30% drive failure rate, which really sucks. So basically if you are a part time casual user the cheaper route of external with internal that you install is fine. If you are pumping out work then make sure to get a proven enclosure that truly keeps the drive cool. It may cost more, but how much do you lose having to recapture and reconform a project when all is lost on a burned up drive?

[Billy]

Billy I think you got the wrong case. We are talking about those External Hard drive enclosure kits that converts internal hard drives into external ones..
I thought RatVega was touting the use of an additional case If you just need more local storeage and have relatively small drives, an external IDE box (and another controller) might make sense. with that comment and I was basically agreeing with it. If you need just one or 2 more drives then a small external case and drive makes sense; if you see yourself needing more drives then a large case and another controller may be more cost-effective.

If I mistook what RatVega was talking about I apologize, but an external case with several smaller drives in it has a lot of advantages, as does a large case with the computer and several drives.

[Mike Downey]

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like there's really no advantage in getting the ready made externals. Now what about performance? Before I bought my first one I asked a circuit city employee what would be the disadvantage and he said the performance. Specifically the RPMs of the hard drive, I had bought a 7200 Rpm internal hard drive and he said putting it into an external enclosure kit would probably reduce it the RPM speed of the hard drive. Is there any truth to that?


The only way I could even start to believe this is if the enclosure was ventilated correctly.


Mike

[Mike Downey]

Which are better to use for video editing? Ready made external hard drives or an internal hard drive with an external enclosure kit? I currently have an enclosure kit with a 160 GB West Digital 7200 RPM IDE Hard drive in it and looking into buying another one. I haven't had any problems with it, in fact just edited a whole wedding video with that thing. But I just want to see what you guys think. Cost wise i know the enclosure kit with the internal hard drive is cheaper than buying those ready made external ones.


I hope you do not mind me throwing this in there. External cases are not the best as far as ventilation. Because of this video work is not the greatest use for them.

I have a Stacker case and I have over 2 terabytes in it. With the fans and airflow it is a amazing how cool the drives run.

You might consider a larger, well ventilated case, to place everything in.

Now, if you are talking about using with a Laptop then I apologise for a stupid idea :)


Mike

[ssvp]

Sounds like BS to me. The computer doesn't control the speed of the HD, the HD's motor does that and it's strictly an on/off type of thing. In other words, it's at full speed all the time as long as it's getting the proper voltage.

A good computer case with controller is a very good option, or get one of those Big Assâ„¢ server cases to house your computer and a butt-load of drives. :grinning-smiley-021

Actually the computer can control the speed of the drive. Newer BIOS and new drives actually support settings for Performance, Quiet,etc..etc..:)

[Billy]

Actually the computer can control the speed of the drive. Newer BIOS and new drives actually support settings for Performance, Quiet,etc..etc..:)
But the computer only turns it on or off, right? I don't think it actually speeds the drive up or down, the data wouldn't be reliable if delivered at varying speeds.

[jay²]

I have a Stacker case and I have over 2 terabytes in it. With the fans and airflow it is a amazing how cool the drives run.

You might consider a larger, well ventilated case, to place everything in.

Now, if you are talking about using with a Laptop then I apologise for a stupid idea :)


Mike

Yeah I should've been more detailed on what I was going to use it for.. It is going to be for laptop editing so I can take it and edit anywhere I want. Bruceo puts in a good point on basing your decision over how much your going to be using it. I'm not going to be using it pretty much compared to all you hard core 10 wedding a month videographers. Hey mike glad to see you back.. you wer MIA for ages.. when are we going to do that VU.. Uh i meant WVP Utah meet?

[GmElliott]

I dunno, price point aside, the newer Maxtor 1tb external drives look pretty nifty. You can configure the two internal 500 gig hd's as a RAID to further increase it's performance.

[RatVega]

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like there's really no advantage in getting the ready made externals. Now what about performance? Before I bought my first one I asked a circuit city employee what would be the disadvantage and he said the performance. Specifically the RPMs of the hard drive, I had bought a 7200 Rpm internal hard drive and he said putting it into an external enclosure kit would probably reduce it the RPM speed of the hard drive. Is there any truth to that?

None whatsoever. The rotational speed is fixed as are virtually all the parameters. The only thing that will slow the drive down (other than incorrect formatting or something stupid) is the external interface itself. There is a measureable arbitration delay (milliseconds) associated with most busses and firewire is no excception. But the delay is the same for any external. SCSI is the same way.

[RatVega]

Ratvega what Fw box do you recommend for $20? I bought a $30 macally case from Amazon and had to return it - total garbage. Nothing like the build quality LaCie d2 cases or even the cheaper porsche ones
I didn't say I recommended anything, just that they exist. :smile:

I've seen a couple in the $35-40 range that looked pretty good but haven't tried them. If you shop enough, you'll see identical enclosures priced sometimes $10-20 dollars different. Shop a lot!

The reason I haven't tried too many enclosures is that I have something like 4.5 TB of FireWire drives (over 30) in "hot swap" sleds and then have "receivers" on each of the NLEs. The sleds cost me about $25 so my cost of bringing more project storage on is not much more than the bare drive.

I love fancy looking cases and I'm a quality fan, but a couple of hundred for a swank case isn't in my budget. I'm putting together a 2TB SATA RAID for a major project and it will be housed in a $136 case...

[sonydude]

IME there is no cost saving when buying enclosures and drives separately. I would say more of a cost penalty.

[mazzystar]

THE enclosures they import in the Philippines are all CRAP, went through a lot of diffrent brands and they consitsently falter after a short period of use. Our most common problem is an undetectable drive. This has led me to get Iomegas instead.

I'm glad you have better choices there.

[Mike Downey]

Hey mike glad to see you back.. you wer MIA for ages.. when are we going to do that VU.. Uh i meant WVP Utah meet?


I am home for almost all of November and December... Maybe we could do it around that time... what do you think? :)



Mike