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Lebodde · Jan 8, 2003, 08:36 PM

I am in the market for a 120 gig firewire external for a video editing project I need to do. I was going to get the LaCie 120 ($270) after many positive reviews on this forum but I recently noticed that Outpost.com is selling the full Western Digital 120GB WD1200B02RNN 8.9ms,7200RPM for $230 after a $50 rebate.

My main concerns are speed, quietness and reliability. I believe that LaCie has all these. But what about the WD ?

Any help would be much appreciated.

http://shop2.outpost.com/product/3264721

Back up 15 and punt · Jan 8, 2003, 11:49 PM

Its worth it if its the special addition drive which comes with a three year warranty and a 8meg cache.

Weezer · Jan 8, 2003, 11:53 PM

If you shop around correctly, you can get internal HD prices for around a dollar a gig, even on the SE 8 meg cache drives. You can get a firewire enclosure for around 40-50, so in the end you could have the 120+50=170 and save yourself $60. In regards to the harddrives themselves, I recently got a WD 80 gig 8 meg cache drive for $80 and its performing quite nicely. Very quiet and very fast, so no complaints.

flatcatch · Jan 9, 2003, 12:07 AM

I have a Western Digital 120GB external firewire drive sitting right here on my desk. Very quiet, no problems, speedy. I'm happy with it... especially since my DV footage now has a home.

Weezer · Jan 9, 2003, 02:46 PM

figured I'd add in a link to some HD deals for you. Right now looks like the WD 180 gig 8 meg cache for $160 would be a good buy for you, stick it in the firewire enclosure, and youve got 60 more gigs and still save $30 over your pre-made firewire drive.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...hreadid=141433

Lebodde · Jan 9, 2003, 06:32 PM

Thanks very much for the great feedback, guys.

Weezer, thanks for the links. But most of the Firewire enclosures with Oxford911 that I could find are around $100 such as this one:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_It...Item=OWCMEFWU2

Where do you find a Firewire enclosure for $40 or $50 ?

V · Jan 9, 2003, 07:53 PM

See DealMac .

Lebodde · Jan 9, 2003, 08:08 PM

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the key for a quiet external setup is to have :

1) a quiet spinning drive and
2) an external power supply (sometimes referred to as AC adapter) so that the enclosure does not have a fan.

Is this right?

Thank you.

Lebodde · Jan 10, 2003, 12:05 AM

OK, I went to Fry's today and I got the 160G 8mb SE drive for $139 (after $140 rebate). What a great deal.

Now all I need is to find a reputable external enclosure with Oxford911 and a separate power supply (AC adaptor) so there is no fan. Any suggestions? (Dealmac did not show any right now.)

One question, though. Sorry if I seem to have just fallen off the tulip truck, but I have been out of the loop for a while. The 160G WD drive comes an Ultra ATA PCI card "to break the 137G barrier". What the heck is that all about? I am using an iMac 17" so I obviously don't have a PCI slot. Is this just a PC issue or do we have to deal with that also?

And if yes, since I don't have anywhere to install this card, can I just run it without, even if it only gives me 137gigs to play with?

Thanks a lot.

Weezer · Jan 12, 2003, 01:00 AM

nevermind

awcopus · Jan 12, 2003, 10:21 PM

Lebodde, check out Granite Digital (www.scsipro.com) for top notch firewire enclosures. Cool thing about their SMART enclosures is that you can fill up your drive, and swap in a new one. Also, the SMART enclosures enable you to use drives that are larger than 120 GB without problems.

Good luck.

clarkgoble · Jan 12, 2003, 10:52 PM

CompUSA had Maxtor 120gig drives for $140 last week. I don't know if the sale is still on.

tooki · Jan 13, 2003, 02:26 PM

I don't like WD drives. It's gonna take another couple of years for them to prove they can make a reliable product.

tooki