[er1c]

Looking at firewire drive in a box (I am very pressed for time and prebuilt looks like my friend) I want 7200 RPM, 100-120 gig for video editing/storage and have come to these two companies VST and OWC. Their specs seem close but VST drives are so much more expensive! Anyone have experience with them? Are VSTs built better, faster or more dependable? Please advise.

Thanks and peace

er<font color = red>1 </font>c

[Billiam]

I have both a VST 12GB firewire and a new 120GB OWC. The small VSTs are GREAT! Very solid and no problems but like you said, they're expensive. I haven't seen VST bigger, wave shaped drives (the red 3 1/2 inch units) but I would assume they are built to the same quality of their other 2 1/2" portable drives.

The 120GB OWC is a larger and more stationary drive which needs an external power supply. (I assume the larger VST units need external power also.) It was built to order and looks "put together" from off the shelf plastic parts. That said, it feels solid and works great.

Personally, if money is no object, I'd go with VST. But I'd have no hesitation buying another OWC unit.

[milhaus]

The price difference is phenomenal; the quality is not. Ostensibly, they all use the same or comp. quality drive - Maxtor, Quantum, or WD. The reason for the price difference is that VSt spends time and money developing its own hardware and software; OWC buys cases and drives from others and puts them together. That's th best reason I can come up with; there's no question here which to go with - the VST large drives are ugly too (the small ones are sweet . . . ).

[PeteWK]

Milhaus is right. VST is a good company and makes good stuff, but you're paying extra for the name. The OWC drive (120 MB) is made by Western Digital (a Caviar drive). They sell the drive alone for 230 dollars. This means you're paying 100 bucks for the case. Frankly, you can get a better drive (Barracuda, etc) and get a nice case for 75 or less. Doing it yourself ensures you get to choose the components at the price you want to pay.

PeteWK

[zigzag]

No offense, but the WD Caviar 100 and 120 GB have consistently been rated best-in-class (see storagereview.com, barefeats.com).

Also, the cheapest price I have seen for the Oxford 911 enclosure that OWC uses is $99 at caldrives.com. OWC sells it for $107. If you've seen it for $75 I'd love to know where since I'll be shopping for one myself.

You'll pay a premium for the ready-made OWC drive (compared to doing it yourself), but it's not bad, certainly not as much as the VST.

EZQuest also makes nice ready-made drives at reasonable prices.

[ 03-17-2002: Message edited by: zigzag ]

[PeteWK]

Sorry, but you may not be able to get the case as cheaply as I can. I live in So. California. We have regular computer shows that offer cut rate hardware. I've actually seen cases for 50 bucks but without the 911 chipset. 75 is common with it.

PeteWK

[Bob Barlen]

So many decisions!

At www.caldrives.com the enclosure seems to be called "MANHATTAN Series Slim FireWire External Hard Drive Enclosure w/ FireWire Cable, AC Power Adapter" Is this just the OWC drive under a different name? It looks very similar, but a bit different than what is pictured on the OWC web page. If it is the same drive, they sell for $99.00, and the shipping to Canada is $16.71 (via UPS).

The OWC drive can be had for $99.99 from OWC through a deal set up for XL8YourMac.com readers (and everyone should read their site, too!). That's through this link:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_XLR8Y...p;Item=OWCMEFW

The only difference (for me) is that OWC charges $33.00 for FedEx shipping. Is there a difference between choosing caldrives and OWC?

Does anyone also know if it's better to ship via UPS or FedEX for an international order? Is one faster to Canada, or better about avoiding duty taxes?

I think that it's better for me (being in Canada) to buy the enclosure, and just buy the WD 120GB drive locally. There's a shop here in T.O. selling the WD-WD1200BB for $339.00 (Canadian). www.greytech.com

The drive sells for $192.00 U.S. at www.newegg.com, but I just think that buying it locally will save me the most on tax/shipping, etc.

Once again, I've rambled. But I guess my final question is this:

Is the MANHATTAN Series Slim FireWire External Hard Drive Enclosure available at www.caldrives.com the same unit as the OWC Mercury Elite FireWire Case Kit available from eshop.macsales.com? If it is, I'm going to order the Manhattan case, and I'll buy the WD 120GB drive. Then I will finally have my Firewire storage solution!

Bob

P.S. If I lived in the United States, I'd probably buy the enclosure from the cheapest place, and the drive from newegg.com. If you buy the OWC drive with the 120 GB drive preinstalled, it comes to $329.00, so you save a bit more than $30. Still, I'm a cheapskate (and a student), so a savings of $30 is no laughing matter for me!