[wANCO tHE sANE]

Hey all... It's been a long time since I came here.. But anyway, I'm running out of room on my small iMac (10gb won't cut it for me). So I'm looking at buying an external firewire hard drive for me machine. My constraints are: $200. Do any of you have a suggestion for a good, reliable, firewire hd that I can get for under $200? I'm looking at something maybe atleast 40gb... I saw this one Maxtor 40gb FW HD, but when I read the review, a lot of people experience this clicking noise and this power down-ing problem and it won't mount... Any suggestions would help.

[DanW]

OWC has a Mercury Elite Firewire case (with the Oxford 911 chip) for $100 (link through Accelerate Your Mac, right side, for special pricing.) They also have Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB ($85) and 60GB ($112) bare drives (link here)

I have two of the 60GBs installed in my G4, and the Firewire case is holding my original internal drive. I think they're great. Fast and quiet.

[ 03-27-2002: Message edited by: DanW ]

[Evangellydonut]

$200 budget is a bit low, but it'll suffice...plan on half of it for a firewire case, and other half for an internal drive...putting the parts together is pretty easy, as for where to get cheap firewire cases and harddrives, dealnn and dealmac are good places to check/search.

Personally, I have a WD1000BB on external 911 firewire bridge/case. The setup was $300 half-a-year ago, which is unbeatable by any pre-packaged retail firewire drives even now. (I've seen some around that price, but I doubt they use the 1000BB drive, which is one of the fastest harddrives on the market. Check StorageReview for these things, if their site still have funding to remain open...)

Oh yeah, that reminds me, if StorageReview is still up, I recommend that you find a few harddrives of the right price and do a search on their site for performance ratings to make sure u get the best drive for your $$.

[wANCO tHE sANE]

thanks to you both. I asked my brother-in-law this question too and he recommended either buying the case separate w/the hard drive, or getting a lacie HD. I'm going to browse around the sites both of you have given me, and I'll make the purchase in a month or so. Thanks to you both!

[Moderator]

I also have had great experiences with OWC...the drives are great/ fast/ quiet and the service is exceptional....

...conversely I've had nightmarish experiences with EZ Quest..specifically with returning a faulty drive..wound up taking 5 months + $30 extra in shipping charges to get it back..their service sucks

[wANCO tHE sANE]

I see.. What do you all think of La Cie ex FW drives? I looked at it and am planning to get the 40gb version

[daimoni]

.

[BTP]

I have to throw in my suggestion. The ADS Pyro is an Oxford 911 enclosure and can be found for $99 or less, you can also find quite a few large HD's for cheap, i.e., Deskstar 40GB for $83, shipped. If you go to a Maxtor, yo can get an 80GB for about $100, shipped.

If speed is what you desire, then get an enclosure with an Oxford 911 chip. Bare Feats had a good article on enclosures that might be worth a read. All said, there are a lot of options. Coolmacstuff.com has enclosures that are Oxford 911 and look good too for about $99.