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slimpy · Apr 20, 2001, 12:38 AM

What firewire case kits have you had good results with? The Granite Digital case sounds like it's fast & well made. Is it a good one?

Timo · Apr 20, 2001, 02:16 PM

Originally posted by slimpy:
What firewire case kits have you had good results with? The Granite Digital case sounds like it's fast & well made. Is it a good one?

It seems good to me. It's got two fans which are fairly quiet, and when something wasn't clear with the internal drive installation, a tech guy at Granite Digital was easily reachable to answer the question.

The drive comes with some formatting software that seems OK, nothing special. Though it is a little ugly (it's doing that clear plastic thing), I'm very happy with it and its performance.

T

cejones · Apr 20, 2001, 05:15 PM

I made the mistake of buying the ADS Tech Pyro Firewire external chassis and while, it works fine, the fan in it is so loud, it even drives my wife and cat crazy. It sounds like a jet engine when I turn it on...
Stay away from ADStech's external firewire case...

slimpy · Apr 20, 2001, 07:11 PM

Do you know if longer CD-RW mechanisms like Plextor & Sanyo will fit in the Granite Digital case? I've heard that these mechanisms hang out the front of the ADS Pyro case. The Plextor is 7.95 inches long - whereas other mechs. like Teac are around 7.5 inches. Thanks for the help.

Timo · Apr 20, 2001, 10:58 PM

OK, I just got out my measuring tape. It looks close--hard to tell without busting the thing open again. However, Granite Digital sells two sizes of enclosures. I bought the 3.5" one, but there's a larger one, as I remember, so it might fit in there.

If you really want to know for sure rather than my guesses, I'd call 'em up; they were helpful on the phone with me. There's a number at the website: www.granitedigital.com.

The drive enclosure comes with different faceplates for CD-RW or tape.

Hmm...I beginning to look like a regular cheerleader for GD. Time to say that I have no financial interest in them; heck I never even heard of them until I started looking for a FW drive.

T

milhaus · Apr 21, 2001, 12:32 PM

Don't bother with the faster bus for a CDRW. Doesn't matter for that because transfer speeds don't need to be that fast. If it utilized all of the speed, it'd be able to write a CD in roughly 22-23 seconds. Not really necessary. OWN does sell an Oxford chipset drive case for about $139 though, which is cheap.
M.

slimpy · Apr 21, 2001, 12:45 PM

Timo - I've got a few questions about the Granite Digital case. Hopefully you can help. I emailed Granite with these questions last week - but they did not respond.

1) Can you turn it off while the computer is still on - without causing a freeze/stall until the drive is powered on again?

2) Can you startup with the drive connected but turned off - without a startup freeze/stall?

I've seen both of the above problems reported on several drives - especially Lacie & APS Tech.

Thanks for your help

waffffffle · Apr 22, 2001, 04:14 PM

I bought the ADS Pyro case as well and I hate it. The damn fan was so loud that I disconnected it (so I could lose my data at any time, although it has lasted since November with out a problem) The fan would keep me up at night so I had get rid of it. I also often have Firewire errors where my powerbook thinks that the drive was disconnected and I have to replug it in order to continue using my machine. My case also broke since I travel with it sometimes in my book bag. I should have gone with a premade drive or at least a better enclosure. Don't get the ADS enclosure.

Timo · Apr 23, 2001, 11:25 AM

Originally posted by slimpy:
Timo - I've got a few questions about the Granite Digital case.

1) Can you turn it off while the computer is still on - without causing a freeze/stall until the drive is powered on again?

OK. If I turn off my firewire drive while the computer's on, a warning message states that something has gone wrong and recommendst that I should reverse whatever action took place in order to avoid data loss. Upon turning the drive back on, everything's back to normal.

If you unmount the drive (drag to trash) and then turn it off, no problems.

2) Can you startup with the drive connected but turned off - without a startup freeze/stall?

Just tried it. On my Pismo 500/384mb with 9.1 and that latest firmware update, there was no problem. Furthermore, after booting up to the finder and poking around I subsequently turned on the drive and it mounted automatically.

I've seen both of the above problems reported on several drives - especially Lacie & APS Tech.

Whew. Didn't know I avoided so many potential pitfalls.

Hope that helps.

T

slimpy · Apr 23, 2001, 08:34 PM

Thanks Timo. You've been a great help.