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reRESERVEDFX · Jul 10, 2007, 12:40 PM

Hey!

I have small issue regarding these two. Well, here's the story.

I bought a WD MyBook Premium 250GB but it was quite noisy HDD, so I returned it and bought 2x 160GB LaCie Porsche. I store entire multimedia library and other files on externals and apps on internals since it boosts system performance. After few days working with LaCie's I realized they get EXTREMELY hot!!! Would this be an issue for speed or even longevity of these HDD's? The second problem is I realized LaCie's got 2MB Cache compared to WD's 8MB. I am mainly using my computer for photography (Photoshop, Aperture etc.) and everyday stuff including gaming. What do all of you think about this LaCie? Return it and get WD Premium? Would I really get a boost of performance in what I'm doing and peace of mind that my HDD won't catch fire for at least couple good years?

Thanks for answers!

CharlesS · Jul 10, 2007, 01:07 PM

Yes, the LaCie Porsche drives have an infamous reputation for being extremely failure-prone.

Instead of buying a pre-built drive, my recommendation if you want a really reliable drive is to buy a good-quality external enclosure and put a Seagate internal drive in it. An internal drive inside an enclosure is all those pre-built external drives are anyway, except that they don't always use the best quality drives or enclosures, and they usually only have about a 1-year warranty. If you get the enclosure and a Seagate drive separately and put them together (which, with a quality enclosure, is easy to do), you can get a much better quality drive, and you can get the Seagate 5-year warranty.

See this thread for more info: http://forums.macnn.com/57/consumer-...ion-for-a-mac/

kretara · Jul 10, 2007, 01:34 PM

The LaCie Porsche drives are known for premature failure due to excessive heat.

I needed multiple external firewire HD's, so I bought a 4 bay enclosure off of ebay* and an OWC Elite Pro 2 bay enclosure for $120 and put 2 500GB drives in it. The OWC enclosure is very quiet and runs very cool.

* I am not associated with either OWC or the ebay seller linked to above.

reRESERVEDFX · Jul 10, 2007, 02:25 PM

I know there are many better hard drives but for now I have only these two choices. So I should now call Apple and return these HDD's and just get a WD MyBook Premium 250GB 8MB CACHE right? Since LaCie Porsche's are very failure-prone and they also have 2MB of cache (which in my case I think is not enough)

CharlesS · Jul 10, 2007, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by reRESERVEDFX

I know there are many better hard drives but for now I have only these two choices.

Why?

edge.it · Jul 10, 2007, 02:33 PM

i switched from lacie years ago after the crashes were to often to deal, to an awkward time where anything pretty, that matched my old g5 i bought, but now i have stuck with reviews!! i go buy newegg.com reviews and listen as if it was an omniscent voice from above telling me the TRUTH, well i guess it is.

i agree with the enclosure statements, but if you are scared of this route, or just want the ease of an AIO drive, this is a decent drive with the reviews. firewire400/uSB 2.0

Newegg.com - Fantom Titanium-II TFD500C16 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394a External Hard Drive - Retail

reRESERVEDFX · Jul 10, 2007, 11:50 PM

No, that's not that I am scared of it. I just don't like to putting all those enclosures with SATA drives and stuff. When I can get it ready then why bother? I also never buy computer stuff from manufacturers that don't have long experience. I almost never heard of LaCie making hard drives. Anyways, I just returned these two Porsches and bought 2x WD MyBook Premium 320GB. One of them I have to return because it was opened (Guys, don't buy at BestBuy

)

JustinHorne · Jul 11, 2007, 12:31 AM

Bit late, but I've been using a 500 GB WD MyBook for a few weeks, and I've had no problems at all.. Of course, I'm nice to my external dries, they just sit there, never moving, in a ventilated space. That said, zero problems here, so thumbs up.

shifuimam · Jul 11, 2007, 08:26 AM

Originally Posted by reRESERVEDFX

No, that's not that I am scared of it. I just don't like to putting all those enclosures with SATA drives and stuff. When I can get it ready then why bother? I also never buy computer stuff from manufacturers that don't have long experience. I almost never heard of LaCie making hard drives. Anyways, I just returned these two Porsches and bought 2x WD MyBook Premium 320GB. One of them I have to return because it was opened (Guys, don't buy at BestBuy

)

FWIW, LaCie doesn't make the hard drives. Every external drive on the market is going to have a brand-name drive in it, which is why making your own with an internal drive and a separate enclosure is essentially the same thing as buying a premade one - but with a better warranty.

It literally takes five minutes to stick a hard drive in an external enclosure, and SATA is even easier than IDE, since there's risk of bending any pins.

The WD is fine, but it's going to come with only a one-year warranty. If the drive fails after that, you're SOL and out the money to buy a new one. If you buy a Seagate drive and put it in your own enclosure, you get a five-year warranty and a rock-solid hard drive.

CharlesS · Jul 11, 2007, 09:10 AM

Not to mention that Seagate's quality level is much, much higher than WD's.

With a good enclosure, it is dead simple to install a drive inside an enclosure. It requires no skills other than the ability to use a screwdriver.

reRESERVEDFX · Jul 12, 2007, 11:22 PM

I've heard that Seagates are really good because it's an old brand with experience but I have 2x Maxtor 500GB in my Mac Pro and they're fabolous. I don't like seagate for it's ability to run really lound. Maxtor is quiet and never failed on me. However, their external HDD's are just DISGUISTING!!! If I would want to go crazy I would buy a G drive. I heard many good things about them. And yea, I already have premade hard drive (Maxtor 750GB and some Welland aluminum case) but I don't really like the look of it

That's why I would much rather buy premade E HDD.

CharlesS · Jul 12, 2007, 11:46 PM

Seagate bought Maxtor a little while ago and are now using the Maxtor name for their low-end (i.e. lower quality) drives. Just FYI.

The Seagate I have right now (inside an OWC enclosure) is dead silent except, of course, for the unavoidable sounds that hard drives make while they're being accessed (which aren't too loud either).

I don't really gather much from your post that explains why you'd rather go with a prebuilt hard drive.

Veltliner · Jul 15, 2007, 12:12 AM

reSERVEDFX, if you really want to use a prebuilt external hard drive, this one is well regarded among video and music professionals:

http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVEQ.cfm

It has a Hitachi drive in it, runs very cool, fanless design, has the newest Oxford 924 chipset, usb 2.0, firewire 400, 800, and eSATA connections, and 16MB buffer. Costs 319$ for 500gb, and you might get it a little cheaper.

The apple store only has the older version with firewire 400/800 only, a smaller buffer. Don't get these, you only save 20$.

The OWC enclosure really looks great! Just make sure you get firewire 800.

If it is only because you are worrying about buying the right drive to the right enclosure, I guess there are two interfaces only at this time, IDE and SATA, so you need to buy an ide drive for an ide enclosure, a sata drive for a sata enclosure.