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The Godfather · Jan 4, 2008, 07:51 AM

I am on the brink of abandoning firewire in my quest of a 2.5" external HDD. The one FW enclosure I found inexpensive only supported 80GB drives, but I'd like 250GB.

However, I want to use this drive for iMovie exclusively, and with the new scrubbing feature, I worry that sustained transfer rates should be an important factor. Is this the case?

Is video scrubbing dependent on good sustained transfer, or dependent on burst read? Is CPU utilization going to kill my iMovie performance if I choose USB? I can't decide.

Is any USB HDD owner out there have a good experience with video scrubbing?

Right now I use a FW 3.5" external HDD, and I don't wanna give up the fluid (looks like 30FPS) scrubbing it provides me.

Also, please recommend good FW 2.5" external HDDs/enclosures.

chabig · Jan 4, 2008, 08:18 AM

I can't comment on the iMovie part, but there is no such thing as an enclosure that only support 80GB drives. Any enclosure you buy today will support any size hard drive.

IceEnclosure · Jan 4, 2008, 08:25 AM

A. Why do you want to use a 2.5" instead of fullsize when editing your movie? Unless you're editing it out of the home/office, it certainly goes against your speed needs.

B. OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable 2.5" FW800/US... (MSTG800U2) at OWC

C.OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro 2.5" Portable Oxford... (MOTGPRO) at OWC

D. I've never heard of this 80GB limit. My friends have 250GB drives stuffed in 2.5" external firewire enclosures and they're jammin'.

The Godfather · 11:37 AM

^ Notice the price differential and the 80GB limit in the enclosure below.
2.5" USB 2.0/FW Aluminum Ext IDE HDD Enclosure (Silver)

IceEnclosure · 12:12 PM

Why are you so intent on skimping on your enclosure? $15?? You get what you pay for, usually. That thing looks junky, and I've never heard of the manufacturer. Who's Generic? -_o

My case was $60 bucks I think, it's sick, you can pull the internal drive out in about 5 seconds. Latest Oxford chipset, 2 Firewire and 1 USB 2.0 Port. QUALITY. Got it at NewEgg.

The Godfather · Jan 4, 2008, 11:14 PM

I want to get away from the power brick requirement. That's why I want 2.5".

IceEnclosure · Jan 4, 2008, 11:37 PM

I'd go with one of the OWC ones. Otherwise, NewEgg has lots of USB/Firewire models all with many reviews. I look for mac-centric reviews myself. Good luck!

silver · Jan 5, 2008, 01:24 AM

If you do decide to go with a 2.5 then at least get one that has firewire. For video you want the most bandwidth you can get and even though USB 2.0 looks faster on paper, it's not.

Firewire is like a supercharger power always on tap, USB 2.0 is like a turbo it needs to spool up to it's maximum and sometimes you don't even get to the maximum.

Veltliner · Jan 5, 2008, 03:03 AM

USB 2.0 is pretty much outdated for external hard drives.

Abandon Firewire?

I would never buy a USB 2.0 drive. Too slow. Especially for video editing. I'm wondering they still make those.

You can get Firewire enclosures for any kind of drive size.

Go to newegg.com and search. Don't buy a USB 2.0 drive.

mduell · Jan 5, 2008, 10:27 AM

There's no love for USB on these forums, but for a 2.5" disk you're not going to see much advantage with FW. Spend your money on the disk, not the enclosure.

silver · Jan 5, 2008, 12:38 PM

Yes as mduell said, spend your cash on a 3.5" disk then like others suggested place drive in a fw enclosure. The 2.5" wont give you much bandwidth even in a fw enclosure. For me all my externals are 3.5" drives in either a fw800 or eSATA enclosures. I don't mind lugging a small power brick when I travel. You can find smaller replacement power adapters at Radioshack just make sure it provides the same voltage as the original.

In general 2.5" drives even if it says 7200 rpm is slower than a 3.5" at the same speed.

The Godfather · Jan 5, 2008, 08:07 PM

Sounds like I am staying with my 3.5" FW drive. I wish I could do something about its bulky power brick.

Veltliner · Jan 6, 2008, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by The Godfather

Sounds like I am staying with my 3.5" FW drive. I wish I could do something about its bulky power brick.

I also wish that. And I wish I could do something against the snaking chaos of cables behind my desk. Sometimes I wish to fry all that connector spaghetti in a pan.

Looks like cables are a status symbol: the more cables, the more important and capable the device.

silver · Jan 6, 2008, 11:08 PM

Ok for the bulky brick you can find smaller ones at Radioshack, I wrote that earlier.