[Frumpy]

Well, it's been 10 months now that i've owned my iBook SE, and i'm itchin' REAL bad for some serious hard drive space. I do games, and now i've been getting into iMovie, and 10 gigs doesn't cut it. I need an external firewire hard drive. I've been checking out different sites for the best price for the best bang, and i keep coming back to www.pricewatch.com. I've found an external firewire 40gig HD, with this description:

FireWire Hard Drives are perfect for those looking for a high storage solution for their
FireWire enabled desktop Macintosh or PC computers. With fast transfer speeds and plug & play ease of use, these drives make copying large data or digital video/audio files quick and easy. Plus, the drives are hot plug and unplug supported and require no device IDs or termination.
Bus interface: FireWire (1394 Compliant) System requirements: For Mac OS Users: A Macintosh computer with built-in FireWire ports or a Power Macintosh G3 computer with a FireWire PCI or CardBus Card ; Mac OS 8.5.1 or higher For PC Users: A PC with at least 200MHz Pentium and built-in FireWire port(s) or a FireWire PCI Card;
Windows 98SE or higher Package includes: FireWire Hard Drive; FireWire Software ; AC Power Cord; IEEE 1394 Connecting Cable (6-pin - 6-pin) 6 foot long.
Drive Mech. 3 Year Warranty! Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM. Latency (Avg): 4ms Seek Time (Avg): 8.5ms Data Transfer Rate (Typ): 13MB/Sec Data Transfer Rate (Max): 17 MB/Sec Dimensions: 7.46 in (W) x 10.23 in (D) x 2.450 in (H) Weight: 1.55kg (46oz) MTBF: More than 500,000 power-on hours Power requirements: 120/240 Volt
DRIVES ARE NEW WITH 3-Year Warranty FIREWIRE CASES HAVE ONE YEAR WARRNATY

DVFW30GIG7200Regular price: $229.00Sale price: $199.99

Now, it doesn't look like the drive is made by any big company like Maxtor or Western Digital, which is why i squirm when i think about sending these people my $200. But when i look up an actual Maxtor 40 gig HD, from Maxtor, it's listed as $280. So my questions are:

1. Is it worth the extra $80 to go through Maxtor instead of these no names, and

2. Are there any other sites out there when i can find a name brand drive for my iBook that won't cost an arm and a leg?

Thanks everyone!

[MaxMac]

Try http://www.basoncomputer.com I bought a 15gb bus-powered drive from them. It is a Hitachi drive, in their case. I have had zero problems, and it works great. Also take a look at http://www.cooldrives.com or http://www.firewiredirect.com/ . they both seem ok from what I have heard.

[diabolik]

Frumpy-

I have had great success with a granite digital enclosure and a maxtor 80 gig ATA-100 IDE drive. This might be a little bit more expensive of a solution, but it will be a better investment in the long run.

I think I paid $350 for both items, but that was a few months back. Many people will tell you to stick with a 7200 RPM drive for video editing (the maxtor is a 5400) but i have had no problems.

The granite digital case sports the new 911 firewire-IDE bridge chip enabling speeds in the 30 MB a second range opposed to the 14 MB/sec seen in most commercially available firewire drives. This makes all of the difference. Be sure whatever you get has this chip.

Check with www.2-pop.com for more info regarding video editing and firewire drives. They have tons of posts on the subject. Most there will tell you to stay away from the maxtor branded firewire drives.

You can also check out www.granitedigital.com for the 911 bridged case. I think there is at least one more retailer selling a 911 case but I forget who they are.

hope some or all helped-
sean

[KidRed]

Hey guys- Of all the best 2.5" firewire drives, which are bootable!?! No one tells you crap on the specs on some of these sites. I've looked at

LaCie PocketDrive
FirewireDirect 2.5" Spark II Dual Drive
VST Graphite-(expensive)
EZQUEST COBRA SLIM 2.5IN FIREWIRE

These are the best I could find but have no idea which are bootable and some don'tt list drive speed.

Any help? Which would you recommend?

Check out Otherworld Computing's 40 gig FireWire Drive. It's retailed on the site for 199, from a reputable company that I"ve never had problems with. If you go to www.dealmac.com, and do a search for OWC, it'll come up with a special price, $189!

[iBook Tom]

I just picked up an external Maxtor 80GB firewire HD for $305 plus S&H (about $325 total) at The Nerds.Net. The link is:
http://www.thenerds.net/productpage....01FWRA080&c=50

Most other places are selling this same drive for $379-$399 before S&H charges.

This is your basic everyday 5400 RPM firewire HD with an external power supply, but it worked perfectly out of the box. There was Mac software and disk utilities on the enclosed CDROM, and when I partitioned it into 4 sections the process only took about 5 seconds.

I'm very pleased with it. I'm not planning to travel with it, so size wasn't an issue. Still, it's only slightly bigger than a Disney VHS tape box. There is a brick power supply and plenty-long translucent firewire cable included as well.

I am using it for monthly hard disk backups and to start playing with OS 10.1 if I can get my hands on it.

Also, the drive itself is very quiet and there is a red indicator light on the front which shows when the drive is being accessed. And yes, you can boot from it.

Tom

[ 08-27-2001: Message edited by: iBook Tom ]

[looker]

go to FireWire Depot (http://www.fwdepot.com) and purchase an enclosure and then go to googlegear.com or dealmac.com to find a great deal on a bare hard drive and build it yourself - you will save money and have exactly what you want!!