[iomatic]

Shopping around now; last I heard Seagate was the most reliable and they bought WD? Anyway. We just want, in order: reliable, reliable, reliable, fast, fast, quiet... and cheap. ...whatever. Maybe we'll get two; I have no idea. Do you just plug these things in, then fire up Drive Utility (with the proper shutdown/startup procedure, naturally)? Dual-RAID worth it?

Mainly for backup, really, but if it's usable too, what the hell. Is there a list somewhere currently of the 'best' (I know, it's a subjective term, but work with me here)?

Like, when we shopped for PowerBook (yeah, PowerBooks!) drives, Toshiba at the time, was top, then it was... dunno, some others. Oh, and I need a massage.

Thanks.

[indigoimac]

Well for speed and reliability Seagate and WD are pretty much tied at this point w. the 500gig platter drives. So the seagate 7200.12 the WD Blacks both are very nice drives and are priced very competitively. Also w/o knowing what size you need this is going to be more difficult. Both varieties will work in RAID it is up to you to decide whether you need that additional speed and/or redundancy.

Also, I've had access to the 500gig black, 500gig 7200.12 and the 1TB Blacks and the WD Blacks are quieter when seeking, but I'd be surprised if you notice much of a difference in the MacPro case which is pretty insulating.

Also Seagate and WD are separate, Seagate bought Maxtor a number of years ago -- I think that's what you're referring too.

There are also server class drives the ES from Seagate and RE from WD, a list is below.

500gig Consumer, I have the black in my iMac it is great.
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

1TB Consumer:
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

"Server-Class" arguably more reliable, but that much more expensive, speed is similar:
Newegg.com - Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

And you'll format 'em in Disk Utility, slightly more complex if you are booting off the new one.

[iomatic]

Thanks much.

Considering 1TB to backup the stock 640GB; would it be advantageous to do RAID with the server-grade drives, or just not worth it (should probably backup to a removable/optical media anyway)?

[indigoimac]

What kind of raid are you looking to do? If you are looking to stripe, RAID 0, if either drive fails you'll likely lose everything, though it is faster...so you may want the marginally more reliable server class drives. If you RAID 1 so all data on the volume is written to both then you are redundant right there so I wouldn't bother.

To be honest if this is already going to be a backup you can do whatever you want, the chances of both the main drive failing and the backup at the same time is remote...

For what it's worth I wouldn't really buy the server class drives unless it was something mission critical.

[mduell]

2TB Hitachi... $150

Don't RAID.

"Server grade" is mostly a scam.

[BLAZE_MkIV]

The biggest difference your see in a non-server env between a consumer and enterprise drive are the warranty periods and the error handling which only really affects RAID setups.

[iomatic]

Cool, thanks. Not an IT guy, obviously.

Alternate backups for off-site (other than clogging my meager 1.5Mbit DSL line)? Tape? I used Retrospect once, but got tired of figuring out which tapes went where and whatnot.

This is for the wife's Mac Pro (yes, mission critical money-making files).

[indigoimac]

I would just get an external drive and shuttle it around if it is necessary to have offsite. Check out macsales.com You can get an enclosure empty to put a drive in from newegg or get one of their combos. Your choice what interface you need FW800, USB2, etc.