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helios410 · Sep 12, 2008, 01:15 PM

Hi everyone,

I am looking to install an additional hard drive in my Mac Pro (early 2008 model). My basic requirements are that it is 7200rpm, and holds 2 to 3GB. I don't have an exact price range locked in, just looking to hear what the best is performance-wise at this point.

I would be using this for editing with Final Cut Pro, and storage of my music library (which I regularly access with iTunes).

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

tooki · Sep 12, 2008, 01:37 PM

They don't make hard drives that big yet. 1TB is the biggest on the market, with 1.5TB on the horizon.

I think you may be looking for a larger storage system, like internal or external RAID, or a Drobo or SAN.

mduell · Sep 12, 2008, 03:04 PM

The 1TB Hitachis are the current IO performance kings for 7200RPM drives, but they're about 33% more expensive than the Seagates.

helios410 · Sep 12, 2008, 03:13 PM

Tooki, that might be a good option for me. I really only have a fundamental understanding of what a RAID configuration is and how it works. Is there a FAQ and "how to" set up a RAID config?

Thanks for the suggestion Mduell. Would I be able to set up a RAID configuration with two Hitachis?

webraider · Sep 12, 2008, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

The 1TB Hitachis are the current IO performance kings for 7200RPM drives, but they're about 33% more expensive than the Seagates.

How are the Seagates? I'm using much smaller ones in my MacPro and they are so quiet. Just wondering how they hold up in general?

mduell · Sep 12, 2008, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by helios410

Thanks for the suggestion Mduell. Would I be able to set up a RAID configuration with two Hitachis?

Yes, but do you really want/need to? If you don't need a single large volume or the increased bandwidth, I'd just use two separate drives and avoid the hassle/expense/risk of RAID0.

Originally Posted by webraider

How are the Seagates? I'm using much smaller ones in my MacPro and they are so quiet. Just wondering how they hold up in general?

The Seagates are great for bandwidth and have a longer warranty than most (5 years).

tooki · Sep 12, 2008, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

The 1TB Hitachis are the current IO performance kings for 7200RPM drives, but they're about 33% more expensive than the Seagates.

As long as you're talking about the newest generation that was just released (the B version). The original Hitachi 1TB (non-B) is the oldest 1TB, and slower.

The new Hitachi, WD Caviar Black, and the Samsung 1TB are all "top" performers, depending on which specs you're looking for. You can't go wrong with any of those or the Seagate 7200.11.

Seagate also has a 1.5TB coming soon.

tooki · Sep 12, 2008, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by helios410

Tooki, that might be a good option for me. I really only have a fundamental understanding of what a RAID configuration is and how it works. Is there a FAQ and "how to" set up a RAID config?

Thanks for the suggestion Mduell. Would I be able to set up a RAID configuration with two Hitachis?

Whether two drives is enough depends on what type of RAID you want.

RAID 0: striping, where all the data is divided evenly among the drives, for top performance. But if any one of the drives dies, ALL the data is lost. Requires 2 or more drives, 2 is most common. Capacity is the sum of both drives. Speed is great.

RAID 1: mirroring, where all the data is written to two drives simultaneously, for reliability. If either drive dies, the other drive has a complete copy on it. Requires exactly 2 drives. Capacity is the capacity of a single drive. Write speed is slower than the single drive, read speed is higher.

RAID 3/4/5: striping with parity. The data is divided up amongst all the drives, plus some extra redundancy info is written as well. These RAIDs tolerate the failure of one drive with no data loss, but you also lose one drive's worth of capacity. Requires 3 or more drives. Capacity is the sum of all the drives but one. Nice balance of high speed and redundancy.

RAID 6 and others: same as RAID 5, but with a second redundancy disk, whose capacity is also lost. Tolerant of the failure of any 2 drives. Requires 4 or more disks.

In home use, you'll encounter RAID 0 and 1, and sometimes 5. The others are very rare. Even rarer are combined RAIDs, where one RAID is made up of several smaller RAIDs, using huge numbers of disks.

nash1017 · Sep 14, 2008, 12:24 PM

I've had no problems with the Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB...

tooki · Sep 14, 2008, 05:08 PM

Good to hear, since that drive has an awesome price/performance ratio.

mduell · Sep 15, 2008, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

As long as you're talking about the newest generation that was just released (the B version). The original Hitachi 1TB (non-B) is the oldest 1TB, and slower.

Nope, the nearly-year-old original.

tonewheel · Sep 15, 2008, 10:02 PM

Quick question, speaking of additional drives...

I now have drives in 3 of the 4 bays in my Mac Pro. One primary, one for Time Machine, the third a spare. Is there any way that I can keep that third drive from mounting when I start the machine? If I need it, I'd prefer to mount it manually using Disk Utility.

tooki · Sep 16, 2008, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by mduell

Nope, the nearly-year-old original.

Yeah, that article is a year old. It doesn't include more recent models.

Look at some current speed tests, both PC sites like tomshardware and Mac ones like barefeats. They ALL show that the original 1TB Hitachi has been eclipsed by several other drive models, including a new Hitachi. I already provided a link so you can see this.

mduell · Sep 16, 2008, 03:24 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

Yeah, that article is a year old. It doesn't include more recent models.

Look at some current speed tests, both PC sites like tomshardware and Mac ones like barefeats. They ALL show that the original 1TB Hitachi has been eclipsed by several other drive models, including a new Hitachi. I already provided a link so you can see this.

C'mon tooki, your own link to TH shows the original, non-B Hitachi to be the IO king for 7200RPM drives.

tooki · Sep 16, 2008, 08:20 PM

Please carefully re-read what I wrote.

I said:

The new Hitachi, WD Caviar Black, and the Samsung 1TB are all "top" performers, depending on which specs you're looking for. ...

Read the conclusion section on that link, please!

IO's per second are, btw, hardly THE most important spec, and the old Hitachi is soundly trounced in every other benchmark in the same test, including throughput, access time, and real-world benchmarks, all of which have significant correlation to real-world performance.

(Mind you, I have nothing against Hitachi -- I have an original 7K1000 in my Mac Pro right now and it's great -- but that particular model is now outdated, and makes no sense to buy now.)

mduell · Sep 16, 2008, 11:53 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

IO's per second are, btw, hardly THE most important spec, and the old Hitachi is soundly trounced in every other benchmark in the same test, including throughput, access time, and real-world benchmarks, all of which have significant correlation to real-world performance.

Please read what I wrote.

I was talking about IOs ("The 1TB Hitachis are the current IO performance kings for 7200RPM drives"), and they are more significant than throughput/access time alone because they're a net product of both of those along with the performance of the controller. IO performance provides a better prediction of how fast it will be because it measures how much you can actually get done. Throughput only predicts how long it will take for bulk file copies and access time only predicts how long it will take to do a single seek. Real world benchmarks are ok if your workflow is like them, but IO is a better general indicator.