External drive RAID 1 fw800

[zmac]

I am buying a MBP and I am looking for the right external storage to go with it. My thought is to use firewire 800 for good speed with video editing etc. and to use a RAID 1 array to keep a backup disk.

I don't really need the instant recovery of RAID 1, but I it sounds like a convenient way to always have a backup in case of a drive failure. In the past I have done periodic manual backups, but I don't really feel safe with that.

I have found two 1TB external setups that cost around $500 and can run in RAID 1 with 2 disks, but both are reviewed pretty badly:

1) WD 1 TB MyBook -- apparently the fan is unbearably loud?
http://www.amazon.com/1TB-My-Book-Pro-II/dp/B000J1HPJY/ref=pd_ybh_a_3/104-8345386-5574350

2) Maxtor One Touch III Turbo 1 TB -- apparently big quality issues?
http://www.amazon.com/Maxtor-Touch-...B000BW32IY/ref=pd_ybh_a_7/104-8345386-5574350

I also found one empty enclosure but couldn't find a review for it:
The OWC Mercury Elite Pro -AL RAID FW800 at $120 plus the disks
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEFW912AL2/

I am looking for something simple that I will also connect with a PC on occasion, so compatibility with Windows is also important.

Does anyone have any recommendations for other options here? Or have you used the OWC case? How was the fan noise and the reliability?

One other option that I thought of was to buy two 500GB WD MyBook units (these seem to be reviewed very well) and use one for periodic backup of the other, but this sounds less convenient than RAID 1.

Finally, has anyone looked at the speed difference of RAID 1 vs. a single external drive? Will a RAID 1 setup still work for video editing?

Thanks!!

 

[matperk]

i am looking for the same thing. Check out Lacie's drive. It seems a little more pricey, but i believe it's smaller volume.

Raid 0 (or 5 works as well, i think) is the best route for video editing as it will span (supposedly up to 70% faster over a raid 0), but then there's no automatic backup.

 

[iW00t]

I strongly recommend the OWC Mercury Pro drive or whatever it is, except it is not RAID 1. The enclosure itself is RAID 0, and if you want some sort of redunduncy you will have to get a 2nd enclosure to get RAID 0+1.

Get the bundle, they give you the Softraid software free too.

 

[zmac]

Software RAID?

So if you have two external drives then you can mirror them with softraid? Do they both connect directly to the computer? I only have one fw800 port on the MBP. Is it possible to connect the drives directly to each other?

I have heard that a software RAID may tax the CPU and slow you down?

Thanks!

 

[acer66]

the 500 gig get`s better reviews http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit..._49/002-8857483-3945628?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
if you can live with 250 gig in the raid setup
and one was saying something about drive failures with lacie`s model

looks like i screwed up, think the 1t model is the only one with raid, sorry