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Looking for 1TB External HD

chaseardoin7

chaseardoin7

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 7, 2007
154
0
i'm about to start ripping movies in HandBrake
and i was wondering where you guys think
i could find a semi-inexpensive 1TB external
HD that I can store the files on and connect
it via USB to my AirPort Extreme.


Any response is much appreciated.


chase :apple:
 
Well, I don't know if this will blow your budget, but consider the Guardian Maximus from OWC. It is a RAID1 device (mirrored drives) that will protect your media content.

I don't ever want to have to rip my stuff again (I've got dozens of hours involved in that process).

I went with the 1TB version, it was about $860 shipped. The internal drives are good quality (Hitachi 7k1000's). The enclosure has a 2yr warranty and provides 2 FW800, 1 FW400, and a USB port.

If that's too pricey, consider a 500GB version. If you can't afford a RAID1, then I suggest you order a Hitachi 7k1000 or Western Digital 1TB drive from NewEgg and put it into a nice enclosure that has good cooling and a triple interface (FW800/400/USB2).
 
chaseardoin7 said:
i'm about to start ripping movies in HandBrake
and i was wondering where you guys think
i could find a semi-inexpensive 1TB external
HD that I can store the files on and connect
it via USB to my AirPort Extreme.


Any response is much appreciated.


chase :apple:
Click to expand...

Easy. Go Amazon. My Book. You can get 1TB there for about 250 - 300 dollars.
 
Buffalo are a great make & far cheaper than the array Jeff is suggesting. Check their site for products, I have the 1tb fw400, its a quiet as a mouse.

Not sure if the My Book would be like a vacuum LOL!!!
 
I have a Lacie and a WD My Book. If you have a firewire 800 port, go with one that has that capability. Way faster. The Lacie is much quieter than the WD, so I use the WD as my backup of my Lacie.

Just my 2 cents.
 
I cannot encourage you enough to purchase multiple 500 GB drives and configure them in a raid array,

How are you planning to back up a 1 TB drive?
 
Rooskibar03 said:
And it will sound like a vacuum cleaner when its running. I cannot stand even leaving mine plugged in anymore.
Click to expand...

LOL.. my first one was like that, until WD released a firmware update to fix it. The new ones are much quieter. I believe they do not have fans also. I have a 500GB and it runs all day and its quiet as a mouse.
 
kagharaht said:
Easy. Go Amazon. My Book. You can get 1TB there for about 250 - 300 dollars.
Click to expand...
Rooskibar03 said:
And it will sound like a vacuum cleaner when its running. I cannot stand even leaving mine plugged in anymore.
Click to expand...


I have a WD Mybook 1TB ... got it from Best Buy for $239 0n sale.

I think mine is broken :rolleyes: .... I cannot hear it when it is running! :p:D
 
I also got a 1TB Western Digital MyBook and it works great with my Airport Extreme Base Station streaming to the :apple:TV. Used froogle.com and pricewatch.com and got it for $205 shipped about a month ago.
 
Buffalo is best:)

Get the Buffalo *COMBO* firewire and USB drives.

They are super quiet (no fan) and the drives spin down when not in use. They also auto-power off when the computer sleeps.

They are made in Japan (whereas most of the others are made in China).
 
I got a triple interface RAID case from CoolDrives.com for $138 and added a 2 750GB 32MB Cache Seagate drives for $195 each. That's 1.5TB for $528.
 
Jeff Hall said:
Well, I don't know if this will blow your budget, but consider the Guardian Maximus from OWC. It is a RAID1 device (mirrored drives) that will protect your media content.

I don't ever want to have to rip my stuff again (I've got dozens of hours involved in that process).

I went with the 1TB version, it was about $860 shipped. The internal drives are good quality (Hitachi 7k1000's). The enclosure has a 2yr warranty and provides 2 FW800, 1 FW400, and a USB port.

If that's too pricey, consider a 500GB version. If you can't afford a RAID1, then I suggest you order a Hitachi 7k1000 or Western Digital 1TB drive from NewEgg and put it into a nice enclosure that has good cooling and a triple interface (FW800/400/USB2).
Click to expand...

How quiet is your Guardian Maximus? I need to get something for backups (I like the mirrored RAID1 stack), and since I already have a brand new AEBS, I can spend some $$ one a nice external backup system and not $499 on a new Time Capsule (with no mirroring).

Have you seen other solutions you would have gone with in hindsight?
 
I have two WD drives. A 500Gb and 1Tb. Both are the newer, essential edition and I don't have any complaint about them .. I got them both on black friday this year. The 500Gb was $99 at Best Buy (wish I had bought a few more) and the 1Tb was like $239 after rebates at Circuit City.
 
I just got myself a CalDigit 1.5TB Firewire VR. Sure it's overkill for something within the Apple TV section.

I thought about getting WD My Book Studio, but read many negative feedbacks from users.
 
JimmyDreams said:
How quiet is your Guardian Maximus? I need to get something for backups (I like the mirrored RAID1 stack), and since I already have a brand new AEBS, I can spend some $$ one a nice external backup system and not $499 on a new Time Capsule (with no mirroring).

Have you seen other solutions you would have gone with in hindsight?
Click to expand...

It is very quiet in my opinion. The Hitachi drives whine a bit like a jet engine when they spin up (5-platter drives), but then everything is fairly quiet. The Fan on the box is not loud at all.

I too am going to purchase a 1TB Time Capsule, but non of my media will be on that (it's not mirrored!). Time Capsule will backup my MacBook Pro and my wife's Mini.

I also use SuperDuper! for creating bootable backups on separate external firewire drives.
 
Superman07 said:
Don't know if this will, help, but my co-worker was just telling me about this. Sounded very cool (especially the flexibility of the drive combinations).

http://www.drobo.com/
Click to expand...

DROBO is cool, but it's VERY SLOW, with only USB2.0 speeds. You can go WAY faster with a FW800 listed above. I have a Guardian Maximus AND an ezRAID. One is for Time Machine, the other for my media, and both run on the FW800 bus.
 
MacFanBoyIIe said:
DROBO is cool, but it's VERY SLOW, with only USB2.0 speeds. You can go WAY faster with a FW800 listed above. I have a Guardian Maximus AND an ezRAID. One is for Time Machine, the other for my media, and both run on the FW800 bus.
Click to expand...

hopefully drobo will go with firewire soon and then it will be perfect. I love the expandability of it - just add new drives when you need to, or replace your smallest one. There is something very appealing about drobo - i urge anyone who doesn't know what it is to watch the video on drobo.com
 
.mark. said:
hopefully drobo will go with firewire soon and then it will be perfect. I love the expandability of it - just add new drives when you need to, or replace your smallest one. There is something very appealing about drobo - i urge anyone who doesn't know what it is to watch the video on drobo.com
Click to expand...

Agreed! The lack of FW800 support was the reason I didn't go with it. But, if you don't need speed (like if you only do your backups when your computer is idle at night or if you're not modifying lots of files every day), then DROBO is probably the easiest to use and expand. Unfortunately, most people who would need something capable of as much storage space as the DROBO move lots of big files frequently and therefore wish for something that moves them faster than USB2.0. I read on another forum that even if they added a FW800 port it would still be just as slow. The slow-down is in the internal workings, not the media between Mac and DROBO.
 
MacFanBoyIIe said:
I read on another forum that even if they added a FW800 port it would still be just as slow. The slow-down is in the internal workings, not the media between Mac and DROBO.
Click to expand...

hopefully if that's the case then they'll work on optimising their algorithms/upgrade the hardware so it runs faster. I, like yourself, would buy one if it was faster. I'm sure they're more than aware of this potential market and they would be stupid not to try and reach it.
 
i just picked up a Mybook 750gb for 160 at best buy. It has FW400, USB2 and eSATA. I just use the USB2 as it is plenty fast for me. That is where my TV shows and movies are going to sit for now. I also use a 500gb mb for music and a 250gb my book for photos. I also have a 250gb wd drive in an external case for torrents and other misc junk. All have worked fine without issue. All are on USB2 and work just fine.

I also backup as I go, so no need for redundant HDDs or raid arrays. Easy enough to reload what I want if I have a failure. Of course in 22 years of using computers, I have never had a HDD failure on one of my machines. (knock on wood cause Im sure its a matter of time)
 
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