Best large capacity (1TB+) USB/firewire hard drive?

Marmotta · 22 Jan 2009 at 23:22

I'm looking for a decent 1 or 2 terabyte external hard drive, as my current internal 500GB is approaching its limits. My main preoccupation with it will be sound levels, as it will be used almost exclusively for audio and video, with essential stuff being kept on both drives. The current range of Lacie hard drives look gorgeous, but I've heard that they are far from quiet; same applies to the 1TB Iomega Ultramax I had a few months ago to transfer stuff from my old PC.

Anyone had good experiences of silent external hard drives with large capacities? Oh...and firewire wouldn't go amiss either

thepeganator · 23 Jan 2009 at 01:18

Why not a new, better, cheaper internal one?

Marmotta · 23 Jan 2009 at 16:19

thepeganator said:
Why not a new, better, cheaper internal one?

Because my PC can only hold one 2.5" drive.

DigitalReaper · 23 Jan 2009 at 16:47

USB/FW400 are pretty slow compared to a modern HD, even FW800 will slow the drive down (although not by too much, maybe by 1/3rd). An eSATA drive (plus card if needed) is the way to go IMO.

USB/FW400 would probably be fine if you're not editing massive files though, top speed will be about 30mb/sec, 40 if you're lucky. A decent internal/eSATA drive will do around 100.

A Samsung F1 or a WD Greenpower drive in a fanless enclosure would do nicely IMO. The Samsung is the faster and the Greenpower is slower (5400 RPM) but also runs cooler, not sure how they compare for noise but both should be pretty quiet.

Marmotta · 23 Jan 2009 at 21:10

DigitalReaper said:
USB/FW400 are pretty slow compared to a modern HD, even FW800 will slow the drive down (although not by too much, maybe by 1/3rd). An eSATA drive (plus card if needed) is the way to go IMO.

USB/FW400 would probably be fine if you're not editing massive files though, top speed will be about 30mb/sec, 40 if you're lucky. A decent internal/eSATA drive will do around 100.

A Samsung F1 or a WD Greenpower drive in a fanless enclosure would do nicely IMO. The Samsung is the faster and the Greenpower is slower (5400 RPM) but also runs cooler, not sure how they compare for noise but both should be pretty quiet.

Thanks for the advice - I'll look into the Samsung and WD drives and a decent fanless enclosure.

SimonC · 24 Jan 2009 at 14:11

Can you post what you find Marmotta, I really need an ext hdd.