lacie hard drive questions

[n4p226r]

i just recently got a mac mini from the website freeminimacs.com. thanks to all that help. I want to use this mainly for music only. i have a digidesign xbox i will be using with pro tools le and will get an external firewire drive. I have read that some drives need certain specs to work with protools and such. oxford 911 rings a bell but i dont know what that means and cannot seem to find it on any firewire drive specs. I was thinking since lacie seems like a general suggestion from most people and since i have a mac mini i would get this..

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10476

apparently you can daisy chain another firewire device off of it. i was thinking a firewire dvd burner would be the way to go. also from lacie i am thinking.


my mac mini will be the 1.4ghz model with 1 gig of ram. how do you think this setup will be for doing clips over backing tracks

 

[Pointbreakd]

1 gig of ram and 1.4 ghz will be fine.

As for the lacie drive. I may be wrong here but I believe you want the drive that has the 800 firewire option as opposed to the 400.

 

[TAVD]

The mac mini only has fw400, so the fw800 drive will still only be 400 mbps. I've heard mixed opinions regarding the Lacie drives with PT. If you're unsure or don't want to chance it, Glyph makes a firewire netdrive and I saw them on sale the other day. Sweetwater, maybe, not sure where I saw them.

Also, Check out the G Tech drives, killer specs and fanless enclosure.

 

[Pointbreakd]

Originally posted by Denyle_Guitars
The mac mini only has fw400, so the fw800 drive will still only be 400 mbps. I've heard mixed opinions regarding the Lacie drives with PT. If you're unsure or don't want to chance it, Glyph makes a firewire netdrive and I saw them on sale the other day. Sweetwater, maybe, not sure where I saw them.

Also, Check out the G Tech drives, killer specs and fanless enclosure.

ah yes, you are correct. As for the lacie, the studio I track at uses one, seems to work fine...

 

[MichaelK]

I've been using LaCie firewire drives with PT for about three years and have found them to be completely reliable. Almost everyone I know uses them. That one looks like a winner. Nice the way it stacks like that.

Glyph's prices don't make sense for firewire, IMO. Glyph makes more sense for SCSI, which is a much more finicky interface. They're a great company when it comes to support, and you pay for it, but with these drives you really don't need it. No reason not to use LaCie.

 

[n4p226r]

i dont think i can really go with glyph drives. This isn't really for recording a band and all. just for me to do some stuff myself. It's not like i need 24 simultaneous tracks. Also, anyone have an idea of how the firewire daisy chaining works. I think i shouldnt see a horible performance since its mainly going to be using either the hard drive or the dvd burner. probably never will use both together.

 

[melondaoust]

I use a LaCie Porsche 7200rpm for Pro Tools - found it reliable most of the time.

There have been occasions where PT will on occasion not recognize it as an audio record volume (don't worry, your data is fine). You just have to copy your sessions to another drive and reformat the Lacie (and I also see this happen to a Glyph.)

Other than that, the LaCie does the trick.

I have used a Glyph drive as well. While the price seems high for a FW drive, there are differences (different casing, there is a fan in the drive to cool it, it is rackmountable, etc.)

 

[flicker180]

*yawn*

you people DO know you're paying for a "cute" enclosure over anything else, right?

that being said, anything based off of a Seagate Barracuda 7200.x series drive ( .7 or .8 ) will suffice just fine. I looked at Glyph's specs and frankly, i could do a similar unit for less. etc. etc. There's nothing that they're doing that can't be done by any run-of-the-mill Hard drive specialist.

if you need any bulk drives, talk to ME first. I can score you good deals (i'm a just-in-time reseller using distributors for inventory and shipping.... )

dave

 

[MichaelK]

Originally posted by flicker180
There's nothing that they're doing that can't be done by any run-of-the-mill Hard drive specialist.

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what you mean by run-of-the-mill. Some companies assemble better computers than others from the same parts. Is Dell more reliable than Compaq or Brand X, or vice-versa? They use more or less the same components, right? Some hard drive companies assemble better-working, longer-lasting, more reliable enclosures than others.

I've had Brand X firewire drives with identical specs to LaCie utterly fail within months of being out of warranty. Two different drives, two different companies. One manufacturer (or reseller, if you prefer) wanted to charge my credit card $30 just to diagnose the problem, which would take about a week. Glyph has stood by their work on my SCSI drives for the past six years 100%. When they've had known issues with certain components... e.g. the power supply in the housing... even though it was out of warranty, all I had to pay was shipping and I had it back in two days. That was four years ago and the power supply has held up since.

I'm working that hard drive pretty damned hard, reading and writing non-stop in real time for long stretches. I'm not browsing my pictures folder; I'm recording maybe 8-10 simultaneous tracks of 24-bit audio at 44,100 samples per second for maybe 5, 6 minutes straight. I don't want ANY component in the chain to decide that's the time to get hiccups. I need complete reliability, and if it costs me a little more, it's a lot cheaper than even one hour of a studio, two engineers and a string section.

 

[flicker180]

i agree....I'm doing nonlinear video editing right now (in my offtime) at home on my a64 machines...

I've got a rendering box that basically does 24/7 work for me (I run my renders during the day when i actually "work" and my editing at night), i've got all my PCs working 24/7 on projects that have large I/O requirements...if i need parts, i source 'em and i never buy less than 2.

*shrug* The problem is, why buy a pretty enclosure for MORE when a functional enclosure will work just as good?

dave

 

[MichaelK]

Originally posted by flicker180
*shrug* The problem is, why buy a pretty enclosure for MORE when a functional enclosure will work just as good?

I don't see it as a problem 'cause I'm not paying for the looks.

 

[flicker180]

but with a markup over 25% you are.

 

[MichaelK]

Originally posted by flicker180
but with a markup over 25% you are.

See, I don't give a rat's ass what they look like as long as they are sturdy enough to take a few bumps. Nor what their markup is - that's their business, if they can get it. In fact, I'm surprised the margins are so low.

I know I'm paying more than I would for Brand X. I've tried Brand X. I don't ever want Brand X again! I'm willing to pay more because I know I'm getting reliability. Looks are looks, but if they want to tart it up with golden wings and a pair of tits I'll pay for that, too.

 

[Bassomatic]

I've been completely happy with my LaCie SCSI drives (except for the mechanical noise level, which i've been to lazy/cheap to properly address). My "main" project drive is a LaCie 15,000 rpm that's been in steady service for years.

 

[Bassomatic]

Originally posted by flicker180
*yawn*

This may not be the best way to attract new customers. It's a tad insulting, yes?

 

[flicker180]

Originally posted by Bassomatic
This may not be the best way to attract new customers. It's a tad insulting, yes?

it was in direct response to the "porsche designed Lacie external drive" portion of things above.

it's a little like Chrysler's Pinafarina style LeBaron.

that's all.

dave

 

[TAVD]

This might be of interest to you.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php3?t=38554