PowerBook 1.5 ghz and 7200rpm external drive?

Simon Lewin · Post by **Simon Lewin** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 5:04 pm

I've just taken the plunge and ordered Live 4 to run on my 1.5 ghz PowerBook running Panther.

There seems to be a lot of talk re. drive speeds and I'm a bit confused.

I don't really want to replace the drive in the PB itself but I am looking to buy an external drive.

My question is, would getting a faster external help with the running of Live and (forgive me if this is a daft question) would I run the application off the external, or just keep my data there.

Any tips (and drive recommendations) appreciated.

Thanks,

Simon

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:20 pm

The thing to do is keep the Live app on your internal system drive in the Applications folder and run your samples off the FW drive.

The standard recommendation for audio FW drives is a 7200rpm with the Oxford 911 chipset and at least an 8Mb cache.

Can any owners jump in here and reccomend some brands...?

Vercengetorex · Post by **Vercengetorex** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:25 pm

Other World Computing has assembled drives as well as enclosures, so you can buy a disk where ever, and make it an external firewire disk. Personally I always use IBM HDD's. They are reliable, they are fast, and they are reliable. Did I mention reliable? Anyway... you get the point.

dmc · Post by **dmc** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:43 pm

i use LaCie d2 disks, which work great, and are nice and quiet, but was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for something a little more portable.

dcs · Post by **dcs** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 2:12 am

Run the application off the internal and put your audio data on an external firewire 800 drive. Many great tests and comparisons at barefeats.comhttp://barefeats.com/index.html

tribalogical · Post by **tribalogical** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 4:27 am

I picked up a Hitachi 2.5" drive (60Gb, 7200rpm, 8mb cache), and an enclosure. Cost +/- US$300, and took maybe five minutes to put together... The hitachi is currently the only 7200rpm 2.5: drive that I know of...

This combo was a bit more expensive than the larger 3.5" drives/enclosures, but powers off the FW bus so it's super portable (weighs in at about half a pound, no extra power supply). Worth the extra if you can afford it...

I went with an enclosure that supports both FW400 & FW 800... (you can stream about 30Mb/sec or so using fw800 and this setup. That's a lot of audio...)

Anyway, it works real well...

The previous advice is the best i my experience; app lives on the internal drive in Applications, songs/audio data live on the external drive. This also allows you to defragment the data drive now and then, without taxing your system drive......

Here are links to the hitachi drive info and the fw800 enclosure...

Hitachi drive:
The Hitachi 7K60 is widely available, prices range from about $175 to $250.... This is a good place to start....

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... =OTC-C173T

Firewire Direct "Mach IV" and "Mach VIII" enclosures:
This is the page for the complete kit (drive + enclosure) that gives the most info. You can buy the enclosure separately for $109 I think...

http://www.firewiredirect.com/firewire/ ... Mach.shtml

enjoy...

peace,
tribalogical

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 7:14 am

since you have the latest G4 Powerbook, that means you also have firewire 800. I'd recommend a firewire 800 enclosure and 7200rpm hd...
such as these:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page. ... Template=1

i agree with running your app and OS on the internal drive, and audio files on an external (fast drive), but would extend that to use FW800 since you have the option and alot of us don't =)

the increased bandwidth means higher track count. higher track count = good!

Chris Cowie · Post by **Chris Cowie** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 11:11 am

I have an external firewire drive and I havent noticed an increase in performance (more tracks). I use mine for backup only.

Mark H has installed a Hitachi 7200rpm drive in his notebook and has noticed a substantial increase in performance.

Its the route I will be going when I get around to it.

Within a year and a half all new Laptops will have 7200rpm drives I reckon.