ATA, SCSI, or Firewire Hard Drive?

[M@tt]

Hi there,

I am finally getting ready to buy a Digi 001 system and a new Mac G4 (466Mhz, 256 RAM)...

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend whether I should spend the extra money and get an internal SCSI drive as the dedicated audio drive or if I will be fine just going with Ultra ATA. Also, what about a Firewire drive for this application?

Anyone have a recommendation for a good hard drive for audio and a good internal CD-R drive?

Any thought welcome!

Thanks,
-M@tt

[fenris]

Do a search on those, it's been covered before on DUC.
SCSI is recommanded by Digi, ATA successfully used by a LOT of users, even internal ATA, Firewire not officially supported yet, but some have been using it. Like I said, do a search , you'll find infos about a lot of things that seem to work pretty well, and much less expensive than the recommanded dedicated external SCSI drive...Good luck

[Gulliver]

Note, G4s don't have room for a second CD device, go with firewire CD-R if you have a DVD internal.

I'm a big fan of SCSI, but 001 doesn't need much, I'd recommend the IDE drive.

[ThomCat]

SCSI blows for a number of reasons (do a search).

FW is just not quite ready for prime time.

ATA works just fine. ATA/66 is OK, if you have a faster bus you may want ATA/100 or better. Use 7200 RPM drives with fast seek times (8.5 or less) and large caches (1 or 2 meg). Use a separate drive for the OS and for audio. If you can't get enough tracks use a third drive and spread the tracks over the two audio drives. Currently the optimum cost-per-GB ratio is on the 45 GB drives.

[weissmann]

In my opinion the best result is given with a ATA/IDE like IBM DTLA-307030.

CU

[M@tt]

Thanks everyone,

I think that, based on the recommendations here and from what I've learned in the DUC, I'll go ATA for both hard drives on my new G4 purchase (probably in a month or two).

Now for my next questions...

Is there a clear advantage to choosing ATA/100 over ATA/66? ...Even when seek time and RPM are similar? Are the hard drives that can be ordered through Apple with the new G4's good, or should I be looking at buying aftermarket drives for better performance? Recommendations? ...I was looking at the Maxtor Diamond Max plus 40GB drive.

Also, is the Plextor PlexWriter a good choice for a CD-RW burner or should I choose the Yamaha model? Will the Adaptec 2906 SCSI controller card work fine or should I choose another card (maybe something faster?)? I've caught a little bit of some talk about problems with the Adaptec cards with the new G4's from this forum, but not enough to really understand the issue. In any event, I just don't want to spend $300 on a card if I'm only going to run my CD-RW from it.

Thanks again!
-M@tt

[nuke]

ATA/100 is just a slightly faster cable transfer rate. ATA/100 drives are backwards compatible with all ATA hosts (computers or interface cards).

The G4's have ATA/66 capable controllers and will automatically use best rate that can be negotiated between the computer and the drives.

[ThomCat]

If your only use for SCSI is to connect to a legacy CDR burner then any $50 SCSI card will do. You might want to stay within Digi's approved list, however, as the potential for problems is likely smaller when you do.

[ThomCat]

If your only use for SCSI is to connect to a legacy CDR burner then any $50 SCSI card will do. If you are buying a new burner I would avoid SCSI altogether and go FW. You might want to stay within Digi's approved list for either, however, as the potential for problems is likely smaller when you do.