How large new FW HD?

[Mick F. Cantarella]

I'm ready for a couple of new FW hard drives. Is there a recommended size limit for drives these days with Pro Tools? I've had good luck with the OWC Mercury Elite 80 GBd drives in the past, but I see they have them up to 320 GBs now.

8MB Cache make any difference over 2MB Cache?

Thanks a bunch, -Mick

Mac 933 / 750 RAM / OS 9.2.2 / HD3 / two 192’s / Digi FW drives / PT v.5.3.1r2

[Mick F. Cantarella]

Bump up dere

[davip]

You might want to do a search on the DUC. There was a recent thread that discussed the cache size on the FW drives. I think the consensus was that it didn't matter.

[auxsend1]

For PT work, I don't think 8 vs 2 matters much if at all. But, generally speaking the 8 MB cache drives are 3 yr warranty and the 2 MB are only 1 yr. And the price difference isn't much at all if you're buying bare drives. So I always go for 8 MB.

[Mick F. Cantarella]

And can you recommend on over all HD size for PT use?

Thanks a bunch, -Mick

ps, great user name auxsend1!

[DocT]

I need a couple hard drives what brand would you(anyone) recommend?

[auxsend1]

My personal favorite is Western Digital Special Edition (8 MB cache). They have 3 year warranty and are usually top or close to top for performace. Check out:

http://www.storagereview.com

and I usually buy them here:

http://www.newegg.com

unless I can find a really good rebate deal like at Best Buy.

then I'll put them in enclosures from OWC:
http://www.macsales.com

or you could just buy the whole thing assembled from there, but then I can't guarantee that I'll get an 8 MB Western Digital. Plus, it ends up costing more.

Other drive brands that are solid are Seagate, and the new Hitachi line seems to be good as well.
For regular session work, I don't see any reason to limit your drive size. I like to get a big drive, like 200 or 250 and section off the first 36 GB or maybe 72 GB, whatever you want, as a record partition. The first partition will be the fastest since it's on the outside of the disc platters, and making it a separate partition will keep things tidy. e.g. when you're done w/ a project, you can easily transfer to another drive or the remaining space on the FW drive. Then you can start a new session w/ zero fragmentation.

Thanks for the compliment on the name. I decided on it for an email address, and stuck w/ it on the DUC....

[Vaporhead]

Have you been using Firewire 400 or 800. I would imagine there would be a performance differance.

[auxsend1]

I've been using FW400 only, so I can't comment on that vs. 800. Although, my friend just got two FW800 drives, and we're going to use those on his Pro Tools rig with a FW800 single 1 GHz Power Mac.

Check this out for more info on 400 vs 800. Yes, 800 is better, even w/ conventional IDE drives.

http://www.barefeats.com/fire35.html