USB 2.0 Hard Drives for PTLE

[QuikDraw]

I did a search for USB2 and didn't come up with any useful data so here's the question...

Is anyone using an external 7200 RPM USB 2.0 drive with PTLE? If so, how's the performance?

I need to get an external audio drive very soon. I wouldn't mind going IEEE 1394 (Firewire) if I had to, but I already have USB 2.0 ports in my PC and I don't have 1394. I don't have any free slots left so I'd have to remove my USB 2.0 ports and enable my built-in USB 1.1 ports (because I do need USB) in order to make room for the 1394 card.

I know that the throughput is about the same theoretically at around 480Mbps for both USB 2.0 and 1394. I also know that several PTLE PC users are getting great results with 1394. Also, in searching for an external drive I have found that the USB 2.0 drives are becomming easier to find than Firewire drives these days.

So, I'm pretty much decided that I will try a USB 2.0 drive becuase that will be the cheapest and easiest way for me to add external storage for my PC. I'm just curious if I will be the guniea pig here or if someone else has already used one of these drives as the main audio drive for their PTLE system.

Thanks,

Mike

[da BaSsTaRd!]

i don't know if this applies to you, mike, but one good reason for 1394 is compatability with macs. if you need to go to studios with mac setups, you might want to consider 1394.

[STUDIO-DE-ARIEL]

Mike

Something to consider that "last time I looked any way less than a month ago" the drives were
rated in mega bits Whereas the internal drives were megabytes. Quite a difference You
probably know the difference but I will state it here for emphasis and perhaps for those who
might not. A mega byte in a 32 bit system is 32 megabits Being 32 bits per byte. So the
transfer rate while it might be faster than serial usb originally was it would be no match for the
internal conventional drive for read write access. I got the mobile rack for use between my
computers. Less than 20 bucks. Lots of pdf. files a few postscript files etc. If you do go through
with this let us know how it works. the reason I didnot do this is because i did not think the
throughput was sufficient; Did not want to see buffer overuns ect. It might work though. Ah
the pioneering spirit Got us to the moon with much less technology than sits on our desks
presently Let us know.

[Marcel Mescher]

I'd go 1394. The controller costs 2 times nothing, the card works well. I use it for DV streaming only, not for harddisks but I like the performance. It never fails on me. I don't believe in the USB bus at all for disk I/O even when 2.0 matches 1394 firewire speed. You would have to disable all excessive USB devices or Windoze will probably cause interrupt problems.
Go ATA 100/133 or Firewire, I use Ultra160 SCSI with 10.000 rpm disks only for PT but I do understand that that doesn't fit everyones budget.
Good luck.

[QuikDraw]

So... Nobody's tried a USB 2.0 hard drive with PTLE yet huh? And those of you that care to comment on the subject recommend against USB 2.0 in favor of IEEE 1394 or Firewire.

The point is well taken concerning Mac compatibility with Firewire drives. I decided to add 1394 capability to my machine.

But I still felt I needed to know if a USB 2.0 drive could serve effectively as a PTLE audio drive. So I purchased a new 7200 RPM Maxtor 40GB drive and a no-name USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure. I put it together and plugged it into my on-board USB 2.0 ports on my Asus P4B266 mobo. Nothing happened. Tried everything I could think of and still couldn't get it to work.

I mentioned above that I added 1394 capability to my PC. That was done with the purchase of an Adaptec Duo Connect Combo card which has both Firewire and USB 2.0 on a single PCI card. After my new drive failed to work on my on-board ports I disabled them and installed the new combo card.

As soon as the drivers for the new card were loaded I turned the USB 2.0 drive on and everything went as expected from that point on. It seems the built-in USB 2.0 support on my Asus board is not all that good. All seems well on the Adaptec ports though.

I even ran the DaveC test on the new drive. I got exactly the same results, 23 tracks, with the USB drive as I always got with my internal ATA drive.

Now, I've seen people report that they actually get better performance with their Firewire drives than they get with their internal drives. So the USB 2.0 drive may not perform quite as well as some Firewire drives. Then again, I might try a Firewire drive in the future and find that I get the same performance that way too. Won't know till I try it. And I will try it.

But I think that this shows that the new USB 2.0 interface is a viable option for external hard drives for PTLE.

images/icons/grin.gif

Mike

[STUDIO-DE-ARIEL]

verry inovative mike

[da BaSsTaRd!]

Originally posted by QuikDraw:
Now, I've seen people report that they actually get better performance with their Firewire drives than they get with their internal drives. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I'd be willing to bet that those that got better performance with f/w than ata had reasons other than controller issues for that. for example, when i first started using my f/w drive with PT, i got better results. the reason turned out to be 32kb cluster size on the f/w drive. as soon as i changed my ata drive to 32kb clusters i got the same results on both drives.

i bet there's no difference in performance (for PTLE - 24 track limit) between ata, f/w and usb2. for me, the issue is compatability. usb2 is pretty new and not a lot of people use it but all macs come with f/w and most recording studios use macs...

[QuikDraw]

Originally posted by da BaSsTaRd!:

for me, the issue is compatability. usb2 is pretty new and not a lot of people use it but all macs come with f/w and most recording studios use macs...<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Yeah, compatibility is an issue for me too. That's why I got the Duo Connect card. I had to try USB2 since no one else had, just to know if it would work. But I also made sure I added Firewire capability to insure that I could work with everyone. I've never done any work with outside studios. I rarely have paying clients. When I have had paying clients in the past I've always made them pay for the recording media. Whether it was cassette or ADAT, the client always provided it before. I'll do the same now. I'll just slap a 7200 ATA 20GB drive in either a USB2 or Firewire box, customer's choice, and we're good to go. Doesn't matter to me.

I also knew that when I tried the USB2, if I had found it unacceptable for PTLE use I could have returned the USB2 enclosure for a Firewire enclosure for the same price. So there was no gamble there. Another factor in my decision to try USB2 is that my whole family, and most of my friends have PCs. A lot of those are laptops with a USB port but no 1394. A USB device is the most convienent solution all around for what I do with PCs, music and otherwise.

images/icons/grin.gif

Mike