Purchasing a Firewire Drive
by David Cox
Mar 21, 2005
Buy a prebuilt drive |
Buying a prebuilt external drive is the easiest & quickest solution. We recommend Western Digital, Lacie, and Maxtor brand external firewire drives. |
Build your own |
Buy your own drive and case and put them together. Often save $30 - $200 compared to buying a prebuilt drive. To assemble your drive, you will plug in the power cable, plug in the data cable, and screw the harddrive to the case. You will need a phillips-head screwdriver. Assembling your drive will take about 15 minutes. |
Buying a Pre-Built Drive
You will save money and have a better chance of getting exactly the drive you want if you purchase online, but if you've procrastinated, like spending extra money, or like having a local vendor (good for returns if it doesn't work), try these local guys:
• Frys
• Best Buy
• Circuit City
• Comp USA
We recommend that you purchase one of the drives listed below, but if you want to buy a non-recommended model and see if it works, here's some guidelines:
There are numerous manufacturers of prebuilt firewire drives. Some of our favorite brands are Lacie, Western Digital, and Maxtor.
Is the drive you're buying Firewire (also called IEEE-1394) or is it USB? Its probably OK if it has USB ports also, but make sure it has Firewire ports.
Is the drive you're buying a 7200 RPM (revolutions per minute) drive? Some of the cheaper drives are 5400 RPM which is not fast enough for video editing.
For the best future upgrade-ability (especially if you have a newer PC), consider buying a drive with both Firewire and USB2.0 ports. This will allow you to use the drive on more machines.
Recommended Models:
Building Your Own Drive
Buy your own drive and case and put them together. Often save $30 or more compared to buying a prebuilt drive.
To assemble your drive, you will plug in the power cable, plug in the data cable, and screw the harddrive to the case. You will need a phillips-head screwdriver. Assembling your drive will take about 15 minutes.
Buy a Case (choose one) |
*Recommended* Firewire & USB2.0 Enclosure: N82E16817145316 (Supports Drives up to 250GB) http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=N82E16817145316 |
Firewire Only Enclosure: N82E16817145315 (Supports Drives up to 250GB) http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=N82E16817145315 |
Buy a Hard Drive (choose one) | |
19 hours of DV |
Western Digital WD2500JB 250 GB "Special Edition" 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive Maxtor 7Y250P0 200GB 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive |
15 hours of DV |
Western Digital WD2000JB 200 GB "Special Edition" 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive Maxtor Diamond Max L01P200 200GB 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive |
13.6 hours of DV |
Western Digital WD1800JB 180 GB "Special Edition" 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive |
12 hours of DV |
Western Digital WD1600JB 160 GB "Special Edition" 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive Maxtor Diamond Max 160GB 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive |
9 hours of DV |
Western Digital WD1200JB 120 GB "Special Edition" 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 120GB L01P120 120 GB 8MB Cache 7200RPM IDE Harddrive |
6 hours of DV |
Western Digital WD800JB 80 GB "Special Edition" 8MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 80 GB 8MB Cache 7200RPM IDE Harddrive |
3 hours of DV |
Extreme Budget Model (this is a pretty bad deal considering that $10 - $20 more will buy you 2 times the storage or more) Western Digital WD400BB 40 GB 2MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40GB 40GB 2MB Cache 7200 RPM IDE Harddrive |
If you're a tech-head or want to shop around, you need to buy a 7200 RPM IDE harddrive. Be certain the drive you purchase is not a 5400RPM drive. These drives are too slow and you will have dropped frames and problems capturing. We currently recommend Western Digital and Maxtor Harddrives. There are 2 types. Western model numbers which end in BB have a 2MB cache. Drives which end in JB have an 8MB cache. The 8MB versions (also called "Special Edition" have significantly better performance and a longer warranty (3 years instead of 1 year). Unless you absolutely have to save the $6 - $20, we STRONGLY recommend the JB 8MB models. Many Western Digital drives ship with a 3 year warranty these days, which is something of a rarity in the industry. View all of the Western Digital Drives currently at NewEgg.com. | |
Send Comments, Suggestions, or Changes to David Cox.
ADDENDUM by Charles Soto
October 24, 2005
Macworld recently published an article titled "Buyer's Guide: Firewire hard drives."
