Silent hard drive for Mac audio/video use (Seagate?)

silence_seeker · Post by **silence_seeker** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:05 am

I've recently bought a 15" Apple Macintosh Powerbook G4 laptop which I intend to use (among many things) for video editing and multi-track music recording. For that I've been recommended to get an external hard drive connected to the machine using the Firewire 800 connector for the highest possible speed and storage space.

I've already bought the enclosure. It's the Mercury Elite Al pro from OWC which has Firewire 400, 800 and USB 1.1 and 2.0 connectors. The Firewire interface uses the Ofxord 912 chipset.
Apparently it takes all 3.5" IDE or ATA drives, but I'm really a clueless newbie when it comes to drive mechanisms, so I need some help deciding which one to get.

Obviously (posting in this forum) one of my main concerns is that the drive is quiet!

Having read through articles etc. here I've understood that the Seagate Barracuda series come highly recommended as they're quiet, cool running (the above enclosure doesn't have a built-in fan, so that's something to take into consideration) and has a 5 year warranty as opposed to the other producers which only have 1 year.

I read an article from Apple entitled "Final Cut Pro: What Kind of Hard Drive Should I Buy?" ("Final cut" is a professional video-editing program from Apple) where it says:

*The drive is the only device on the FireWire bus.
*The drive's speed is at least 7200 RPM.
*The drive can sustain minimum data rates appropriate for your video format (3.7 MB/s for DV).
*The drive uses a modern, high-performance bridge chip such as the Oxford 911 or 922.
*The drive uses its own power supply, and is not powered from the FireWire bus.

OK, the enclosure has its own separate, external power-supply and it uses the Oxford 912 chipset, so that should be fine.
As for being the only device on the Firewire bus; well, I've heard that the Firewire 400 and 800 connectors share the same bus, and I'll be connecting a camcorder to the Firewire 400 port, so I'm a little unsure about this. Perhaps I should ask about that in a Mac specific forum.
Finding a 7200 RPM drive is easy, but I really have no idea how to determine if a drive is able to sustain a data transfer rate of 3.7 MB/second.

Having looked at the Seagate website it seems I have the following choices:

500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (model ST3500641A)
400 GB Barracuda 7200.8 (model ST3400832A)

I've found another 400 GB model, not being sure what the difference is compared to the one above:
400 GB Barracuda 7200.9 (model ST3400633A)

I'm sure there are others as well.
I'm also confused about the standards: IDE, ATA, SATA etc.

MajereXYU · Post by **MajereXYU** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 7:47 am

Hello!

First off, nice purchase, Apple laptops are really nice.

For your questions :

Hard disk : Any current models should be able to provide 3.7MB/second sustained transfer speed. Most do around 40MB/second, so 3.7MB/sec is really no daunting task.

As for silence, I am sure most here will agree with me, Samsung's new models are the way to go.

They can be had cheaply, are realiable and fast, and most of all, they are currently the most silent 3.5" hard drives on the market. And yes they are quieter than Seagates. Come with 3years warranty. (VS Seagate's 5years)

Just make sure to get the IDE (ATA) version if your enclosure is IDE/ATA and the Serial ATA (S-ATA or SATA) version if your enclosure supports S-ATA.

--My guess is your enclosure is ATA compatible (ATA100 or ATA133 makes no difference as far as compatibility with enclosure goes).--

I am not sure if Samsung offers 400GB and 500GB models though. You would have to check.

Just a quick rundown on standards since you asked :

- IDE was the standard used until 1-2~ years ago. uses the ATA-66/100/133 transfer protocol.

- Serial ATA is the new standard. It uses smaller cables, supports hot-swap (connecting and deconnecting while drive is on) and promises (doesn't quite deliver yet) a faster transfer speed.

In normal use, you cannot connect a SATA drive to an IDE plug. (Unless adapters or such are used --not recommended--) so it is better (~mandatory~) to buy a drive whose interface is the same as your enclosure.

If you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Hope that helps!

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 9:09 am

Samsung is the drive maker of choise around here for noise and heat. However if you do need the extra capacity then Samsung may not be selling what you really want. The imminant T133 series will be in 300 and 400GB capacities, however I haven't seen them yet. Seagate was a good choice a few years ago, but it seems they're not as good as Samsung for low noise. If you can have it off the desk and on some foam then it's probably going to be OK.

silence_seeker · Post by **silence_seeker** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 6:13 am

Thanks for those comments

I've had a look at Samsung's website and indeed, there's a 400 GB IDE model available called the HD400LD.
So even though it's shown at the website it doesn't necessarily mean it's available to the public?
Any idea when these drives will be made available?

I really don't know how much space I need, so perhaps I should check in a video editing specific forum for that before I decide on anything.

Transfer speeds: most drives do 40 MB/sec? Should that be 4.0 MB/sec perhaps? Or are the demands for video applications quite modest in comparison to what the drives can handle? I always thought video editing was something that pushed computer hardware/software to its limits.

I'll be sure to get an ATA drive and not a S-ATA drive for my enclosure.

silence_seeker · Post by **silence_seeker** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 6:25 am

By the way....
Where can I keep up with which drive is currently the quietest one as well as reviews/tests?

I've had a look around the Silent PC review website, but all I can find are old reviews and general information about how the tests have been done etc.

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:43 am

The Recommended HDD article is a good place to start.

silence_seeker · Post by **silence_seeker** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:47 am

Well, it's been a while since I first posted my question here, waiting for the Samsung 400 GB drive to arrive, but still having to wait as no store nearby seems to have them

In case it'll be a while till the Samsung high capacity drives arrive, should I keep waiting for it (the Samsung HD400LD), or look around for something else? Are the Samsung drives so much quieter/better than other makes that it's worth waiting for?
(I'll be using the drive with my Apple Mac Powerbook G4, using the Firewire 800 connector to edit videos and music).

In similar capacities I've found the following which I believe are readily available. I know nothing about them other than their capacities, so are any of these worth looking into as alternatives?

Maxtor diamondmax 11 ATA-133 (400 GB)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 (400 GB)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 (400 GB)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ATA-100(400 GB)

Then there's even 500 GB drives available (I haven't heard of Samsung planning to deliver 500 GB drives yet):

Maxtor DiamondMax 11 ATA-133 (500 GB)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 (500 GB)
Seagate Barracuda (500 GB)

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:12 am

waiting for the Samsung 400 GB drive to arrive, but still having to wait as no store nearby seems to have them

The 300GB is available in the UK (HD300LD). It would help us to point you to retail availability in your area if you filled in your location in your profile.

Do you really need 500GB?

silence_seeker · Post by **silence_seeker** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:29 pm

I was referring to the Samsung 400 GB drive (HD400LD), not the 300 GB model which is available here as well.

cmcquistion · Post by **cmcquistion** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:42 pm

I've been using a recommending Samsung hard drives, coupled with a firewire enclosure for the students at the film school, where I work, for a few years. We have had ZERO failures and ZERO problems with Final Cut Pro and these drives.

On the other hand, we have had numerous failures of retail firewire drives from Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital and LaCie. LaCie are the absolute worst, despite their (undeserved) reputation in the Film industry.

atlr · Post by **atlr** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:15 am

cmcquistion, what make & model of firewire enclosures have worked for you?

cmcquistion · Post by **cmcquistion** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 9:02 am

atlr wrote:cmcquistion, what make & model of firewire enclosures have worked for you?

This is the model that we use: (Macally PHR-100AF)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817146608