G-Tech or not to G-Tech!!?? OWC?

Hello there,

I just read the Lacie poll-thread, and another one about drives, very informative, as I hadn't even heard of the OWC's before:

I am at this point deciding between an OWC raid-0 800G for $550, it has 2 400G seagate barracuda's inside, and 32MB Total Cache:

[eshop.macsales.com]

Or the G-Technology 800G FW Drive for $700 (Hitachi 7200 RPM drives w/8 MB cache in all models):

[www.g-technology.com]


Does the 32 MB make a big difference in speed?

Are Seagate barracuda's as good as the Hitachi's inside of the G-Techs? They are both warranteed for 2 years... The OWC is looking like a better deal, I just want to know if the innards are comprably stable...

All relevant feedback and irrelevent anecdotes deeply appreciated,

Marla in NY

The only way to get a real answer to this question is for someone to one both models. I doubt that people do.

All I can say (again...this topic has come up A LOT lately) is that theh G-Raid is a great drive...solid and fast. Best performer that I hever had.

And I really like the Black models...

Thanks Shane.

If people have one or the other, and share their experience, it will be useful, even if the ideal comparison test, as you suggested, does not pop up:

Does anyone own an OWC with a seagate inside?

Does anyone know the real advantages of 32 MB Cache?

What about seagate barracuda's in general, any particular opinions on those?

i've got both a graid 320 and a owc 600. i would be happy to run a test of the two - if someone will tell me what sort of side - by -side test i should run
greg

Thanks Gregory-

Are you happy with both? Are they both well-used?

Marla

marla
so far i am happy with both.
i have had the graids for quite some time and they have been incredibly reliable. my lacie's oftentimes do not mount without a lot of difficulty, but the only problem i have ever had with the graids is when my colleague was editing a project with the project file and media both on the graid. i use the graids heavily.
the owc is new. i just got it recently primarily as a backup storage drive. another producer that i work for has one and just finished a betacam project using the owc drive without any problems. it seems solid, but i don't have much experience.
hope that helps! if you want me to run any benchmarkl tests on them i can.
greg

Marla,

OWC is not well known on the west coast. OWC is a solid company selling MAC centric stuff since the mid 80's! Not one of the johnny-come-lately companies who are so very special. Located in Woodstock Illinios, why would the left coast know them?

Since OWC is into general computing and not specialized as is ProMax or even G-Tech, their prices are more competitive. There warranties are the best in the business and they are friendly to boot.

Buy whatever you feel is necessary but don't discount OWC because of the name alone!

Thanks Gregory and John-

The OWC looks very good to me. But do you guys happen to know about this Total Cache thing? Is it a real advantage to have 32 over 8?

And Gregory, why the OWC just as a back up drive, any particular reason? I wish I had a test for you, I appreciate your willingness a lot. I am more concerned about long term reliability and stability, than speed (as long as speed is adequate of course) as I can't afford back up drives yet and I want to keep this media accessible over time if possible.

I don't own a deck yet, and it comes from many tape formats which I have digitized at work, with and without an AJA IO, and now I need to take the media home & free up all the drive space at work...

Thanks, I'm still urious to see if anyone else has experience with OWC or with Seagate Barracuda drives, which is what's inside the OWC 800...

Best, have a great weekend everybody,

Marla in NY, where the sun finally came out!

Seagate Barracudas are excellent drives. I've had one for years and it still ticks over properly.

Caching data provides a holding area where data flow can be balanced between the read head and the outgoing data bus.

Typical wisdom would say that more is probably better and that is true in a RAID setup. Fact is that manufacturers are going more toward 16 MB caches on their newer models. If you get one with an 8 MB cache it can mean you are getting an older model disk drive; perhaps!

As for Seagate drives, I have 4 of the 500 GB drives inside my Quad G5 in a RAID setup. I like them because they are quiet and have a 5 year warranty. All other drives have a 3 year warranty.

BTW - OWC fives you a two year warranty on their Firewire drives where all others give you one year. (At least that is what I know about other FW manufacturers)



Post Edited (05-26-06 19:54)

Thanks John, Jude, Gregory-

Glad to hear Seagates are good. The warranty on the G-Raid is the same as the warranty on the OWC: 2 years. The OWC is much cheaper, AND it has a 32 MB Cache, compared to the G-Raid at 8MB...

At this point I am leanomg towards the OWC, though I bet those internal Seagate Raid set up is somehow different than the Seagate firewire raid-0 drive John described so glowingly...

I know everyone's raving about the G-Tech Raid 0's, but I have a feeling the OWC's are just not marketing as hard, and thus are a little lower profile. If the warranty is the same, and the cache is bigger, and Seagate Barracuda drives are as good as the Hitachi's (still a little fuzzy on that question, guess I should call a G-Tech person to see if they can tell me otherwise), then it seems like the OWC will be a very good drive too... and either way I'll be pleased.

They both look very good, though the Graid's look more stackable.

Any other comments welcome, I'll let you know next week what I decide.

Marla in NY