Best firewire / eSATA drives out there???

I am going to be purchasing some storage for an XDCAM project shortly and am just wondering what people are using at the moment.

In terms of reliability, value for money, speed and functionality, are there any opinions on the best options out there.

Also, for this project I expect to be using FW800, but is it worth getting a drive with eSATA as well for future projects?

Some I am looking at include:

G-Raid 2 (which doesn't have eSATA - as far as I can tell none of the Raid drives from G-tech have both FW800 and eSATA)

CalDigit-VR (both FW800 & eSATA)

OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FW800/400+USB2 Performance 7200RPM RAID (FW only - no eSATA) - this is cheaper than the other drives.....I have no way of telling if it's performance or reliability are worse)

Any opinions on these drives or any others greatly appreciated....

EW

CalDigit VR tops my list. Then the Maxx Digital desktop drive.


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>is it worth getting a drive with eSATA as well for future projects

Yes, especially if you are going to be using the drive for high resolution formats. eSATA is a faster interface than FW800, so you get higher sustainable data rates, which allows for more multiple video streams.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks for these recommendations Shane.....

As far as I can tell, the MaXX desktop drive is not a raid......so would I expect the performance to be substantially less?

EW

A raid is not needed for DVCPRO HD, HDV, and XDCAM. Firewire 800 connection is fast enough. And if you use the eSATA...that is PLENTY fast.


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G-RAID

G-Raid USED to be the drives to get. But now they are low on my list.

Maxx Digital and Caldigit are the ones to go with now. G-Raids suffer huge performance issues when you daisy chain them with ANYTHING firewire.


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All i can say is stay away from the Western Digital MyBooks. They may be cheap, but I have consistently had issues with the eSata on these drives. It seems to be an issue with the power-saving feature on them. They will randomly just cause the whole system to hang, sometimes even during a large transfer. I would be curious to know if these other drive brands mentioned have seen the same issues. As it is, I am fairly wary of eSata as a stable medium. By the way, I have this issue on both my MacBook Pro (intel) as well as my MacPro quad-core tower.

Try to avoid cheap drives... It's not worth the hassle. Check energy saver settings in system preferences to make sure that nothing goes to sleep.

And try this, if nothing works for you..

[www.digital-heaven.co.uk]



www.strypesinpost.com

Quote

macapptraining says: G-RAID

Why do you recommend them? Please elaborate.

I do NOT recommend GRAID anymore. To noisy and I had to send one back for excessive drive clicking / freezing, daisy chaining them creates lousy sustained throughput, sealed unit does not allow drive swapping (you void the warranty if you open the unit) and you have one RAID choice = RAID 0. If a drive fails, bye-bye work.

Caldigit gear is the only gear on my list now...I own 2 Firewire VRs (I just missed the release of the Caldigit VR - which I would have purchased instead ). They are whisper quiet, RAID 0 / 1 / JBOD configurable, hot swappable drive sleds and they're just sexy looking.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Joey & All.

The CalDigit VR is going to begin shipping the 1st week of December. If you want to see one, go to HDExpo in Burbank today, some of our crew are there now, Jared & Lauren, I'm sitting today out after working all day yesterday.

We know the CalDigit VR is a highly anticipated product. I'm sorry we haven't started shipping them yet. I will tell you this though, the wait will be worthwhile.

HDExpo, was a good show, Shane, although Panasonic was there, you didn't miss much, the usual crews were there, Blackmagic, AJA, Matrox, US........talked with MANY of our end users, whom are the BEST people.

The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FW800/400+USB2 Performance 7200RPM RAID, incidentally was designed by US, for OWC back in the day......as were many G-tech products, Glyph products, etc, etc.

Its gotta be said, of all the manufactures and resellers, re-branders, CalDigit seem to be the only ones who actually manufacture their own products (HDDs aside) and have proper support that is timely, responsive and (shock horror!) helpful.

For instance I also have a Sonnet 8 Channel eSATA card (software RAID 0) that was DOA and Sonnet were really unhelpful. (This was a few years back though and they may have improved) Luckily the re-seller managed to get a replacement from somewhere even though I'd bought the last one.

Now I find a similar problem with Highpoint - I have to send a RockRAID 3522 back to the USA and the idiots at the returns department cannot even get back to me within a 2 to 3 day timeframe...

They don't seem to even understand basic statements and questions like:

"I will pay for the shipping"

"What address do I send it to?"

"Please send me the RMA number"

"When can I expect the replacement?"


You know what they sent back?

Quote

Hi Sir:

Your address is in United Kingdom which is not our service area, our service area is only in North America

Best Regards

This is AFTER confirming it would not be a problem with the support guys... seriously bad way to run a company.


If you ask me what is the best option to capture and store your media on? Caldigit is the only company I would trust right now.

Ultimately you get what you pay for - in the case of my Highpoint card I now face a $200 return charge JUST to get it replaced. Thats IF they ever return my ruddy calls/emails/faxes/eTicket/morsecode/carrier pigeon/semaphore!!!!


If you want to be as sure as you can...

Go with the CalDigit-VR



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Amen, brother...you get what you pay for....and good Customer Care / Tech Support is PRICELESS. CalDigit wins.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.