External storage..

I've been considering my options regarding a small desktop drive for a MBP. It's been a journey of discovery really.

First I was thinking firewire because I have a spare firewire800 port. But I've noticed that as external drives add connectivity options from USB to Firewire400 to Firewire800 the price rises quite ridiculously.

I don't want USB - aside speed, I only have 2 USB ports - and one is driving a third display (works astonishingly well btw).

Then I discovered my model of MBP has an express card port. I can add interfaces. I considered what I could add: a videocard to power the 3rd monitor instead. But there is no point there. More USB plugs. I have a hub and doubt I'll be using any bandwidth hogs. More firewire.. nup not even using the current one. USB3 cards don't work on the mac currently.

Then I discovered esata. Enclosures with esata are cheap as USB enclosures, the transfer-rate is way faster than anything else and I can get a esata express card that flush-mounts to the mac for $US19... So that really sounds like the winner doesn't it? Fuck firewire for that purpose I think.

Any flaws in my logic, or other things I haven't considered?

Jesus what a fucking let down.... the esata card I was looking at is not compatible with Model Identifier 5,1... which happens to be my machine goddam it...

You have usb driving a third display? How does that work?

It's a specific hardware dongle, used on laptops because usually you can only add one additional display.

In my experience, they are not much chop for heavy graphics work (think games and such), but perfectly fine for most use.

This kinda product: http://www.displaylink.com/shop/index.php

Hunt around for another e-sata card maybe. That's a good way to go, since you'll get an enclosure with esata and USB for peanuts, and can connect with esata to your machine and any others with esata ports, and always have USB as a fallback.

Otherwise, take a look at the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex range. A little pricey, BUT, you get one enclosure, and can take your pick of what interface you want, or buy all of them. You buy the base unit with the drive and USB2, then can add on whatever interface you like - USB3, FW800 and eSATA are all available.

http://www.playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139235/CATID=236/ID=14933/SID=862060618/productdetails.html
http://www.playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139235/CATID=236/ID=14086/SID=809786565/productdetails.html
http://www.playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139235/CATID=236/ID=14904/SID=338667372/productdetails.html
http://www.playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139235/CATID=236/ID=13986/SID=920531828/productdetails.html

Why not just plug the extra screen in via the DVI port?

JBS - 3rd screen...


Smiley I think youre over complicating the issue.
I have an eSata and dont like it - it isnt hotpluggable and doesnt seem to give me any more useful speed. I've gone back to the USB. You could just use a USB hub... I use the 4 extra ones on my screen to good affect.

Hmmm, thanks for the advice

I probably am over complicating it (as usual). Rarely will I need super speeds as it's mainly to hold crap that I don't want to store on the main HD like installers, archived documents/work/projects. I like the idea of USB to fall back on (and perhaps stick with if turns out to be fine) but able to expand at a later date.

If my current budget wasn't so laughable I'd just get a firewire 800 unit and be done - I think it kills me just a little (in a mildly ocd way perhaps) to be over populating USB and have firewire go unused Plus the firewire ones all tend to look the part with the industrial design aesthetic (pokes tongue again).

Might get a 500gb hybrid internal drive too, didn't realise they were fairly cheapish.

jbs/LeKnight - I've already used my MiniDisplayport out to power one monitor but I have 2 identical monitors, one going to waste since I switched to using the mbp full time over the desktop pc.
got this: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/VIDU2DVIA/ so now I have 3 screens.
I've even had video pumping through it, but it's better to just use it for less demanding stuff like palettes, chats, documents and extra webpages. Got it before I knew what the expresscard slot did... doh.

500gb external $79+gst at PBTech on Friday night.

Yeah I'll be there. I'd like more than 500gb though... atm I just want the enclosure, but depending on the price I could get one with a HDD.

Just discovered that there is at least one company that makes mac-compatible USB 3.0 express cards, so I may as well get a USB 3.0 drive and use it as USB 2 for a while then later do an upgrade if deemed necessary...

Sound like a decent plan?

get the samsung story then smiley

$230 for the 2 tb usb3 - less for less

http://pricespy.co.nz/search.php?query=samsung+external+hdd+#rparams=ss=samsung story usb3

Yes it is?

Edit: Oh, you have to have the port set to ACHI not IDE/RAID in bios. At that point, all your SATA ports are hot swap.

Also I dunno how you don't see any speed benefits, I get consistently faster transfers every time, even more obvious with concurrent transfers.

I can't find that particular HDD but saw a 1TB model which is realistically more in my price range... (although I actually would like 2TB). Cheers, will look into that after seeing what pdtech has to offer tonight.

Oh also, saw NAS enclosures quite cheap... any good?

btw kris, just in case it wasn't clear from my waffly reply I was listening to your advice. Also incorporating bob's perspective.

..cos I hate it when I give advice and people don't listen - I was!

I have a pleiades and it's good enough for me for now but a real pain to set up

thankfully I have a capable assistant

hmmm, the current pleiades drives don't appear to have NAS as an option. I was looking at those originally though, partly because of their design. Though a 2 drive setup appealed more, 2TB disks are so cheap now I don't see much point in 2 HDD for the foreseeable future.

1 TB for $89 as well.

yeah saw that. Got a mate who bought her computer from them and gets their spam. Also keen on the cheap 16gb flash drive, always handy to have.

NAS vary WILDLY in quality. Pretty much ever single cheap one I've ever encountered has been a steaming pile. Every real techgeek I know has ended up moving on to eye-wateringly expensive ones*, after loosing data to cheap ones.



*$I'm talking $800-$1k before disks.

Theres an acer 4disk NAS with win home server for $640 i think... it looks like it could be a go.

I have a Netgear ReadyNAS with 2x1tb in which im quite impressed with.

WHS != NAS

NAS = network accessible storage... which a server fulfills :p The acer thing is a step up from a NAS but for the pruposes of this discussion it fits with what people are after and I think its worth considering.

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=380045

• Acer Easystore Windows Home Server NAS
• Intel Atom Processor 230 1 GB DDR2 Ram
• Up to 4 3.5" hot-swappable SATA Hard Drives
• 1 RJ-45 GB LAN .4 USB . 1 e-SATA port
• Windows Home Server Preinstalled
• Intel 945GC Express Chipset + ICH7R
• Up to 4 3.5" hot-swappable SATA Hard Drives
• Max 8TB Capacity
• Weight 4.5 kg (without HDD)
• Dimension 200 (W) x 180 (L) x 212 (H) mm
• Network attached Storage with Windows Home Server
• Home Server console allows cusotmising backups user access priveleges
• Shared folders and security options with remote access
• One touch USB copy
• Add drives as you need them

A lot more admin/setup needed though. (Have two of them at home)

You can pick up the HP ones on special every now and then, I actually think they are a really good deal, well specced hardware (I wanna say C2D?) and pretty well made.


ANYWAY, the reason for thread necromancy:
If you haven't picked one up yet Smiley and missed those specials the other day, $99 for 1tb 3.5".
http://www.playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139235/CATID=237/ID=9891/SID=1059132209/productdetails.html

Ahh bugger looks good.

I did get one at the sale, I held off posting about it because I wasn't sure if I'd made the right choice and hadn't opened it. I spent about an hour and a half on the store, left the queue 3 times (it was long) as I second-guessed my purchase decision. Some good USB3 enclosures said nothing of mac compatibility and I wasn't sure if that was simply because it was USB3 or because of something I can't work around, and no one could give me a definitive answer.

Another unit was quite cheap and appeared to have USB2 and eSata but as I looked at the box in the queue I discovered there were two models, one missing eSata and I couldn't work out which model I was holding.

I finally got down to a Pleiades, there were 2 variations, one with firewire, esata, usb and one with just usb. There is also a USB/esata one but that wasn't in stock. It was $70 vs $160 discounted, which is fuck all money but I've got no income atm so it was actually an awful lot of money. I went for the cheaper option after bob's advice that USB2 is good enough but beat myself up which I'd have done either way

Anyway tested it and yeah, it's fine. Looks good too

Also, I'll be getting a 500gb hybrid for the mbp later on so that should work well enough.

I had a spare 750gb disk which will keep me happy for ages I think. I don't accumulate loads of data anymore, though I do tend to generate a lot with the course... the pc (and all of it's hard drives) is now a dedicated media centre in the living room, and I have more space - yay!