Is it better to have an external or 2nd HD for audio?
I'm using Logic Pro 7 with a G5 Quad and at the mo only have the internal drive.

What do you think guys?

'Ello mate, me personally would buy another internal hard drive, I recently bought this one for my G5 -

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?QuickLinx=3NXK

- and its excellent, no probs regarding noise, nice and fast etc.

I also have an external Lacie (7200rpm) which is absolute crap, after about 5 audio tracks running on Logic in and out of the lacie and it would all fall apart. They may be good for storing sample/mp3's etc but its still not enough for me to use one. Also internals are cheaper.

Hope this helps.

Well a 2nd internal will be faster than an external one but will be more difficult to fit. On the other hand an internal one is significantly cheaper - about 1/2 price for the same size at the moment.

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Music is the only noise for which one is obliged to pay.
(Attrib. to Alexandre Dumas)

when you say difficult to fit, how difficult?
I've never opened a Mac before! Also, then one time I tried to put an extra HD in a PC a few years ago I failed dismally!!

well not super-humanly difficult but you will have to open the mac and clip the drive in. an external you just plug in the firewire cable.

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Music is the only noise for which one is obliged to pay.
(Attrib. to Alexandre Dumas)

Hey there joe,

Its fairly too easy to install a 2nd drive on the G5. You just got to make sure you get a SATA hd and its literally a walk from there. Just a note of advise, not to get anything equal or bigger than 500GB since there seem to be problems with SATA reading anything that big. I read that from a forum somewhere. Personally I don't have problems running a 500GB externally on Lacie BigDisk thru my FW800 with 'older-version' dual G5.

And back to the original question. 2nd HD. Yes thats very advisable. I use my 2nd just dedicated for audio. While the 1st only works with system data. I keep all audio out of the main OSX HD and have yet another - the 500GB to store all audio & system backups.

Somebody told me its not a backup until when you have it in 3 different places. My last backup copy is on DVDs.

Envious of the Quad. Any diff with LP7 processings?

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rastAsia
MacbookPro2.33GHz2GB MacG5DP2.3GHz2.5GB LogicStudio ProToolsLE7.4 Digi002 MOTUtraveler LiquidMix Genelec2029A FinalCutStudio

I totally agree with rastasia

get a second internal SATA drive for your audio : it's not hard to fit at all , it's really easy in fact , and a lot faster and cheaper than an external drive

cheers

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mac pro 8 core 2,33GHz , macbook pro 17" 2,4GHz , logic pro 9 , 828mkII , NI complete 5 , all spectrasonics , mackie control universal , genelec .........

Can you guys possibly recommend some quality reliable HD's for audio!! I guess quietness is a big issue too?!?

Where's the best/cheapest place to get them online?
No affiliate links please!

Edited by joe precision (05/01/06 03:35 PM)

Why not get the one I recommended, top of the page. It really is a good hard drive. A bit expensive but then you are getting 300gigs.

Hi, quite happy with a samsung spinpoint, fast and not noisy. Also affordable.
It was easy to fit it in, make sure you got the manual at hand.
Regards, Frank

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Macbook Pro C2D, 2,5Ghz, 4gb RAM, Mac Os 10.6.8 750gb int HD, AMT 8, Metric Halo 2882-2d, td-12 V-Drums+Real Drums, Logic Pro 9, Melodyne 3, Live 8, Mikes and a Voice

...in any way your system will run more stable, if you have different HDs for different needs, i.e. one HD for system and apps, the other Audio Files.

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Macbook Pro C2D, 2,5Ghz, 4gb RAM, Mac Os 10.6.8 750gb int HD, AMT 8, Metric Halo 2882-2d, td-12 V-Drums+Real Drums, Logic Pro 9, Melodyne 3, Live 8, Mikes and a Voice

Yes, for least noise get a Seagate for Best speed get SCSI320 card and 15K SCSI HD - Seagate drives absolutly trash the competition in nearly every count and they are really quite.

No need to go with SCSI on your G5 - are there any PCIe SCSI cards yet anyway? - internally fit a Maxtor 300GB SATA with a 16MB cache for a very fast, inexpensive drive, or a 10K Raptor for a little more money, speed and noise and a lot less space , . . .

Thanks blu

So would a Raptor be less noisy?
I am really going to notice the speed increase?
Also, any idea where I can get one at the best price??

Edited by joe precision (06/01/06 03:31 PM)

Well in a recent test, the Maxtor was within a hairs breadth of the Raptor, and it's much cheaper per GB:

I decided for lower noise and more space to go with the Maxtor. I accept everyon'es priorities are different.

Raptor 74GB

Maxtor 300GB

Cool, think I'm gonna go for the Maxtor, save myself £40.
Thanks for the advice blu.

Is Ebuyer reliable in your opinion?
It seems a good price.

Not just saving £40 - the Maxtor has 4x the capacity . . .

Service-wise every internet company seems equally crap, IMO, except for Apple where the whole buying/returns experience is markedly superior.

However Ebuyer are no crappier than some others, and often much cheaper . . . what else can I say?

THIS is a good choice.

Super quiet, great reputation - so far so good in my G5 as an "audio and video file only" drive.

I'd recommend Novatech as a good, reliable place to buy from.

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Current Favourite!

Edited by Moogybase (06/01/06 10:11 PM)

Moogy

Does your drive make an irritating clicking noise every couples of minutes? I returned two recently, after discovering this was the result of a self-checking feature which you could no longer disable with the drive.

Replaced it with a Samsung SpinPoint, which still manages to make some odd noises when it wants to, but is quieter generally.

no - i don't get any clicking noises that stand out as being "wrong"

I think it's quite normal to get a bit of clicking from time to time isn't it?

Do yours happen when actually recording? I can't say I noticed any when I've recorded to it.

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Current Favourite!

Blimey don't like the sound of that clicking business,
think I might give that a miss just in case!!