DJ quickhands
hey,
So I want to buy a extra hard drive. what do you think is a good fairly cheap one?
thanks
So I want to buy a extra hard drive. what do you think is a good fairly cheap one?
thanks
Mensajes Thu 20 Apr 06 @ 7:15 am
DJ-ALF
You should go for Western Digital, they are reliable and capacity is your choice, depending what you need. Oh, and take the one with 8Mb cache, it's much faster than old ones with 2Mb only. If you can, buy SATA model.
Mensajes Thu 20 Apr 06 @ 8:03 am
discobrian24
My suggestion is go to Tigerdirect.com or newegg.com. You will save money, OR even cheaper is to buy an internal drive that is huge and put it into an enclosure yourself, you will save more money.
Brian
Brian
Mensajes Thu 20 Apr 06 @ 9:39 am
androidi
If firewire is not possible and USB performance (20-25 MB/s) does not satisfy and you can handle internal drives properly when moving them, a cheap option, that is If you want to use many cheap internal drives, is to get these and you get best possible performance (2-3 times faster than USB):
Desktop:
http://www.akasa.com.tw/akasa_english/spec_page/cables/spec_sata_ex_bluv.htm
(http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/akpcfrpawisa.html)
Laptop:
CardBus/PCMCIA SATA adapter (For 3.5" HDD you NEED to have a external power adapter for the HDD - you can get one from a USB-PATA converter for example and use it in the SATA HDD with additional converter cable)
(http://search.ebay.ie/cardbus-sata - I have used the seller from Germany, shipment is quick though not )
Then you also need the 3.5" internal SATA HDD's. If you have plenty of them already like I do, getting above kit is no-brainer.
Alternative:
If you are loaded in $$$: (all the gear needed costs $500+$300+drives since this stuff is NEW, expect prices to drop to half in a year or two)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sata+port+multiplier
In THEORY it allows to hook 10 HDDs to laptop but these things require very new adapter, so it MIGHT only work with very latest laptops with SATA ExpressCard adapter. Unless you bought your laptop in last 2 months, forget about this.
Desktop:
http://www.akasa.com.tw/akasa_english/spec_page/cables/spec_sata_ex_bluv.htm
(http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/akpcfrpawisa.html)
Laptop:
CardBus/PCMCIA SATA adapter (For 3.5" HDD you NEED to have a external power adapter for the HDD - you can get one from a USB-PATA converter for example and use it in the SATA HDD with additional converter cable)
(http://search.ebay.ie/cardbus-sata - I have used the seller from Germany, shipment is quick though not )
Then you also need the 3.5" internal SATA HDD's. If you have plenty of them already like I do, getting above kit is no-brainer.
Alternative:
If you are loaded in $$$: (all the gear needed costs $500+$300+drives since this stuff is NEW, expect prices to drop to half in a year or two)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sata+port+multiplier
In THEORY it allows to hook 10 HDDs to laptop but these things require very new adapter, so it MIGHT only work with very latest laptops with SATA ExpressCard adapter. Unless you bought your laptop in last 2 months, forget about this.
Mensajes Thu 20 Apr 06 @ 10:27 am
mp3jrick
Doesn't the word "cheap" scare you?
So there you are in front of 500+ people and you start to have a problem.
Are you going to feel it was worth it then?
And what about the protential damage to your reputation as well as the rest of the computer dj industry when people draw their conclusions?
So there's two ways of looking at this, saving money and saving face, well three, also longevity, because all this stuff fails sooner or later and I prefer later.
My advice is to get an external enclosure that will hold a standard internal drive.
It has it's own internal power supply and fan and makes upgrading down the road less costly and the drive will run much cooler extending it's life.
I borrowed a couple of drives from a buddy last year in permanent aluminum cases.
And despite the aluminum case they ran really hot, scary hot.
Newegg is an eggselent suggestion btw...
Rick
So there you are in front of 500+ people and you start to have a problem.
Are you going to feel it was worth it then?
And what about the protential damage to your reputation as well as the rest of the computer dj industry when people draw their conclusions?
So there's two ways of looking at this, saving money and saving face, well three, also longevity, because all this stuff fails sooner or later and I prefer later.
My advice is to get an external enclosure that will hold a standard internal drive.
It has it's own internal power supply and fan and makes upgrading down the road less costly and the drive will run much cooler extending it's life.
I borrowed a couple of drives from a buddy last year in permanent aluminum cases.
And despite the aluminum case they ran really hot, scary hot.
Newegg is an eggselent suggestion btw...
Rick
Mensajes Thu 20 Apr 06 @ 11:32 am
Andrew87
LaCie Hard Drive, Design by F.A. Porsche 250GB
I'm running a USB2 one of these and it works beautifully, I've left it on for more than 24 hours on many occasions and it doesn't get all that hot. It's in its own enclosure, has its own cooling but unfortunately requires an external power source. It comes with a 250GB Seagate Barracude ST3250823A drive which are excellent, Seagate are known for their high quality drives.
It cost about £90 shipped but was well worth it. If you can afford the space, you can get an internal 300GB Maxtor drive with a huge 16MB cache for £70.
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10468
I'm running a USB2 one of these and it works beautifully, I've left it on for more than 24 hours on many occasions and it doesn't get all that hot. It's in its own enclosure, has its own cooling but unfortunately requires an external power source. It comes with a 250GB Seagate Barracude ST3250823A drive which are excellent, Seagate are known for their high quality drives.
It cost about £90 shipped but was well worth it. If you can afford the space, you can get an internal 300GB Maxtor drive with a huge 16MB cache for £70.
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10468
Mensajes Thu 20 Apr 06 @ 11:48 am
Dj-Los
Hi Dj quickhands,
Not knowing where you are from or if you need internal vs external I can add this.
"Cheap" as mentioned is relative to you, as only you can place a value on your music.
If the drives are "cheap" and you buy 2 (one for backup, highly recommended) then do so.
Even if you get a more expensive and reputable drive, you still need a backup of your data.
I work in IT, the saying is "your data is only as good as your last backup"
So now, in New York an internal 250 (maxtor or WD) sells for around 80 dollars, and an external 250 (usually Lacie) can be had for 100, but usually a little more like 120.
For the record, I keep 3 hard drives each for Karaoke, Videos, and mp3's.
Nothing to me is worth losing my songs.
-Dj Los.
Not knowing where you are from or if you need internal vs external I can add this.
"Cheap" as mentioned is relative to you, as only you can place a value on your music.
If the drives are "cheap" and you buy 2 (one for backup, highly recommended) then do so.
Even if you get a more expensive and reputable drive, you still need a backup of your data.
I work in IT, the saying is "your data is only as good as your last backup"
So now, in New York an internal 250 (maxtor or WD) sells for around 80 dollars, and an external 250 (usually Lacie) can be had for 100, but usually a little more like 120.
For the record, I keep 3 hard drives each for Karaoke, Videos, and mp3's.
Nothing to me is worth losing my songs.
-Dj Los.
Mensajes Thu 20 Apr 06 @ 3:07 pm
djderricke
I would say, look for a good "Value", but stay away from "Cheap".
Mensajes Thu 20 Apr 06 @ 7:55 pm
shawnweber
You don't need to spend you money on a nice HD that has huge frontside cashe like 8MB or 16BM... or even fast transfer rates like SATA.
I'm assuming you storing you digital audio or video files on it. In which case ask yourself, do u really need BLAZING data transfer rates? I have a good quality 2MB ATA drive, it's a little slower, but you don't need the speed that these fast drives need. When I load a song it takes about 3-6 sec.... Why on earth would i need to shave time off that? Obviouly if you loaded, nice gear is the way to go, but I'd rather spend money on more lights or speakers, or advertising before I spent money on increasing my song load time to 1 sec or less. And its not like you don't have access to the track while its loading. You can play the track while its loading so what's the big deal. Spend you money somewhere else first, then get pimp HD's.
Flame away..
I'm assuming you storing you digital audio or video files on it. In which case ask yourself, do u really need BLAZING data transfer rates? I have a good quality 2MB ATA drive, it's a little slower, but you don't need the speed that these fast drives need. When I load a song it takes about 3-6 sec.... Why on earth would i need to shave time off that? Obviouly if you loaded, nice gear is the way to go, but I'd rather spend money on more lights or speakers, or advertising before I spent money on increasing my song load time to 1 sec or less. And its not like you don't have access to the track while its loading. You can play the track while its loading so what's the big deal. Spend you money somewhere else first, then get pimp HD's.
Flame away..
Mensajes Sat 22 Apr 06 @ 8:25 pm
DJ-ALF
@shawnweber
Belive me, even if you don't need speed, it's good thing to make it faster, if you can. And it's good invesment in video.
Belive me, even if you don't need speed, it's good thing to make it faster, if you can. And it's good invesment in video.
Mensajes Sun 23 Apr 06 @ 2:13 am
shawnweber
@dj-alf
obviously faster is better, but id rather spend the money on a higher quality ATA drive with 2MB frontside cashe than a lower quality SATA with 16MB cashe. Or spend the money you'd spend on faster storage HD and spend it on a better chip, or sound / video card. There are a million things I'd spend money on before I spent the money to increase the transfer speed of the storage HD (window's HD is a different story tho =P).
obviously faster is better, but id rather spend the money on a higher quality ATA drive with 2MB frontside cashe than a lower quality SATA with 16MB cashe. Or spend the money you'd spend on faster storage HD and spend it on a better chip, or sound / video card. There are a million things I'd spend money on before I spent the money to increase the transfer speed of the storage HD (window's HD is a different story tho =P).
Mensajes Sun 23 Apr 06 @ 2:36 am
DJ-ALF
You have a point there, I agree, but do you know that hard disks are the SLOWEST component in the today's PC's? Even the cheapest graphic card, sound or processor will be usable by VDJ but HDD's are damn slow! Ram memory, everything can be used (I speak for audio, no video in VDJ). And there are no bad quality 16Mb cache SATA hdd's, their price tell you all. But this is just my own opinion.
Mensajes Sun 23 Apr 06 @ 7:17 am
Liamalone
Seagate = Quality, I have had about 7 hard drives from them and not one problem :)
Mensajes Tue 25 Apr 06 @ 1:12 am
mp3jrick
Thats nice to read, I just bought 3 500g SATA's.
You never seem to read good, just bad about drives.
You never seem to read good, just bad about drives.
Mensajes Tue 25 Apr 06 @ 1:26 am
Dj-Los
What matters most is a good backup, all drives eventually fail. :-(
-Dj Los.
Mensajes Tue 25 Apr 06 @ 5:27 am
DJ-ALF
Correct, I have everything on DVD's or CD's, hard disk is just a temporary location as I see it and don't consider it reliable. When it goes bye bye, you get a new one, copy again from your backup on DVD's, and enjoy the ride ;) !
Mensajes Wed 26 Apr 06 @ 7:21 am
shawnweber
You guys are absolutly right. I just had a HD crash this month (the sad thing was I had just bought my backup HD's and was about to begin the backup process!) and it's pretty crippling.
As far as all fast HD's being good quality, I don't think i agree with that. A good friend of mine owns a computer repair outlet so he gets to see which products break. There are plenty of fast HD's that go down fast. In fact, the 10k+ RPM drives is one of his biggest culprits.
@DJ ALF
You mention that the HD is often the bottleneck. After VDJ loads a song onto the deck, oes it still need to read from the HD? Obvioulsy when you load it for the first time, it is loading from the HD, but after that does VDJ still need to read the HD? I have used a 10k Raptor drive, and a crappy 7200RPM ATA drive through USP and there have really been no differences between the 2 after the initial load.
As far as all fast HD's being good quality, I don't think i agree with that. A good friend of mine owns a computer repair outlet so he gets to see which products break. There are plenty of fast HD's that go down fast. In fact, the 10k+ RPM drives is one of his biggest culprits.
@DJ ALF
You mention that the HD is often the bottleneck. After VDJ loads a song onto the deck, oes it still need to read from the HD? Obvioulsy when you load it for the first time, it is loading from the HD, but after that does VDJ still need to read the HD? I have used a 10k Raptor drive, and a crappy 7200RPM ATA drive through USP and there have really been no differences between the 2 after the initial load.
Mensajes Wed 26 Apr 06 @ 8:36 pm
seekinsp
After the initial load from the HD to the VDJ deck, it is loaded into RAM. The reason I know this is that I have triggered the breaker at a couple of gigs and my VDJ has continued to play the song (as it is loaded into RAM). Who the hell wires a venue up to one 15A circuit anyhow....idiots!
Personally I have 2 external USB HD's that I gig with. One for primary and one for backup. You can use Microsoft's SyncToy (free from their website) to keep the 2 in sync. I only have 1 laptop, so if that goes down I have an MP3 CD player on standby with a selection of MP3's on CD. This setup has worked extremely well for me over the years, and I have yet to have one of my external HD's crash.
My 2 cents. :-)
Personally I have 2 external USB HD's that I gig with. One for primary and one for backup. You can use Microsoft's SyncToy (free from their website) to keep the 2 in sync. I only have 1 laptop, so if that goes down I have an MP3 CD player on standby with a selection of MP3's on CD. This setup has worked extremely well for me over the years, and I have yet to have one of my external HD's crash.
My 2 cents. :-)
Mensajes Thu 27 Apr 06 @ 1:28 am
DJ-ALF
@shawnweber
Yes, when you loaded the track onto the deck it should be in your ram and HD is not needed anymore. But, for simultanious reading, effects, plugins, samples, analyzing you still need HD because Windows works that way. You can try installing 2Gb of ram (or more) and disabling your Page file in Windows, so it always uses Ram. I didn't tried this yet but if Doom 3 can work without page file (I saw that on my friends desktop machine) so can Vdj.
Yes, when you loaded the track onto the deck it should be in your ram and HD is not needed anymore. But, for simultanious reading, effects, plugins, samples, analyzing you still need HD because Windows works that way. You can try installing 2Gb of ram (or more) and disabling your Page file in Windows, so it always uses Ram. I didn't tried this yet but if Doom 3 can work without page file (I saw that on my friends desktop machine) so can Vdj.
Mensajes Thu 27 Apr 06 @ 6:45 am