deke Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 Hello, this is my first post. This looks like a great forum and I'm sure I'll spend many days and nights gathering ideas and opinions from all the expertise here. I'm just a home hobby type person who, believe it or not, did a lot with midi and sequencers way back in the early 90s. To think of all the money I spent back then compared to what is available now... I even used an Amiga (then got a Mac Classic 2). After about ten minutes with Cubase (free with my Steinberg UR22) I went to the App Store, bought Logic Pro X and I absolutely love it. I was up and running in no time and having fun. Any way, here is my question. I have three Macs including a MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt and an older iMac I use a music server (iTunes to a Schiit Bifrost and my two channel music system in the living room) . My main computer is a circa 2010 24" iMac. I have too much audio and video for its internal 750 MB drive. I have a ridiculous mish mash collection of external drives for backups and would like to use a 2-4 TB external drive for my audio and video files. While my Macbook has Thunderbolt, my iMac does not. I'm trying to find a nice 2-4TB external drive, 7200 rpm with Firewire 800 AND is quiet. I just got a 3 TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro, but it has a constant humming sound that probably isn't the best thing for audio recording... I have a few 1 and 2 TB Western Digital Passports that are quiet as a mouse, but only run at 5400 rpm. So, rather than pay 15% restock on the OWC drive (despite it's description of quiet on the site), it will go into the backup drive pile. I still need a working drive. Can anyone recommend a nice quiet drive? (again, Firewire and 7200). I have considered getting a very long firewire cable and putting this OWC drive in the closet. Or, I am open to other storage solutions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesPDX Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Please edit your signature to reflect your complete system information. This: Get a reasonably-priced external Thunderbolt SSD. I have my Glyph drives resting on dense foam to isolate any vibration. They get plenty of air around them and are placed about 5-feet from my chair. They are pretty quiet that way. If you are limited on space, I would do this: If you want quiet, you should get an external SSD and move only your current/active projects onto it from your other drives. Turn on File Sharing on all your machines. (Look that one up .) Have a look at these: http://glyphtech.com/products/portagig50ssd/specifications.php http://www.caldigit.com/products.asp#single1 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/901227-REG/LaCie_9000352_256GB_Rugged_USB3_Thunderbolt.html Or you can buy this and place all of your daisy-chained FW800 drives way on the other side of your house, in an empty, cool closet with power or (drilling a hole in the floor near to your machine area) into your clean, cool basement: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/944671-REG/gefen_100_2_x_lc.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deke Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 Thanks JamesPDX. I think I'll hold off on that firewire extender until the price comes down to about $900. The Glyph drives look very nice. Big "duh" on my part. I should have looked at an audio product dealer like Sweetwater... vs just some Mac hardware dealer. Gee, where can I look up information on this file sharing thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 G-Drives are also very silent. And they look cool. http://www.g-technology.com/products Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveRobinson Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Hi +1 for the G-Drives, love mine. One very minor thing to consider is the white light on the front of the drive on some models. When the drive is active it flashes so it's good to hide the drive behind something out of sight. I like my studio with subdued lighting, It can be distracting if not hidden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 I have two Western Digital Scorpio Blue (1+1TB) in a Cineraid HR-212 housing. Works awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesPDX Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Yeah, I don't know what the fascination is with the bright blue LEDs in everything. I have attached small narrow flaps of black gaffer tape that mostly cover my Glyph LEDs. There is still plenty of light getting around the edge to indicate activity, etc. I like the old-school soft green ones. I have an old Rocstor FW400 that uses an orange LED. My STILL FUNCTIONING 1987 Alesis Microverb has a single tri-color (amber-green-red) LED for the input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deke Posted April 19, 2014 Author Share Posted April 19, 2014 FYI, G Drives are NOT silent. I have a brand new 2 TB unit buzzing and away here next to me and it is twice as noisy as the OWC drive I sent back for noise. This is really ridiculous. I have bought three different brand external FW 7200 drives and they are all noisy as hell. Either nobody makes a quiet drive or my hearing is ten times better than most people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 I have bought three different brand external FW 7200 drives and they are all noisy as hell Bus-powered FW800 drives are completely silent. Like the Seagate GoFlex Pro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitebalance Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 I have bought three different brand external FW 7200 drives and they are all noisy as hell Bus-powered FW800 drives are completely silent. Like the Seagate GoFlex Pro. is it a 2.5" drive? I've had a few bus powered 2.5's over the years, all silent. I've never had a mains powered 3.5" drive that wouldn't be driving me nuts. I currently have an external Seagate for Time machine backups, I'm afraid it's going to live a long and happy life as I only power it for like half an hour whevener TM complains about missed backups once in 10 days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Bus-powered drives are usually 2.5''. Not too many are 7200 rpm though. The GoFlex Pro is. But it's discontinued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesPDX Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Save those small bus-powered FW800/USB3 drives. When they die, pop-'em open and put in SSDs, if the spec is okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gprok Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 Just to let you all know I just got the OWC on the go 1 TB usb 3 in a tranparent casing and it's very noisy, now I am trying to figure something out to fix that problem. I also purchased a rugged 500g usb 3/firewire 800 LACIE which is sooooooo quiet, night and day compared to OWC. Gprok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesPDX Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I popped open the little Iomega eGo FW800/400/USB drive and stuck a Samsung 840 EVO inside. It records 16 simultaneous tracks of 44.1/48 KHz/24bit Pro Tools 7.4 on Tiger (10.4.11) via FW400 through the Digi 003R and an ART Tube-Opto Pre (ADAT mode) on these machines: [1] 2005 Mac Mini G4/1.42 GHz/1GB RAM; [2] c2003 G5 2.x GHz DP, 2 GB RAM, [3] c2003 G4 Titanium Powerbook [800-something Mhz, 800-something MB RAM] Also runs on my gear below. I'm currently testing for cross-track sync for Logic X. Sample offsets for 44.1/24 in PT9.0.6 shows the ART/ADAT tube pre as being sometimes 20 samples late, sometimes 25 samples late. The pre is getting wordclock from the 003R. Really close to a null, but not quite there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBPlayer Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I also purchased a rugged 500g usb 3/firewire 800 LACIE which is sooooooo quiet........... +1 for the LaCie Rugged 500GB USB3/FW800. Got a couple of 'em now. Very quiet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CShorte Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 For those who want a large amount of disk space, the OWC ThunderBay IV is very quiet. I have the 12 TB model with 4 * 3 TB drives. CS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gprok Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 Thanks for this info CShorts !!! Gprok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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