LCD's & big hard drive experiences wanted!

JimJ · « **Reply #20 on:** 13 Feb 2008, 10:39 pm »

Firewire & (ideally) e-SATA kicks USB's ass for speed...

bpape · « **Reply #21 on:** 13 Feb 2008, 10:48 pm »

Agreed - though in this application, USB is plenty fast for streaming 2 channel music - especially if you're streaming compressed FLAC files and decoding at the other end. The SB has a nice sized buffer in it too.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #22 on:** 13 Feb 2008, 10:53 pm »

That's what I was thinking as well. In addition, I assume drive RPM is a moot point for music too.

decisions, decisions.....hmmm, which one to get????

I've been surfing all day on what to purchase.

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #23 on:** 13 Feb 2008, 11:02 pm »

Get a 7200 RPM drive with a 16Meg cache min. You don't need a 10k drive (not to mention they're louder and run hotter). 5400 RPM drives are all but obsolete.

Bryan

satfrat · « **Reply #24 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 01:34 am »

I like Seagate hard drives myself,they're quiet and so far reliable. i've had good luck with them. LCD's on other hand,,,,, my first LCD was an Acer 23" 1900 x 1200 LCD that I bought online from an exaudio dealer here on AC,,,,, lasted 6 months. So what do I do?? Buy another Acer 24" 1920 x 1200 at my local Staples for 40% less than what I paid before but with a 3 year guarantee. Anything goes wrong, return it and walk out with a new one. and that's really the only reason I bought another Acer. aa

Cheers,
Robin

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #25 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 01:57 am »

Quote from: bpape on 13 Feb 2008, 11:02 pm

Get a 7200 RPM drive with a 16Meg cache min. You don't need a 10k drive (not to mention they're louder and run hotter). 5400 RPM drives are all but obsolete.

I didn't think the cache would have made much difference for our purposes, but I'll keep that in mind. I knew I didn't need a 10K drive due to noise, severe overkill, and possible longevity issues. But, I didn't know 5400 were going by the wayside. 72K does seem to be the standard from what I've been finding for drives between 500Mg and 1TB. Part of my indecision is whether I should get an external USB unit like "My Book", or an external USB array in an enclosure filled with SATA drives, or just cram a couple internal SATA cheapo's in the CPU. The internals seem to be less expensive but the appeal of having an attractive stand-alone unit like "My Book" does seem to have advantages. Although the down side to a true separate drive is you'd have to not only isolate noise created by your PC from your listening area, but now another drive with it's own noise issues.

I keep going back to eBay for the ultimate deal in a hard drive. I've found a few and have had my finger poised over the 'bid now' button but just haven't been able to pull the trigger. I'm leary buying "new-with-warranty" electronics from eBay after having another (ongoing - yet to be resolved) purchase rammed up my private area.

Jim, What's your budget for the harddrive?

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #26 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 03:28 am »

Hard to beat for $99

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA66870

An external pair of drives in a good external case with E-SATA is nice. A USB drive is cheaper, and you can take it with you to anybody's house, plug it in, and go for the most part. It's all a matter of what you want. The cheapest is a drive or 2 in your PC. I have no idea what your motherboard will support (SATA, e-SATA, RAID1, etc.). That would help a lot to determine the best balance of budget, reliability, portability, etc.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #27 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 02:29 pm »

Nice recommendation Bryan, cool. So, any single or dual bay enclosure that accepts SATA drives and has a USB2.0 output will work (and is idiot proof). Idiot proof meaning the motherboard specs are a moot point since it's USB......right?
Single bay enclosures seem to be extremely inexpensive, but dual bays make a huge jump in price!

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #28 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 02:49 pm »

Pretty much so. As long as the internal connections in the enclosure match the drive (SATA or not). The PC should pick up the enclosure as just another USB device. Whether it operates on USB 2.0 or not depends on the motherboard connections and drivers. All of the new enclosures should be 2.0.

E-SATA is nice and very very fast. It's just a matter of if you need it or not. Quite honestly, when I did a transfer to an external via USB-2.0 as a backup, it was chunking an entire CD in < 10 seconds between PC and external drive over the USB cable. That's way more than you'll ever think about when doing normal streaming. The large cache will help too.

Something like this http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA24611 has active cooling, will connect to either e-SATA or USB 2.0 for future compatibility and flexibility and comes with the adapter card for the PC to get you the external e-SATA connector - $49. Add the HD I mentioned above and you're out for less than a 500GB all in one external drive.

If you want redundancy, you can do something like this http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA24608 and 2 hard disks in RAID 1 and be out for less than $400 for fully redundant 500GB.

Both will also accept up to 1TB drives if you want to go that way. Just remember that if you're doing RAID 1, the drives need to be the same capacity.

Bryan

What motherboard to you have (brand and model)?

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #29 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 04:38 pm »

The single bay unit is currently not in stock, but expected arrival date is today.
- Senario #1: Two 500Mg drives in a dual bay enclosure would be $360+ shipping. Understood, no problem.
- Senario #2: Two 500Mg drives each in their own single bay enclosure would be $250. A couple home runs of USB to each enclosure.
You could have 1TB of storage for $250, or use software to perform RAID duties (possible?) of course at the loss of a bit of space.
I'm sure you see where I'm going with this.

(save $$$$$$)
Pro's & Con's for senario #2?

Quote from: bpape on 14 Feb 2008, 02:49 pm

What motherboard to you have (brand and model)?

It's green with little things sticking out of it.

I don't know, but can find out tonight.

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #30 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 04:44 pm »

Ah - the dreaded Green Thing brand MB

Not a biggie - just trying to figure out what you have.

2 separate outboard units and trying to do RAID is hardly plug and play if at all. Ya think you had a hard time getting the SB software set up???

If you're gonna do raid, do 1 external enclosure with the controller built in or do it inside the PC with a controller in there.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #31 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 07:28 pm »

OK. I won't try to re-invent the wheel anymore.
How about this one. Seems cheap: (too cheap?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dual-2-Bay-3-5-SATA-USB-2-0-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-case_W0QQitemZ270211578624QQihZ017QQcategoryZ41911QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Whatcha think?

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #32 on:** 14 Feb 2008, 07:45 pm »

Depends on what you want. Things I noticed:

- Never heard of Galaxy brand though Mwave does carry them.
- 20% restocking fee if returned for refund
- Does not do RAID, only JBOD, so non redundancy
- No noise spec on the fans

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #33 on:** 15 Feb 2008, 04:21 pm »

My finger is poised over the 'add to cart' button on this:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA71996
{I may shop some more though, but I think today's the day.........

}

Later down the road, as finances allow, I can add additional drives for back-up and/or RAID.
But for now one TB should should keep my busy for a while.

Jim, Where you at? What's your status?

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #34 on:** 15 Feb 2008, 04:31 pm »

Yeah - a full 1TB is a lot of space. You're looking at enough for about 3500 CDs in FLAC format if my math is right.

Bryan

ebag4 · « **Reply #35 on:** 15 Feb 2008, 04:32 pm »

Hey Bob, I don't know if you have ever checked this site out but they often have good deals on HDDs (primarily external). Many/most are factory recertified, so depending on how you feel about theat they may or may not be a good deal. I have purchased from them in the past with no issue (although my purchases weren't HDDs). Here's the link:

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/countdown/

Best,
Ed

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #36 on:** 15 Feb 2008, 05:08 pm »

Quote from: bpape on 15 Feb 2008, 04:31 pm

You're looking at enough for about 3500 CDs in FLAC format

Jesus! For a guy wil a couple hundred CD's, that makes me think I'm WAAAAAY overkilling this size issue.

Ed, thank for the link man!
"ecost" has the same model# as "mwave" but for $30 more. And they don't take Paypal....another consideration for my situation.

Bob - Still searching.

bpape · « **Reply #37 on:** 15 Feb 2008, 05:14 pm »

Check my math - been a long week! figure 450Meg'ish for a CD uncompressed. Compress about 1/3 is 300 MB per CD. 3 to a GB. 1000 GB to a TB so I was wrong - only 3000!

That's why for most people, 2x500GB is plenty of space and in RAID 1, it's fully redundant so you don't have to worry about losing anything and reripping unless you lose both drives at the same time.

But hey, if you wanna add a tuner card to your PC and get that 1TB drive, you can use it as a DVR too!

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #38 on:** 15 Feb 2008, 05:38 pm »

Quote from: bpape on 15 Feb 2008, 05:14 pm

But hey, if you wanna add a tuner card to your PC and get that 1TB drive, you can use it as a DVR too!

Screw that man. Ain't goin' down that path......No Sir.

Ok......Submitted for your approval:

-Two of the HD's you mentioned earlier: $200
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA66870

-And an enclosure. Like maybe this one???: $88
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dual-Bay-eSATA-USB2-0-3-5-Hard-Drive-Raid-Enclosure-NEW_W0QQitemZ150215501255QQihZ005QQcategoryZ150129QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Bob

JimJ · « **Reply #39 on:** 15 Feb 2008, 05:47 pm »

Quote from: bpape on 15 Feb 2008, 05:14 pm

Check my math - been a long week! figure 450Meg'ish for a CD uncompressed. Compress about 1/3 is 300 MB per CD. 3 to a GB. 1000 GB to a TB so I was wrong - only 3000!

That's why for most people, 2x500GB is plenty of space and in RAID 1, it's fully redundant so you don't have to worry about losing anything and reripping unless you lose both drives at the same time.

But hey, if you wanna add a tuner card to your PC and get that 1TB drive, you can use it as a DVR too!

Bryan

My experiences have been similar. Usually 300ish per album once in FLAC, 600 or so for doubles...