7200 vs 5400?

I'm using a 500gig 7200 FireWire 800 external drive for editing on my MacbookPro. Need to move to a TB but it looks like there aren't many (if any) 1TB external drives that are 7200. It also needs to be bus powered. If I switch to a Thunderbolt 5400 external drive will I notice a big hit in performance?

Thanks,

JT

Do you mean the Lacie Little Big Disk thunderbolt? Yes you will see an important hit in performance compared with your 7200 FiWi 800 drive. This a quote from François Québec I have read on another forum some time ago:

The little big disk 5400RPM surpasses the 190 MB/s specified on LACIE's site. Using "Blackmagic speed disk test" 5 GB blocks, I usually get 212.8 MB/s write and 200.5 MB/s read and I think that is pretty good for a two disk system. Surprisingly the 7200 rpm little big disk is rated slower than the 5400 rpm

You might want to look at Western Digital MyBook for a relatively inexpensive solution.
wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=630

JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1
as you need.
User accessible drives so you can swap them out.

4TB $549 US
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/841455-RE...Thunderbolt_Duo.html

Full list of what they have (although many seem to have shipping waits).
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ns=p_PRICE...64498209&srtclk=sort

LaCie Little Big Disk 1 TB RAID 0 7200rpm $379 and they include the Thunderbolt cable.
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/824960-RE...Little_Big_Disk.html

I'm using the LaCie Rugged 500Gig FireWire drive now -- looking at the 1TB version of that drive. But it's 5400 and the 500 is 7200.

ronny courtens wrote: Do you mean the Lacie Little Big Disk thunderbolt? Yes you will see an important hit in performance compared with your 7200 FiWi 800 drive. This a quote from François Québec I have read on another forum some time ago:

The little big disk 5400RPM surpasses the 190 MB/s specified on LACIE's site. Using "Blackmagic speed disk test" 5 GB blocks, I usually get 212.8 MB/s write and 200.5 MB/s read and I think that is pretty good for a two disk system. Surprisingly the 7200 rpm little big disk is rated slower than the 5400 rpm

That looks like a great drive, but I don't think it's powered by the cable? Don't you need an external power source for hat one?

cseeman wrote: You might want to look at Western Digital MyBook for a relatively inexpensive solution.
wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=630

JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1
as you need.
User accessible drives so you can swap them out.

4TB $549 US
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/841455-RE...Thunderbolt_Duo.html

Full list of what they have (although many seem to have shipping waits).
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ns=p_PRICE...64498209&srtclk=sort

Love the look of that drive, but again, I need it to be powered off the laptop. I sometimes have to work without power for short periods of time. I believe that drive must be plugged in?

cseeman wrote: LaCie Little Big Disk 1 TB RAID 0 7200rpm $379 and they include the Thunderbolt cable.
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/824960-RE...Little_Big_Disk.html

This drive looks close, but it's only 750 Gig -- really wanted a TB.

www.amazon.com/G-Technology-Generation-E...intosh/dp/B005G6DGAE

Anyone have experience with this drive?

I've had some bad luck with this little G-tech. I've had one that works fabulously, but tried to get another and it failed, returned it and the next one also failed.

I've been using one of these
eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteAL...SATA_FW800_FW400_USB

It's a bit larger than the G-tech, but it has e-sata and has been very stable.

HOWEVER, I have to say that I have replaced my boot drive on my MBP with an SSD, and kept the old boot drive for a secondary drive, and I'm not going back. I often put edits on my internal 750 so I can edit with no attached drive. Fabulous!

Honestly, if you want a TB, why go bus powered? If you're editing on a laptop, you pretty much need to plug it in if you expect to edit more than an hour or two.

The WD and LaCie aren't bus powered.

This Buffalo 1TB is. No drive speed from the manufacturer but one reviewer reports about 100Mbps read and write times using the Blackmagic drive tester. No TB pass thorough though. Probably 5400 though.
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/877712-RE...derbolt_USB_3_0.html


That G-Tech isn't Thunderbolt but if you're looking at G-Tech Firewire bus power here's three choices. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Powe...291436140+4160106870

Bus Powered Thunderbolt
LaCie Rugged 1TB claims 110Mbps
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Powe...291436140+4160106870

Seagate 1TB GoFlex
Looks like it's bus powered since I don't see any power ports in the images. Only 5400rpm
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Powe...291436140+4160106870

and the Buffalo which I posted.

On location I need to BU video & still images. My internal laptop drive is only 256 SSD. I also need to work on images at times when there is no power supply available. Bus powered is a must for my portable drive.

mmorache wrote: I've had some bad luck with this little G-tech. I've had one that works fabulously, but tried to get another and it failed, returned it and the next one also failed.

I've been using one of these
eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteAL...SATA_FW800_FW400_USB

It's a bit larger than the G-tech, but it has e-sata and has been very stable.

HOWEVER, I have to say that I have replaced my boot drive on my MBP with an SSD, and kept the old boot drive for a secondary drive, and I'm not going back. I often put edits on my internal 750 so I can edit with no attached drive. Fabulous!

Honestly, if you want a TB, why go bus powered? If you're editing on a laptop, you pretty much need to plug it in if you expect to edit more than an hour or two.

The Buffalo looks good, but back to my main question: will I see a major hit in speed for video when coming from a 7200 LaCie rugged FireWire 800?

cseeman wrote: The WD and LaCie aren't bus powered.

This Buffalo 1TB is. No drive speed from the manufacturer but one reviewer reports about 100Mbps read and write times using the Blackmagic drive tester. No TB pass thorough though. Probably 5400 though.
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/877712-RE...derbolt_USB_3_0.html


That G-Tech isn't Thunderbolt but if you're looking at G-Tech Firewire bus power here's three choices. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Powe...291436140+4160106870

The Lacie Rugged was my first choice because I've had such good luck with my 500 7200 FireWire rugged. Just wondering how much slower it will be.

cseeman wrote: Bus Powered Thunderbolt
LaCie Rugged 1TB claims 110Mbps
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Powe...291436140+4160106870

Seagate 1TB GoFlex
Looks like it's bus powered since I don't see any power ports in the images. Only 5400rpm
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Powe...291436140+4160106870

and the Buffalo which I posted.

I am super happy using an Elgato bus powered SSD T'bolt drive with my 15" rMBP.
It is not a full TB, but plenty big enough for editing.
I use my old OWC FW800 bus powered 7200rpm drive as a backup.

mmorache wrote:
HOWEVER, I have to say that I have replaced my boot drive on my MBP with an SSD, and kept the old boot drive for a secondary drive, and I'm not going back. I often put edits on my internal 750 so I can edit with no attached drive. Fabulous!

Hey Mark,

Can I get the details on your specific setup?:

Is the SSD boot drive replacing the Super Drive a la OWC or did you move the default internal drive?
What sizes are the two drive?
Is the default 750GB internal drive 5400 or 7200?
Which model MBP?
Did you happen to run a speed test on the internal capture drive?

I hope in early 2013 to do a bunch of upgrades to my 2011 MBP i7 "17" to specifically speed up editing (8 to 16 GB ram will be the first upgrade). I work from home and sometimes I need to escape (i.e. 8 and 10 year olds) and crank out some quick editing for an hour or two at the local library or Starbucks. Right now with my 2-drive OWC RAID setup, it's tough dragging around it for quickie editing sessions.

I believe I'd like to follow your path.

Thanks,
Dave

That Elgato looks amazing, but i'm feeling cramped with a 500Gig drive. If it was just for video I would be fine, but I do more photography then video. Really want a drive to meet both needs.

BenB wrote: I am super happy using an Elgato bus powered SSD T'bolt drive with my 15" rMBP.
It is not a full TB, but plenty big enough for editing.
I use my old OWC FW800 bus powered 7200rpm drive as a backup.

mobiletaylor wrote: If it was just for video I would be fine, but I do more photography then video. Really want a drive to meet both needs.

What drive needs does photography have that video doesn't?
My Aperture library has over 13,000 photos and videos and is only 162 GB.

Just the size. I just looked at my Lightroom Library for the last 2.5 months is over 17,000 images. And that's just high school football, volleyball, boys & girls soccer. That doesn't include U10 boys and girls soccer, kinder soccer, senior sessions, baptism photos, or special church events. It adds up fast! I try to offload onto my main drive at home, but I often need to keep up to 8 months of work on the drive. Still working on swim meets and summer camps from this last summer.

BenB wrote:

mobiletaylor wrote: If it was just for video I would be fine, but I do more photography then video. Really want a drive to meet both needs.

What drive needs does photography have that video doesn't?
My Aperture library has over 13,000 photos and videos and is only 162 GB.

Then you need to go with a larger drive, for sure. SSD isn't an option for that much data. I only work small projects and my training stuff of the Elgato T'bolt I have now.

Simple point of interest, I'm not sure about Lightroom, but with Aperture you can segment out into multiple libraries, merge libraries, etc, so I never carry my full Aperture library with me, only the projects I need to work on.