Hi Paul, I was interested in your comments re different port configurations. I'm also weighing up the options.
I like the flexibility of USB2 + Firewire and adding eSATA, as you say, gives a future flexibility bonus. On the other hand, there is also a certain appeal to the NAS approach. However, I've only seen Ethernet/USB combo cases nothing with ethernet + Firewire. I guess a combo Ethernet/USB2/Firewire800/400/eSata box would really cover all bases - I just haven't seen any!! Then, of course, there are the multidrive cases with various RAID JBOD configurations - but I don't think my budget will stretch that far just yet! So, have you actually seen any cases combining ethernet with USB2 & firewire - ideally at a reasonable price! Cheers Neil -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 8/6/07 9:37 AM, Paul Kitchener at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Stewart Woods wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> In the interests of quelling paranoia and preparing for Apple's >> Oh-so-easy Time Machine come Leopard, I'm looking at buying an >> external hard drive to back up all the important stuff on our home >> network. >> Looking at Zytech's prices for 500Gb Firewire drives, they're far more >> reasonable than those at the Apple store (No surprise there), but I >> was wondering if there is anything I should know about brands, USB 2.0 >> vs. Firewire, etc before I commit. >> Are some better than others? >> How much does the drive speed matter? >> I'm hoping to back all our movies and music to the drive and stream it >> to the other (4) machines - Will that be problematic? >> >> Any advice is much appreciated, >> >> thanks in advance >> Stew > > > Hi Stew, > > I have recently bought a few of these from Austin computers. > One unit was a Western Digital 400gb SATA drive in a NexStar > USB/Firewire case, $253. > Not that my laptop owning client needed it but it also had an eSATA > port, a nice bit of future proofing for folk who use towers. > > Even more recently I have had sketchy results from 'Laser' brand > USB/Firewire cases. > These were 5.25 for DVD drives as well as hard drives; not happy Jan. > > You have hit on that it is for your network as opposed to your > individual Macs, you may benefit from a NAS device; Network Attached > Storage. > These aren't as geeky as they sound as they aren't much more than a > USB/Firewire case. > Geeky? Linksys does a nice one that has Unix-enabled people excited as > they can fiddle around with it and connect media devices to it's USB ports. > NAS cases have an Ethernet port and an ever so slightly bigger brain, > physically they have similar overall dimensions to normal cases. > You plug them into an Ethernet port, Hub or Switch but they can also > have USB/Firewire ports for faster transfers, transporting etc. Some are > also media players with A/V ports. > > So we have A/V ports, Ethernet ports, eSATA ports, Firewire and USB > ports. Sheesh! > I personally prefer Firewire over USB, I haven't seen it often but I > have seen Firewire cases perform a little more reliably than USB ones in > direct comparisons with regards to stability. > Others on this list have sited that Firewire is more suited to larger > files such as media, or was that just video? > 'USB does packets and Firewire does streams' or words to that effect. > > I don't think there is a lot in the argument of USB vs Firewire (400) > for most users. > > HTH > > > Cheers > Paul > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Unsubscribe - <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
