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You Can Never Have a Large Enough Hard Disk Drive No need to be concerned about the size of your internal drive there are plenty of external add-on drives on the market these days. I was going to do a comparison between three or four external drives but they all have such different feature sets that it is best just to say that they all work very well but you will have to decide what particular features you will need for your computer system. The old days of thick SCSSI (skuzzy) cables is over, the new generation of external HD drives are now connected either by USB1, USB2, FireWire 400, or FireWire 800. You will have to check your current Macintosh computers (and your potential purchases) to decide which configuration drive you will need. The 17" PowerBook I use has USB1, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 ports. Very recently issued Apple computers now also have USB2. It is pretty much a safe bet to say that for the next year or so new Apple releases will have both USB2 and FireWire 800 ports. Luckily for owners of older external hard drives and other USB and FireWire accessories, both USB2 and FireWire 800 support the older version devices as long as you have the appropriate cable. Ice Cube External Hard Disk Drive Case This is a very sexy looking clear plastic housing that accommodates the 3.5 inch IDD drive of you choice. It is a very good choice to buy whether you are upgrading the internal drive in your desktop computer and want to make use of the old drive, or to buy the latest large drive on the market. The present limit seems to be 250 Gigabytes and the best deals are available in drives from 100 Gigabytes to 200 Gigabytes in size. The quality and speed of the drive is up to you. The drive I have tested has three different ports. FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and USB2. This is of course the most expensive version costing in the 5,000 Baht range. Less expensive versions of the same HDD housing are available for from 2,000 Baht up. The least expensive being FireWire 400 only. This drive is available in a number of Macintosh stores, the one I tested came from the Apple Center in Pantip Plaza. They also have several other manufacturer external hard disk drive housings available but I have not tested them yet. LaCie d2 External Hard Disk Drive The version I tested was a 200 Gigabyte model with FireWire 800 and USB2 ports. This of course covers the whole range of connections you may have on your Macintosh computer, as long as you have the appropriate cable. For me it worked perfectly with either the FireWire 800 to FireWire 800 connection, or the FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 connection. The FireWire 800 to FireWire 800 connection is of course faster. The LaCie d2 drive comes in an aluminum housing that looks very good next to an aluminum PowerBook. They can also be stacked to build a very powerful Array Drive system for heavy duty graphics and video production. Various sizes and configurations of this external hard disk drive are available. It is difficult to go wrong with a LaCie drive, you are paying a bit more for the quality but who can argue with that. LaCie d2 drives are available from the Apple Center in IT Plaza, Fortune Town. Maxtor OneTouch External Hard Disk Drive Maxtor is of course a manufacturer of hard disk drives so there is no surprise as to what drive is inside the drive box. The version I am currently testing of this attractive aluminum housing, external hard disk drive is the 250 Gigabyte formatted for Macintosh FireWire 400 OneTouch. It has 8MB of cache and runs at 7200 RPM. What makes the Maxtor unique is the inclusion of Danz Retrospect backup software and the OneTouch button at the front of the drive that activates the Retrospect software to back up your data files. If you are not familiar with Danz Retrospect, it allows you to set up a custom backup program for your computer files. Since this is the biggest but also the slowest connection (FireWire 400 only) drive I have tested recently, the question is of course, is bigger better and does speed matter? I have to say that to this date the difference in speed between FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 has not affected my workflow. But that is probably largely due to the fact that I use external drives exclusively for storage and if possible work on the internal hard disk drive of the computer. And I do appreciate the extra space. I am not sure which Apple dealers are offering Maxtor drives but they are available from numerous PC dealers in Bangkok. Just ask for the Formatted for Mac model, it says it right on the box. USB2 only and combination USB2 and FireWire 400 models are also available. A very special Mac gift for the Holidays Authorized Apple Resellers in Thailand are presently offering the G3 iBook for an astoundingly low price of only 32,900 Baht. Specifications are as follows: Built-in 12.1-inch (diagonal) TFT XGA active-matrix display - 800Mhz PowerPC G3 processor - 128MB of SDRAM built in - 30GB Ultra ATA hard disk drive - Built-in antennas and expansion slot for optional 11-Mbps AirportCard - Battery provides up to 5 hours of battery life - CD-ROM drive - Weight only 2.2 kg. Better hurry down to your dealer before they are all gone, and so you can get your Free Notebook Bag (first 100 customers). New Website: Digital Photo Mac - www.dpmac.com George Mann has just launched a new website dealing exclusively with Macintosh Computers and Digital Photography. There are product reviews, news and articles, archived George Mann Bangkok Post Database columns, and a User Forum. The website was born out of necessity because there is just not enough room to present all the new products now available in this column. There is also no way to present photographic images or to host a forum in this column. Please check out the dpmac website and participate in the forums. Distributors and dealers of computers, printers and photographic equipment are welcome to submit their products for review. Email - george@dpmac.com Website - http://dpmac.com |
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