The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Ext hard drive to record mult audio tracks

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Sir Punk, May 24, 2007.

  1. Sir Punk

    Sir Punk Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1,061
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    56
    hello,

    I did some search but couldn't find any post related to this particular issue.

    I have an asus with an internal SATA 100gb 5400rpm

    I need a fast HD to add to my laptop to record up to 8 tracks at the same time from an audio interface, firepod. the tracks will be at 96khz/24 bits. so a lot of data.

    I am already using my expresscard for 2 additional firewire ports for the audio interface. so no chance of getting a eSATA. I am left with the USB2 and the built in firewire, and a firewire port in that Excard.

    I think i will get an int hd and use an enclosure. Should I get a SATA or that would be useless going thru the firewire or usb? it is true that usb is faster, but I read that it never actually gets up to 480. Also I think firewire works better for data streaming which mine would be.

    in the end?

    should I get a SATA, or ATA/133 or a ATA/100

    what buffer size? 8 or 16?

    what's best for what I have to do? and is there another way I could go?
    will my external be slower than my internal?

    I appreciate any feedback. thanks!
     
    Sir Punk, May 24, 2007
    #1
  2. wave

    wave Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    813
    Messages:
    2,563
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    USB is 480mbit (60MB/S) and Firewire is 400mbit (50MB/s) max.

    However the USB to IDE/SATA chips in are not as good/fast as the Firewire to IDE/Sata chips. Firewire tends to be more expensive then USB but it is better. There are some USB to IDE chips that come close to Firewire speed but ther are also some really really bad USB chips that get horrible speed.
    I think if you go with firewire you are on the save side. There are many reviews of external cases with benchmarks on the web that show this.

    SATA or IDE doesnt really matter. I would get a 3.5" desktop hard drive speed doesnt matter much because the Firewire will be the bottleneck. If you go 2.5" then get a SATA because that generation is a good bit faster then the older IDE ones.

    8 or 16mb buffer I dont think matters too. The only problem I can think of with 16mb is that if you disconnect or the firewire before the buffer is empty it might result in data loss less chance with 8MB. If you are carefull then no problem. I dont think you gain anything from 16MB buffer either because the friewire is slower then the write speed to disk.
     
    wave, May 24, 2007
    #2