Recording to a 2.5" drive

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IanWalker
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Recording to a 2.5" drive

Post by IanWalker » Wed Jan 08, 2014 1:57 pm

So I'm looking into installing another internal drive in my MacBook Pro using one of these:
http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/
I'm thinking about using a drive in that as a record drive. Obviously it needs to be fairly fast (I'm looking into a 10kRPM, but I've used 3.5" 7200s as record drives in the past with no problems), but I'm looking for any further thoughts on the idea.

Advantages:
- Separate SATA bus for the internal drive - should keep write speeds fast
- Gets record drive off FW bus, freeing bandwidth for my interface
- Fewer cables/bulk for mobile recording

Disadvantages:
- I have no idea how well a 2.5" drive will fare under that kind of environment.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience?

I'm looking at maybe using a WD Black drive for it.
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Ian!
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Drivar dohaeris. Drivar morghulis. (All drives must serve. All drives must die. Basically, back up your data.)

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed Jan 08, 2014 2:07 pm

Hi,
I use Western Digital (WD) Velociraptor drives.
They have up to 1TB now, and all are very good for audio tasks.

I usually am making projects at 24/96k sample rate, and these drives handle it great.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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IanWalker
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Post by IanWalker » Thu Jan 09, 2014 6:05 am

Googling around - are all of those 2.5" drives? Even all of the 3.5" ones I can find (and the dead one sitting next to me on the workbench at the office) are 2.5" drives in a heat sink.
Nick Sevilla wrote:Hi,
I use Western Digital (WD) Velociraptor drives.
They have up to 1TB now, and all are very good for audio tasks.

I usually am making projects at 24/96k sample rate, and these drives handle it great.

Cheers
--
Ian!
http://michigansoundservices.com/

Drivar dohaeris. Drivar morghulis. (All drives must serve. All drives must die. Basically, back up your data.)

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Jan 09, 2014 8:00 pm

IanWalker wrote:Googling around - are all of those 2.5" drives? Even all of the 3.5" ones I can find (and the dead one sitting next to me on the workbench at the office) are 2.5" drives in a heat sink.
Nick Sevilla wrote:Hi,
I use Western Digital (WD) Velociraptor drives.
They have up to 1TB now, and all are very good for audio tasks.

I usually am making projects at 24/96k sample rate, and these drives handle it great.

Cheers
Yes, the raptors are all 2.5" drives. I had to buy two adapters to mount them into my Mac Pro, and one came with a larger "chassis"... to mount it onto 3.5" type enclosures.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Jan 09, 2014 8:04 pm

I forgot to add as to how durable they are, I bought the oldest ones, two 300GB ones three years ago. They still work fine.

I do use iDefrag about once a month to keep them in shape.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

Tim Casey
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Post by Tim Casey » Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:42 pm

I've been doing a live music TV show every month for the past three years, recording 16 tracks at 44kHz / 24-bit on the internal drive of my Macbook. It's always worked like a charm.

This is a four-year old laptop. If I try mixing on it with a lot of effects, it starts groaning. But it records fine. I transfer the projects to my iMac (six years old?) and mix there with no problem.

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