G-TECH, which one??

[6society]

For an external drive, editing on a MacBookPro, DVCproHD.

The G-DriveQ:

http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVEQ.cfm

or the G-Sata:


http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-SATA.cfm

This is the first time I am setting up an editing system on my own. Not sure what would be the best choice. Any thoughts appreciated. :dankk2:

[BenB]

They're both SATA. the G-SATA requires you get an interface card. I'd save the money and go with the Q-Drive. Unless you have some specific reason you NEED the RAID functions of the G-SATA, I'd go with the Q-Drive.

I personally use the G-Tech 1TB RAID FW drive, runs fantastic. Love G-Tech drives!

[6society]

They're both SATA. the G-SATA requires you get an interface card. I'd save the money and go with the Q-Drive. Unless you have some specific reason you NEED the RAID functions of the G-SATA, I'd go with the Q-Drive.

I personally use the G-Tech 1TB RAID FW drive, runs fantastic. Love G-Tech drives!

Thanks for the response Ben. Does the lack of a fan on the Q make it less stable?

Also, if I were to perodically unplug the Q-Drive and move it to edit at various client locations, will this have any affect on stability??
Thanks

[ozduc]

The beauty of these drives is that you can just unplug them and move them to a different location. If you edit with it on another system just make sure you change your scratch disk settings when you start. I would look into the G-Raid drive instead of the Q. The Q is a single drive, which will probably be fast enough for simple editing but if you get into more complex effects etc. you will be better off with the added throughput and RT capabilities of a RAID set up. The G-Raid is 2 drives in one enclosure but they show up as one drive on your desktop.

[ChuckS]

There are several issues related to your question and I'm not a drive expert but here are some things to think about.

I beleieve that although it uses SATA drives, the data transfer rates for the Q Drive are based on the specific interface. If you plug into the drive with FW400 you will only get that level of performance etc. So if you expect to get SATA level performance you will still need a SATA interface card.

This drive would be great for connectivity between workstations and would work well with DV, however since it isn't a RAID it would be limited for working with HDV or DVCProHD.

Using the G-SATA RAID I get three streams of RT/HD, I can get four or sometimes five, it all depends on what I'm attempting to do. But its rock solid with three.

Also when I purchsed my G-SATA it came with the interface card.

[AbstracTheory]

Are you using FW 800 or FW 400? Macbook Pro 15" or 17"? If you're going to be using it on the road, the bus powered G-Drive Minis are nice, but they are limited to 160 GB... The external SATA Drives are very nice for editing..
You could also go with the MCE Tech OptiBay, which replaces your internal DVD Drive with a hard drive and includes an external firewire bay for the DVD drive they take out..

http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/

[J P]

The advantages of the Quad are:

1) You can use it with your system right out of the box, without a SATA interface card.

2) If you ever need to hook the drive up to someone elses system, you KNOW you will have a way to connect it. You can use USB, FW400, FW800, or SATA.

[electricpig]

I've got a 10-day shoot coming up on location, and I've ended up with 2 G-Tech 1TB RAIDS that I'm going to manually 'mirror' so I have a constant backup.
We'll be editing on location too, so 1 of these can be handed to the editor at the end of the day, from which he can effortlessy read multiple streams over Firewire800 without the whole setup choking.
And yes, they are beautifull drives.

[Spartacus]

Using 4 G-Raids via FW800 (2 x 2 in mirror mode) - works like a charm!
The eSATA ones would be my next try, need to buy eSATA to expresscard adapters first though...

[Jim Carswell]

I have great success using GSATA with my MacBookPro 17. Add a Seritek adapter card and you are good to go.
Jim

[mico]

For those that are cost conscious I have just built (built maybe too strong a word. A couple of screws and maybe a driver download) 2 - 1 tb drives for much cheaper than the gtechs
Dependable enclosures from places like granite digital, firmtek, wiebetech have all sorts of enclosures that are equal to the gtechs but cheaper. Newegg has WD sata 500gb drives for $175. No tax free ship.
Wiebetech has a small sata enclosure with fw 800, 400, usb2, and sata ports for $119. That with the newegg drive will cost you $294 as opposed to a $459 drive Q. I have not used this particular drive just used it as an example. But I have used drive enclosures from all the places I've mentioned. they have great service and quality. I am using 2 bay firmtek sata to sata right now on a macbbok pro because I want top speed sata raid, removable trays with small form factor , and a fan which I think is a must. Not slamming anyones purchase just thought it helpful.

[6society]

Hey, thanks so much for all the great info, I would be totally lost without this site.

One more question for Jim Carswell:
Jim, I am about to purchase the new MacBookPro 17", Where does the Seritek adaptor plug into on the Mac?? What is the typical price for a good quality-built adaptor?

Thanks again guys.

[mcgeedigital]

For those that are cost conscious I have just built (built maybe too strong a word. A couple of screws and maybe a driver download) 2 - 1 tb drives for much cheaper than the gtechs
Dependable enclosures from places like granite digital, firmtek, wiebetech have all sorts of enclosures that are equal to the gtechs but cheaper. Newegg has WD sata 500gb drives for $175. No tax free ship.
Wiebetech has a small sata enclosure with fw 800, 400, usb2, and sata ports for $119. That with the newegg drive will cost you $294 as opposed to a $459 drive Q. I have not used this particular drive just used it as an example. But I have used drive enclosures from all the places I've mentioned. they have great service and quality. I am using 2 bay firmtek sata to sata right now on a macbbok pro because I want top speed sata raid, removable trays with small form factor , and a fan which I think is a must. Not slamming anyones purchase just thought it helpful.

While that may be true you will NOT get G-tech's legendary support....which is priceless IMO.

[mico]

While that may be true you will NOT get G-tech's legendary support....which is priceless IMO.

i don't think thats fair at all. Anytime I've had any questions from those companys I mentioned I was put in touch with knowledgeable techs. Any parts I may have worn out or found questionable were sent to me free of charge. You believe in your product fine that doesn't mean that they're the only ones with that service.

[unfiltered]

Hey, thanks so much for all the great info, I would be totally lost without this site.

One more question for Jim Carswell:
Jim, I am about to purchase the new MacBookPro 17", Where does the Seritek adaptor plug into on the Mac?? What is the typical price for a good quality-built adaptor?

Thanks again guys.

This is the card Jim was referring to:

http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2sm2-e/SeriTek-2SM2-E.jpg

http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2sm2-e/


Looks like it's retailing for about $120 US.

[Jim Carswell]

That's the one. It slides into the MBP's expresscard slot and appears on your desktop right next to the speaker and battery icons.
Jim

[BenB]

Ok, I used to work deep in the IT industry. Only one quality lacks when you build your own stuff from scratch. Tested parts.

Company A orders a million cards, two thirds pass the random quality tests, one third gets sent back.

That third goes to another computer builder. They do more random batch tests, not as stringent as Company A, but Company B sends back the third that fail.

Etc, etc, etc...

Then what happens to all the parts that all the major manufactures reject? They get sold on the self to you and me as cheap OEM parts to play Frankenstien with! No warranty on the final product!

I make a living at this, I can't trust a product with no warranty. When it breaks, I need it taken care of ASAP. And at as low a cost as I can get. Which is what warranties do.

If you pay your house note with your work, you get name brand stuff that's proven reliable with a warranty.

If you can support yourself on a hobby, more power to you. I've been there, know better...

Nothing wrong with DIY computer stuff, I've done it a lot. Just not for anything I make a living at. Not with anything I charge my clients money for.

And chasing individual vendors about individual parts of a whole PRODUCT is time consuming. And each may blame the other for your bad part. "Oh, our hard drive won't run in XYZ's FW encloser, cause they use LMN's power protection chip, which is not compatible with our protection chip set."

I've been through it professionally a kazillion times....

[mico]

Those I mentioned aren't build your own where everything is from scratch. The only thing you're doing is putting in a hard drive. A couple of screws. You just get to choose which hard drive to put in and pay considerably less for it. The companies I mentioned all use quality parts. Its why people depend on them and why they've been around a long time, longer than Gtech. Firmtek for example is run by ex Apple engineers. They are used by many professionals. Funny that everyone mentions the express card from firmtek to use in the powerbook. And as far as I know they all have warranties. I have done this for years now and never had a problem. To each his own.

[Ray]

This is all great information and options, so I thought I would add one which i have not seen on the forum - that being OWC (Other World Computing) and their FW800 Raid options. Good prices, and as far as I can tell great components.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/
Also, I have been using their bus powered 100GB 7200rpm drive with my G4 Powerbook, downloading P2 cards and then backing up to two OWC FW800 drives. Much less expensive than G-tech drives. G-tech is great but this is worth a look.
Cheers, Ray