External HDD or No?

**Bubba** · #1 30th Mar 2009, 09:37

Hey, I just got stuck with filming and editing for a church a friend of mine preaches for. I see that video is a resource hog lol. i currently have a 150G HDD with my OS and some other stuff on it, and a 300G HDD that I use for my game. According to the Vid Ed software I got (Pinnacle 12) I have roughly 19 hours worth of video room on my HDD. That's not really a whole lot as I want to save the raw material. i know I can just save 1 DVD of the finished material, but i want to save all the film for maybe a spoof DVD for him or something like that. Besides, if I tape something like the youth conference coming up, i can easily get close to 19 hours of video in a weekend. So...........

i was thinking of getting an external HDD. Mainly I have no room in my case for another HDD. Are external HDD's any good? If so should I get an ESata one or one that uses a firewire? Also what brand is a good one? Still WD? I looked at NewEgg and saw external HDD's 1TB or more from aboutt $100 (US) to over $2000. LOL I like the 100 option a whole lot more. It also looks like a 2TB drive costs more than buying two 1TB drives (mainly i compared the 1TB WD to the 2TB WD). Wouldn't it be smarter to buy a 1TB HDD and wait tilit filled to see if I needed another anyways as prices would most certainly go down as well?

**philthomas** · #2 30th Mar 2009, 09:57

If your mobo has an esSATA port for an external drive, then go for eSATA, as it will be much faster than USB2. See here for comparisons. Also eSATA is a more stable interface IMO.

WD are still good drives, I would recommend one for reliability

but IOMEGA drives are faster.

**Bubba** · #3 30th Mar 2009, 11:52

I assume my MoBo has an ESata connection since it the computer always checks for Esata drives in bios boot lol. how do i check to make sure? Also, how about firewire? i though 1394 ports transferred data faster than Sata, or is ESata faster than regular sata and firewire too?

( My computer just crashed when I was about halfway through editing this first video. I may take a hammer to it and my question will be moot lol........)

**philthomas** · #4 30th Mar 2009, 12:19

If your mobo has a eSATA port on the rear I/O panel, you'll be fine ...... if not you can use a PCI Bracket like this .... there are also 2 port versions.

As for speeds Firewire has 2 standards ... Firewire 400 and Firewire 800.
The numbers relate to speed or transfer rate .... i.e. Firewire 400 has a transfer rate of 480MBps, Firewire 800 has a transfer rate of 800MBps.

By comparison eSATA has 2 standards as well ...... eSATA (A.K.A. eSATA I) and eSATA II.
eSATA I has a transfer rate of 1.5GBps, and eSATA II has a transfer rate of 3GBps.

So you can see for yourself, Firewire is a slug, compared to either eSATA standards.