Click for Universal Drive Adapters!
Click for Universal Drive Adapters!
|
Don't forget to check out all the other site features! | |
|
| |
Hard Drives | Removables | Case Kits PCI Card/Controllers | CDRWs/DVD/DVD-R | Misc. | |
| Before buying any Hard Drive, CDROM, CDRW, DVD, Combo DVD/CDRW, Removable or Tape drive see what others reported as far as any compatibility issues, performance and more. If you've upgraded any type of drive in your Mac, Submit a Report!. | |
| Topic based FAQ with more than 800 answers to common questions including system specific and storage topics. Check here first for answers on any Mac subject! | |
| A page full of suggestions, tips, links and examples that may be of help to those confused over storage options (internal vs external, IDE, firewire, portable or AC powered firewire drives, etc.) | |
| Review of OWC's Firewire 800/USB 2.0/1.1 Hard drive and PCI FW800 card. Tests include FW400 vs FW800 with single drives and dual drive RAID (with onboard FW400 and single and dual FW800 PCI Card RAID). | |
| Tests with the Hitachi 60GB 7200 RPM Travelstar notebook hard drive in a portable Firewire case. (Fits ibook and powerbook models.) This is the first 7200 rpm notebook drive generally available. | |
| Tests with the Hitachi 80GB Travelstar notebook hard drive in a portable Firewire case. (Fits ibook and powerbook models.) | |
Performance Tests |
Roger Smith sent test results of iPod hard drive performance compared to the PB G4/550, iBook 600 and 8500 (G3 upgrade+PCI FW card+ATA/66 card). He also comments on the $99 SIIG FW/USB PCI card used in the 8500. |
| (*Update* OS X 10.1.1 should solve the issues many saw with 10.1 and Firewire drives.) Many users of the fast Oxford911 bridge based firewire drives have reported problems with mounting or waking from sleep after updating to OS X 10.1. This article notes my tests, reports from readers (many from the drive database) and notes on OWC and Macway's firmware updates released to fix the problem. (All drives sold by OWC and Macway after 10/19/2001 should have the new firmware installed already.) | |
| Using a G4/450 Cube, I tested Firewire drive performance in OS X vs. OS 9.1. I used the fastest portable and AC powered Firewire cases I could find to date - both with the Oxford 911 Firewire/IDE bridge board. The portable drive used a 48GB IBM Travelstar and the AC powered case use a 60GB IBM 75GXP drive. | |
| Reader report with comments on Final Cut Pro and other Digital Video experiences with the OWC portable firewire drive. | |
| Real world and Benchmark tests of the OWC firewire case kit with fast IDE/Firewire bridge vs. my original Clubmac case with both using an IBM 75GXP 60GB drive. Also included are results with my ultraslim VST 12GB portable drives. Systems tested were a Dual G4/500, Powerbook G4/400, Powerbook G3/500 and 9600/350 with PCI Firewire card. | |
| Photo illustrated article on how I replaced the hard drive in a VST portable firewire case. (These cases are not meant to be opened by end users and this is not recommended.) | |
Firewire Drive |
Review and performance comparison of TransIntl.com's 12GB portable firewire drive compared to the more expensive VST superslim drive. |
Portable Firewire/USB Drive |
Reader comments, performance tests and photos inside the case of the Lacie portable hard drive with Firewire and USB ports. (Reviews/articles on other portable drives are farther down the page here) |
vs. Kit Built 12GB |
Comparing the more expensive 12GB VST bus-powered portable Firewire drive against a 12GB portable drive kit built using Firewire Direct's kit. Tests with onboard Firewire Macs aas well as a dramatic illustration of how your choice of PCI Firewire controller card can affect performance (especially write performance) for older Macs. |
| Reader comments on tests with a Firewire Iomega Peerless removable media drive. | |
| Rob Bergstrom sent results of tests comparing a USB ZIP 250 drive performance with the Firewire adapter. Also included are comparisons to a USB ZIP 100MB drive and tests with 100MB disks in the 250MB drive. Is the Firewire adapter worth it? Take a look! | |
| Pyro case kit owner reports/comments on running 24x IDE CDRW drives in the case. (Note: Applies also to some faster than 24x rated drives - like the Lite-On 40x12x48x based on my experience in April 2002 with a 3 FW port model Pyro case.) | |
| Illustrated build guide on the first Oxford 911 bridge based portable firewire case I've seen. Includes some initial performance test comments also. Tested with a 48GB Travelstar hard drive. | |
| Photo illustrated guide to installing a hard drive in the OWC $139 Firewire case kit for 3.5" IDE drives that uses the fast Oxford 911 bridge board. | |
| Performance tests with OWC's $139 Firewire case kit for 3.5" IDE drives that uses the fast Oxford 911 bridge board. | |
| Reader Paul J. Tetreault, Jr. reviews both the MacAlly and ADS Pyro Firewire Hard Drive Case Kits. A very complete 4 page article that covers installation tips, compatibility issues and much more. | |
How-To & Performance Comparisons |
Illustrated guide to building your own bus-powered Firewire 2.5" drive using Firewire Direct's kit. Includes installation guide, software install and size/performance comparisons to VST's superslim 12GB drive model. Also included is a dramatic illustration of how your choice of PCI firewire card can affect performance. |
| A Reader reports on performance with a ClubMac Firewire external hard disk case that has an adapter to use IDE drives. | |
| User feedback on the Sweet Multiport Kit (PCI FW/USB Hub card + front bay card reader kit for Mac towers) | |
| Powermac G5 system specific reader reports on PCI Firewire, USB and Firewire/USB Combo cards. (Also includes reports on Hubs and other USB or Firewire devices (Scanners, Cameras, card readers, etc.) | |
| Reader reports on Deep Sleep Support with PCI Firewire, USB and Firewire/USB Combo cards. For PowerMac G5 Specific reports - see the article above. | |
| Review of OWC's Firewire 800/USB 2.0/1.1 Hard drive and PCI FW800 card. Tests include FW400 vs FW800 with single drives and dual drive RAID (with onboard FW400 and single and dual FW800 PCI Card RAID). | |
| For B&W G3 owners that have seen firewire problems using the onboard FW ports (disconnects, errors, etc.) you might want to read the posts from readers that noted PCI Firewire cards helped. See the reports in the Nov. 20th, 2001 and Nov. 26th, 2001 news pages. | |
| Reader reports from Legacy Mac owners (8500, 9600 and Beige G3) on the SIIG combo card. Also see a report on the card from a Digital Audio owner on the Deep Sleep reports page. | |
| A reader with a 9500 Mac sent comments and results of his real world tests between the Orange Micro Firewire/USB 2.0 card and a Sonnet Tango FW/USB 1.0 card. | |
for Audio |
Although not a full review, Issue #64 of our Audio Column includes comments on a 9500 owner looking for a faster drive controller for audio use. |
Performance Tests |
Performance comparison of a low cost 4-port (3 external, 1 internal) Firewire PCI card against the previous speed champ, the Meltdown Systems Rocketfire Firewire/USB card. Tests used an S900 with CPU upgrade and VST portable hard drive. Also tested with Sony Firewire CDRW drive. |
Owner Comments |
Reader feedback on PCI controllers combining Firewire and USB interfaces. Many reports from owners of older Macs as well as Beige G3 systems that didn't ship with USB or Firewire. The cards are attractive as they combine both interfaces and save a PCI slot compared to separate Firewire and USB PCI cards. (Update: Since this original page has grown so large, I've added separate pages with later reports on more CompUSA combo card owner comments and Powerlogix RapidFire card owner comments also.) |
| Before buying any firewire CDRW drive (or any drive/type), see what other Mac owners reported as far as any compatibility issues, performance and more. If you've upgraded any type of drive in your Mac, Submit a Report!. | |
| See the CDROM/CDR or DVD section of the FAQ - it has some iTunes Support files for drives that are not supported by the standard files. (Also covers other CDRW/CD related questions.) | |
Tests w/PB G4 & iDVD2 |
OWC's Firewire superdrive (DVD-R/RW, CDR/CDRW) external drive first to ship with an enabler to allow use with iDVD2.1 in OS X. Review includes tests with Powerbook G4 and notes on iTunes3, Toast5, etc. compatibility. |
| Pyro case kit owner reports/comments/tips on running 24x (or faster) IDE CDRW drives in the case. | |
| Link to the FAQ's CDROM/CDR section with a guide to modifying the support files to enable iTunes support for the Plextor 24x CDRW and the Que Firewire 24x model based on that mechanism. (*Note* in OS X work on a backup copy of the file as noted in the instructions.) | |
| A review of Formac's unusual bus-powered (on G4 Towers and Cubes) 12/10/32 CDRW drive with Burn-Proof. Includes tests in Toast 4.1.2, Toast 5.01, iTunes 1.1, Disc Burner 1.01 and Digital Audio Extraction. | |
| Reader review of Formac's 16/10/40 Firewire CDRW drive with Burn-Proof. | |
Firewire CDRW |
Reader report on the bus powered portable Lacie 8/4/32 CDRW drive. |
Bracket Shorted |
On 1/8/2001, a reader provided photos and comments on his new CDRW drive that showed a bracket shorting across the firewire bridge card circuit traces. Previous owner reports didn't note this problem, so I don't know if it was just the fact an insluator was left off on his drive, or if they changed bridge board/case mfrs and didn't spot this. |
Apple's Drivers |
A reader provided graphs of performance tests of FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit 4.0 drivers versus Apple's Drive Setup drivers (OS 9.04 version). The results are surprising and could save you a few $$. |
Disk Drivers Comments |
Intech, SoftRaid and Prosoft reply to an claim by FWB (now removed) that they had the only PowerPC native code storage drivers. (After this article was posted, FWB changed the wording from 'only' to 'leading' on their web page). |
| Effect of Disk Cache size on performance. | |
| This page lists all the IDE hard drive, cdrom, IDE RAID, PowerBook drive upgrades and other IDE drive related articles and reviews at xlr8yourmac.com. | |
| This page lists all the SCSI hard drive, controller, RAID and other SCSI related articles and reviews at xlr8yourmac.com. | |
| Some of the awards this site has won over the years. | |
| A sample of vistor comments about this site. | |
| About Computer Resources | |
|
Although it's not possible to answer all the mail I get, |
|
= Other Site Topic Areas =
|
|
If you have a performance oriented hardware or software product you'd like featured on this site, Contact Me to submit a product for review. | |
|
Copyright © 1997-2008, all rights reserved. No part of this site's content is to be reproduced in any form without written permission. Users of this web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use. |