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Performance Difference with a 5400rpm USB external HD vs. a 7200 rpm Firewire 800 external HD?
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Performance Difference with a 5400rpm USB external HD vs. a 7200 rpm Firewire 800 external HD?

DLake 2:06 AM - 8 March, 2007
Alright,

I use a powerbook g4 15" 1.5ghz with 1.25gb of ram. it runs sharp and is wonderful blah blah blah

I have a Lacie D2 250gb HD that i always use with firewire 800 into the powerbook.

I use this HD just for music storage (i use an mp3- vinyl dj program and I have all my music on this HD, nothing on the internal).

At DJ Gigs im getting a bit sick of plugging in 8 wires into my laptop (over exagerrating), and then running htem to my laptop then my dj mixer then my turntables etc. etc.)

I want to eliminate bulk and wires and get an External USB harddrive with just a USB powered cable and thats it.

I have seen some that spin 7200 rpm drives that have 1 usb cable from the HD that goes out to 2 usb cables (to get the necessary power to spin the drive). Thats not feasible for me, as I need both of my USB hubs (for the dj program and the usb HD).

okay im blabbering but thats my background.

So this is my question. Since I am only using this for file moving around and playing my songs..... will there be a sudden drop in performance fromm the lacie firewire 800 7200rpm to the usb 5400 hd?

I personally have been using the internal 5400 drive for my music up until a month ago, and have had zero drop outs... so it SHOULD WORK right?

let me know. that question took way too many word....
DLake 2:07 AM - 8 March, 2007
sorry.. i posted this in a computer forum so excuse the part about serato being a "mp3-vinyl" program.
Releaux 2:23 AM - 8 March, 2007
There is at least one thread that covers this on the forum and they get all into data transfer rates, etc. Just do a quick search on 7200 and 5400.

Short answer: you should be fine with a 5400 rpm drive if the only thing you're going to use it for is Serato audio playback. If you intend to eventually do video, a 7200 rpm drive may be in your future.
DJMark 6:46 AM - 8 March, 2007
The rotation speed of the drive isn't an issue for SSL use. Using the USB port instead of Firewire to me is more of a concern.

Why not get a bus-powered Firewire drive? I'm pretty sure there's more current available from the Firewire bus to power a hard drive, and using Firewire definitely is less trouble-prone than USB (using a Firewire drive usually loads the CPU less than using a USB drive).
dj dawn 9:21 AM - 8 March, 2007
Quote:
The rotation speed of the drive isn't an issue for SSL use. Using the USB port instead of Firewire to me is more of a concern.

Why not get a bus-powered Firewire drive? I'm pretty sure there's more current available from the Firewire bus to power a hard drive, and using Firewire definitely is less trouble-prone than USB (using a Firewire drive usually loads the CPU less than using a USB drive).


I use FW800 and it feels like the CPU loads less than with USB drives as mentioned above!
DLake 3:53 PM - 8 March, 2007
yeah yeah. i use a lacie d2 fw800 7200rpm drive. i just want to downgrade to have less wires and a smaller hd thats all!
DJMark 1:11 AM - 9 March, 2007
So what I'm saying is, use a drive that takes its power from the Firewire bus...then you won't have any need to use a seperate power connector.

For example: this drive www.newegg.com in this case www.newegg.com