Tim -

A good starting point might be this review...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/external,680-2.html

Cheers - Tony
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Thanks Tony. Although the article looks a bit dated it appears to conclude that e-sata appears to be good route to go.

My bigger question is just whether anything that is not 7200 rpm is going to up to the task for video editing. Since the Fantom "green" drive is variable speed, I'm not sure it is.

The drive has garnered some good customer reviews on NewEgg but I didn't see that anyone who was using it specifically for video had commented on their satisfaction with it for that task.

Tim -

Are you intending to edit from the external drive directly? I would just be using it as a storage device, myself, and editing on the main drive.

Cheers - Tony
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Hi Tony - My main purpose is to use it for backup & storage. But I thought if it was fast enough I could edit straight off of that drive without having to duplicate files elsewhere...unless that is not recommended for some reason.

Thanks!

Tim

Hey Tim -

Thanks for the question - as a result of it, I just learnt heaps!

After reading various reviews and forum posts, it seems like the choice you've (almost) made is a good one. From all that I got a few basic facts. 7200rpm is about the minimum you should consider for your purposes.

Of the Fantoms, the GF500Q Quad 500GB & GF1000EU G-Force 1000GB seem to be good choices... though it's hard to find them in a "Top 10" list anywhere.

Most users seemed to be happy in forums and reviews, but read what one disgruntled user had to say... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204069 (I think I've met this guy somewhere).

Despite my green leanings, I think I'd go for solid throughput speed. I saw no reference to variable speed, but the green one claims the following: "Fantom Drives' GreenDrives yield average drive power savings of 4-5 watts over competitors' drives while maintaining solid performance. That power savings equates to reducing CO2 emission by up to 60 kilograms per drive per year - the equivalent of taking your car off the road for 14 days each year." A pretty amazing claim.

Cheers - Tony


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Wow Tony - didn't mean for you to have to run down all that info for me! But thanks a million and I guess if you picked up a few things along the way, all the better!

The variable speed was I believe indicated somewhere on the Fantom website. I couldn't find it in any of the listed specs so that made me wonder. Of course, it could still be that the underlying drive is a 7200 and that they just use some sort of power saving technique to spin it up to the required speed as needed and down when speed is not an issue (how do it know??).

I thought the 14 days of the car off the road was a pretty big claim too - particularly if your power is solar or nuclear! ; But I agree, I like to go with the energy saving devices. On the other hand, I usually put things like this on a power strip and power them off altogether when not in use. Plus I drive a Prius so maybe it'll only equate to 1/2 a day of my car being off the road. LOL.

So I suspect the 4-5 watts power savings for the dozen or so hours it might be on each month may not be worth the performance sacrifice. I'm leaning away from the "green" and toward the 7200.

Thanks again!

Tim