Need an external HDD for iMac 5K

Jase · 5 Jan 2017 at 10:13

I'm looking for an external HDD for my iMac 5K.

Mainly used for Video and Photo editing but want something fast (and not a Lacie as I had one of those and it was terrible).

I'm looking at the G-Technology range but so much to choose from.

Also I really need to have a back-up system in place so maybe something to cover that as well.

Any ideas ?

MacRS4 · 5 Jan 2017 at 12:36

I have the 5k iMac, and do a fair bit of video. I have a Samsung 1Tb 850 PRO SSD as my scratch disk for stuff I'm actively working on, then some external 5Tb Seagate for general storage. Have a couple of 8Tb Seagate drives I use for TimeMachine - I swap them on the 1st of every month.

One thing to watch out for - I've found that if I encrypt the USB-3 external 5Tb 8Tb Seagate drives the performance is utterly dire. I don't know how important encryption is to you, nor how many other drives it affects...but it's worth thinking about.

Jase · 5 Jan 2017 at 15:17

MacRS4 said:
I have the 5k iMac, and do a fair bit of video. I have a Samsung 1Tb 850 PRO SSD as my scratch disk for stuff I'm actively working on, then some external 5Tb Seagate for general storage. Have a couple of 8Tb Seagate drives I use for TimeMachine - I swap them on the 1st of every month.

One thing to watch out for - I've found that if I encrypt the USB-3 external 5Tb 8Tb Seagate drives the performance is utterly dire. I don't know how important encryption is to you, nor how many other drives it affects...but it's worth thinking about.

Do you have the Samsung in an enclosure or something? can't see that as a standalone external drive. What sort of speeds do you get with it?

MacRS4 · 5 Jan 2017 at 15:57

Yeah just any old USB3 enclosure. Current speed example is here - bear in mind there's a couple of Windows Server VMs running off that drive currently, it's usually faster than that.

Jase · 5 Jan 2017 at 17:46

MacRS4 said:
Yeah just any old USB3 enclosure. Current speed example is here - bear in mind there's a couple of Windows Server VMs running off that drive currently, it's usually faster than that.

Cheers, I'm fussy so wanted a nice silver/grey enclosure to match

Not bad speed, half the speed of the internal though but not bad.

I'll do some searching later, thanks

Jase · 11 Jan 2017 at 21:38

Just to update this, in the end I went for a G-Technolody G-Drive Pro : http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive-pro-thunderbolt

Currently £276 for 2TB and £444 for 4TB I thought I'd give it a go.

Much better than the Lacie I had and much faster, it is achieving the 480MB/s which is advertised.

MacRS4 · 12 Jan 2017 at 15:33

480MB/s is pretty damm good for an external spinner isn't it?! What kind of write speed to you get? I've just bought one of these as the 850 Pro I was using seems to be failing.

Jase · 12 Jan 2017 at 16:16

MacRS4 said:
480MB/s is pretty damm good for an external spinner isn't it?! What kind of write speed to you get? I've just bought one of these as the 850 Pro I was using seems to be failing.

Yeah its not bad at all.. as for write speeds think it was around 240-250 MB/s.

I've got the 1TB flash drive in the iMac and I would have liked to have had more SSD but I'm doing a fair bit of photography and with a DJI Mavic arriving next week I know I'm going to need a fair bit of storage for Video and when you start looking at 4TB of SSD the cost is quite a lot!

I would be interested to hear what speeds you get with that drive on the iMac 5K, I may be tempted to get one

MacRS4 · 13 Jan 2017 at 09:58

After it's been encrypted I'm getting about 400MB/s write, and 450MB/s read.

MacRS4 · 13 Jan 2017 at 09:58

As a side note, it's faster on my Macbook connected to USB-C - about 480MB/s write and 550MB/s read.

DoubleCheese · 21 Jan 2017 at 20:50

I used to have a 4TB G-Drive, it had two 2TB drives in Raid0. I was quite nervous about storing a lot of data on it without having a backup in case one of the drives failed.

Jase · 21 Jan 2018 at 21:07

12 months ago I posted the above asking for recommendations for an external drive and in the end I went for the G-Technology that I have been pleased with.

However as I now do a lot more video (and photography) I am running out of space again and need a new drive.

Things have no doubt moved on in 12 months and the drive I purchased is no longer available.

Any recommendations now? I'm looking for min 4TB with good speed for 4K video and large photo files.

Cheers

FreeStream · 22 Jan 2018 at 20:54

Why don't you just get a dual/quad TB3 enclosure?

StarTech have a quad bay Thunderbolt enclosure, then BYOD.

Been looking at it myself but can't justify the cost over a dual bay USB3 setup.

Jase · 28 Jan 2018 at 11:31

FreeStream said:
Why don't you just get a dual/quad TB3 enclosure?

StarTech have a quad bay Thunderbolt enclosure, then BYOD.

Been looking at it myself but can't justify the cost over a dual bay USB3 setup.

Thanks for the suggestion, could be a god option, I've not heard of StarTech to be honest so no idea if they are any good.