LaCie FireWire Desktop Drive
by Rick Smith (May 25, 2001)
When capturing and working with digital video, you need high performance. A few years ago, some SCSI drives had video capability. Now LaCie pushes those limits, with drives that can transfer data at up to 45 MB per second.
These external LaCie drives have up to 75 GB of capacity and can hold more 5 hours of DV video. They are hot-pluggable and easily connect to FireWire-equipped (1394) PCs and Macs. These drives double the data throughput performance of standard ATAPI (IDE) drives since they can stream data to the computer at a sustained rate of 35 MB/s (burst performance to 45 MB/s).
Four sizes are currently available -- 20, 45, 60 and 75 gigabytes. The external LaCie drives also
are ideal for storing, exchanging and manipulating digital video
improve quality and eliminate video frame loss due to their high speed
are fully ATA 100 compliant and support Ultra DMA mode 5
feature LaCie's new 400 Mbps FireWire controller chipset
can capture video from DV camcorders
can be locked up in a safe when not being used
are simple to install -- no need for terminators or device IDs - Sorry, external SCSI.
feature an internal, worldwide-capable power supply (no external power module needed)
interface via two 6-pin IEEE-1394 connections
The LaCie Fast FireWire hard drives are about $573 and are currently available. Included in the package are the 1394 cable and LaCie's Silverlining drive utility software for all the supported OSes (MacOS, Windows 98 SE and Windows 2000). Silverlining is the only driver able to manage USB, IDE, SCSI and FireWire peripherals at the same time.
LaCie PocketDrive
If you need this same level of performance in a more mobile package, LaCie offers the PocketDrive for mobile computing. With capacities ranging from 10 to 30 GB, these "pocket rocket" drives can interface to a laptop via either USB or FireWire.
Copyright
© 2006 Rick Smith All rights reserved.
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