External FW drive or External FW case with plugged in drive for mac mini?
 

I have my mini mac, and was trying to decide between going with a $30 FW case enclosure that includes a fan etc. and purchasing a fast maxtor 7200 speed drive for it (total cost is less) or purchase a Maxtor One Touch II external drive. Anyone with experiences, recs?

Hey Bryan,
I have a 300GB one touch II and so far it has been fantastic. I have 5 other FW maxtor drive from a span of 4 years. I've only ever had one drive fail. I called maxtor and had a replacement the very next day as well as pre-paid shipping to ship the bad drive back to them. Best customer service experience I've ever had! I'm running about 1TB of maxor drives right now, they are on almost 24/7 and I am very happy with performance. No dropped frames.

The one problem with my review, I haven't tried anything else. I've never needed to, So I can't really compare.

My 2 c,
Eric James

Eric - I started to reply with feedback I have regarding using the one touch II and my mini mac but it just got too long and I felt it'd be better used in a seperate post.

-Can a mod delete this post for me?

Bryan,

I'd get a Lacie, G-Tech, or Maxtor external FW drive rather than the home made rout. I did it with a smaller drive from a PC and it worked fine for a while but I think the quality of the case and circuitry caused it to lose its connection with my Mac from time to time.

Dave - thanks for the advice - I ended up getting the maxtor one touch II and it's great - I even dedicated a whole thread to using it with the mini mac and fcp -

EDIT - and now I see YOUR thread :)

There's really no point in getting a branded pre-built external drive because you're just paying more for the same dern thing. As far as reliability, just don't buy a cheapie case and you'll be fine. I've built and used about a dozen external drives and not a single one has flipped out on me - and they range in ages from a few months old to several years.