external harddrive

[pg600rr]

I am in the process of having a multi zone AV system installed and will be utilizing Sonos. I am going to need something (other than space on my computer) to hold all the audio files (in lossless format) that I intend to play through my Sonos library.

I dont know a whole lot about external harddrives, just that I want one to hold all the music files. I wanted to see if anyone could reccomend what size to get and possibly a brand.

I was leaning toward this one:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate+...&skuId=1305503

OR

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate+...&skuId=1305063

Price diff. between the 1 tb v. 500gb is about $50.00... I just dont know if I need the extra 500gb...

Approx. how many songs in lossless format will 500gb external hold?

 

[imageWIS]

Always buy more space than less.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Do not buy the seagate. I've read a lot of reviews about units dying prematurely (I used to be a big Seagate fan).

Newegg has a Western Digital 1tb external for $90 after a coupon code with free shipping (no tax in most states too). We got one for my dad a few months ago for $120 and it's been fine as a media drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136540

If you wait you can find 1tb externals for around $70-80 posted on www.slickdeals.net "Drives" section of their forums.

 

[Rambo]

Buy a networked drive so you can access it all over the house and away from home as well. Drobo makes nice units and there are a few others as well. Personally, I'd go with at least 2TB, seeing as how cheap storage is these days. Like IW said, always go with more.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Originally Posted by Rambo

Buy a networked drive so you can access it all over the house and away from home as well. Drobo makes nice units and there are a few others as well. Personally, I'd go with at least 2TB, seeing as how cheap storage is these days. Like IW said, always go with more.

NAS devices are slow as **** unless you get the REALLY expensive units, even then they're pretty slow. Entry level Drobo is $344 and doesn't even come with the drives (wtf??)!

If you want speed then just throw another HDD into your desktop (assuming you have one) or build an inexpensive AMD X2 SOHO unit with a couple of hard drives in RAID array for less than the Drobo that will have much more functionality, though it will likely draw more power. You'd want a gigabit router to really take advantage of the speed.

If you want simplicity, an external HDD will do just fine. You can even get a decent router with USB that supports sharing external HDD's to the network.

 

[Rambo]

Originally Posted by whiteslashasian

NAS devices are slow as **** unless you get the REALLY expensive units, even then they're pretty slow. Entry level Drobo is $344 and doesn't even come with the drives (wtf??)!

If you want speed then just throw another HDD into your desktop (assuming you have one) or build an inexpensive AMD X2 SOHO unit with a couple of hard drives in RAID array for less than the Drobo that will have much more functionality, though it will likely draw more power. You'd want a gigabit router to really take advantage of the speed.

If you want simplicity, an external HDD will do just fine. You can even get a decent router with USB that supports sharing external HDD's to the network.
True, they can be, and then you get into things like wired vs. wireless networking which is a big :fu 500GB won't hold that many lossless songs PG. How big is your collection?

 

[aphextwin07]

don't ever buy seagate. in fact, fwiw western digital is the one and only brand you should ever consider when purchasing an HDD.

 

[Rambo]

Originally Posted by aphextwin07

don't ever buy seagate. in fact, fwiw western digital is the one and only brand you should ever consider when purchasing an HDD.
I've had more WD's fail on me than Seagates FWIW.

 

[A Y]

Lossless has about 50 percent compression ratio. CD-quality audio is 1.4 Mbits per second, so with lossless packing, you'll need around 42 MBytes per minute of CD music you want to store.

Always get bigger drives than necessary. Not only for future-proofing, but also your access times are faster because spinning drives that are near full capacity always perform worse. I'm not sure how important this is for Sonos, but it's something to consider, as access times can be felt (like when you're switching tracks).

--Andre

 

[pg600rr]

Originally Posted by whiteslashasian

Do not buy the seagate. I've read a lot of reviews about units dying prematurely (I used to be a big Seagate fan).

Newegg has a Western Digital 1tb external for $90 after a coupon code with free shipping (no tax in most states too). We got one for my dad a few months ago for $120 and it's been fine as a media drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136540

If you wait you can find 1tb externals for around $70-80 posted on www.slickdeals.net "Drives" section of their forums.

A few questions for you,

1. I noticed the one you posted is usb 2.0 and the one i posted is usb 3.0, is this going to make any difference in speed times for loading so many big files onto it? would I be better off going with a usb 3.0?

2. One draw back that I can think of is having the external drive sitting on my desk top connected to my laptop all the time. Are there ones that I can connect to my laptop when downloading stuff onto them, then place in the desk drawer, and access wirelessly?

 

[pg600rr]

Originally Posted by Rambo

True, they can be, and then you get into things like wired vs. wireless networking which is a big :fu

500GB won't hold that many lossless songs PG. How big is your collection?

Well, I prob. have about 300 CDs at the moment that I want to convert into a digital library, and I can prob. come up with about 200 more that I want to add....

 

[whiteslashasian]

Originally Posted by pg600rr

A few questions for you,

1. I noticed the one you posted is usb 2.0 and the one i posted is usb 3.0, is this going to make any difference in speed times for loading so many big files onto it? would I be better off going with a usb 3.0?

2. One draw back that I can think of is having the external drive sitting on my desk top connected to my laptop all the time. Are there ones that I can connect to my laptop when downloading stuff onto them, then place in the desk drawer, and access wirelessly?

You will only benefit from USB 3.0 if the device you're plugging the External into is 3.0 as well. That will only really come into play on the initial loading of music or copying it to another drive. Not a huge difference at all really.

No drive can really do what you say in 2 that I'm aware of. Best case is you use an external plugged into a router that has a USB port (and can us an external HDD as a Network drive) which you can download music to and access wirelessly at the same time.

 

[pg600rr]

^ i see, my wireless router I use is the Linksys E3000
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-.../dp/B003B48UQ8

I am not sure if it has the ability to do what you described...

 

[deaddog]

Originally Posted by pg600rr

I I intend to play through my Sonos library.

My advice:

Only buy a NAS drive that is on the approved list Sonos publishes. Even then I had lots of problems keeping the system up and running. Ultimately, I got an iMac with a 1TB drive hardwired to the network, put my music on it, and that took care of the problems.

Also, storage is cheap so buy at least one, maybe two extra 500 gig drives and duplicate your music. That kind of redundancy is well worth avoiding the hassle/expense of re-ripping your CD's -- drives fail all the time.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Originally Posted by pg600rr

^ i see, my wireless router I use is the Linksys E3000
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-.../dp/B003B48UQ8

I am not sure if it has the ability to do what you described...

You should be able to do that with the E3000.