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7200RPM USB2 HD vs 4200RPM laptop HD? Which is better for recording?

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RRabbi
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August 24, 06 8:21 PM (permalink)

7200RPM USB2 HD vs 4200RPM laptop HD? Which is better for recording?

I took my 80 gig 7200 RPM hd and mounted it into a USB 2.0 drive enclosure... I was always told that faster HD's are better for recording (duh), but I wonder if taking a faster HD, but transferring data through USB 2.0 negates any benefit to RPM speed increase? I'm going to make a live recording on Sunday and wonder if I should bother using my USB2 hard drive...

Dave
post edited by RRabbi - August 24, 06 8:34 PM

David Yanofsky
Green Room East - Moncton, NB - CANADA

http://www.greenroomeast.com
http://www.myspace.com/greenroomeast
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    Autist
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    RE: 7200RPM USB2 HD vs 4200RPM laptop HD? Which is better for recording? August 25, 06 4:50 AM (permalink)
    Can you run a few tests to compare them? Perhaps record the same thing several times, once to each drive while changing the latency between each test and see which one you are most comfortable with. Personally, if I were in your situation I would get a firewire enclosure, if firewire was an option.
    #2
    scook
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    RE: 7200RPM USB2 HD vs 4200RPM laptop HD? Which is better for recording? August 25, 06 7:55 AM (permalink)
    Firewire would be better but moving the audio file area to a second drive regardless of the interface will improve your performance. Do not install your DAW software on the drive, only record to the drive.
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    jcschild
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    RE: 7200RPM USB2 HD vs 4200RPM laptop HD? Which is better for recording? August 25, 06 10:22 AM (permalink)
    HI,

    laptops internal PCI bus (what connect the dirve or drives) is much slower than desktops.
    so having an ext firewire (NOT USB) or an internal to record to will amount in basically the same speed.
    (much slower than a desktop)
    so it really dont matter. 7200 should be used everywhere regardless due to this issue. (you need all the help you can get with a laptop)

    where on a desktop the firewire is much slower than the internal I/O.

    Scott
    ADK
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    bill durham
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    RE: 7200RPM USB2 HD vs 4200RPM laptop HD? Which is better for recording? August 26, 06 8:34 AM (permalink)
    my experience with a 4200 rpm drive in a laptop has been very bad. My computer is a Toshiba M35X-S329, P4 Celeron, 1.6ghz, 1 gig ram, 100gig internal drive. My machine will not record 1 track in Sonar Home Studio unless I turn off EVERYTHING. No way it would record more than one track. The 4200 rpm internal drive is just not useable to record audio IMO.

    BD
    post edited by bill durham - August 26, 06 8:51 AM

    http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/bdandfriends_music.htm

    http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/billdurham_music.htm
    #5
    Autist
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    RE: 7200RPM USB2 HD vs 4200RPM laptop HD? Which is better for recording? August 26, 06 9:16 AM (permalink)
    He's one day away from his gig. I wonder if he found a solution.
    #6
    RRabbi
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    RE: 7200RPM USB2 HD vs 4200RPM laptop HD? Which is better for recording? August 26, 06 3:00 PM (permalink)
    yeah, i've recorded one gig before using my external 7200 RPM hd.... recorded 18 tracks at once, and since they were dry, I found the CPU meter to know go up very high at all...

    I guess I was just wondering how that'd compare with my 4200 hd which is internal... but yeah, makes sense to use the 7200...

    thanks everyone

    Dave


    David Yanofsky
    Green Room East - Moncton, NB - CANADA

    http://www.greenroomeast.com
    http://www.myspace.com/greenroomeast
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