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Hi. it seems one can never ask enough questions :)

I finally bought my laptop (about 3 weeks ago) and have been experimenting with Cubase. now it's time for me to buy my pre-amp and the external, however 7200RPM external's seem to only start at 500GB here in South Africa (far too much space for me + a hefty price tag to go with it). I am looking more in the range of 80GB, however these harddrives (all SATA) seem to only be available in 4200RPM or 5200RPM models. If I go with the 5200RPM model I could save around R500 or more (say $90), although i do not know the cache memory settings on each or how this will affect the writing process...

My question is, is it with the additional $90? Is a 5200RPM HDD good enough for home recording?

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pr0gr4m Mon, 07/28/2008 - 15:20

Honestly, I'd recommend getting a 7200RPM drive and even though 500GB may seem large, it gives you plenty of room and can last you for a long time.

I can't back this next bit up with any experience or facts (I've only ever used 7200 or faster) but I would guess that since the drive is being used exclusively for audio a 5200 may be ok.

Is it really $90 more for the faster hard drive of the same size? WOW!

You could go the route of buying an external hard drive enclosure and then a separate hard drive...that might open up more options for you.

anonymous Thu, 07/31/2008 - 12:32

Listen to everyone that says go 500gb. I had the option of buying an OWC Neptune 80gb for $90 or a 160gb for like $20 more. I failed to notice the 160gb option and now I'm really regretting not looking closer. The next drive I buy will be the 160gb or larger maybe. 80 runs out much quicker than you'd think at 48khz/24bit.